A national lobbying group has retracted its startling estimate that “organized retail crime” was responsible for nearly half the $94.5 billion in store merchandise that disappeared in 2021, a figure that helped amplify claims that the United States was experiencing a nationwide wave of shoplifting.
It was an obviously manufactured claim written in order to support their bill for harsher punishments for shoplifting (and likely hide some profit loss in a fake theft tax writeoff). It would be nice to hear if it failed in its purpose now that the lie is exposed but we’ll see