Shoplifter kingpin interview confirms our worst fears

By Taxpayer Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

KGW-TV did a fantastic prison interview with a former crime boss, Martin Castaway, who ran a retail theft ring of nearly a dozen shoplifters.   He helped steal nearly a half million dollars worth of merchandise from Oregon stores.

The interview reveals how out-of-control everything has become and how helpless local small businesses are.

#1. Store security is useless.

Martin Castaway said, “If I see a security dude with a gun, I know he can’t touch me. I got to a point where it was almost like a game to me. I wasn’t stopping for nothing. Now, if I see a suspicious car in the parking lot who looks like a police officer, I’m going to have second thoughts on that. I’ll probably just cruise through and keep going.”

#2. Shoplifting was so fast, it’s almost impossible to stop.

“I would go into a store, steal $5,000 to $6,000 worth of merchandise and be out in two minutes.”

#3. Shoplifting is fueled by drugs, drugs, drugs.

“I think anybody who is engaged in this type of crime — I would say 70 or 80 percent of them are on drugs… I was on drugs, meth, and drinking… I would find people who were on fentanyl, who were on drugs. I would exploit that. I would recruit them. They’d be running around with me.”

#4. He stole a car monthly just to rob places in a new car

“I liked to have another car every month. A different car. That was because I was burning the cars up in the process of doing crimes.”

There is much more to the interview, please watch here.

The interview confirms that liberal police reforms and soft-on-crime policies have utterly failed, and that small businesses can’t endure shoplifting gangs who feel that they break the law with no consequences.

Shoplifters are so brazen that they have been ramming their cars into storefronts at night to loot small shops.

The REI store had their storefront ramrodded on the day before Black Friday shopping.  Now the store is closing for good due to crime.

Was this helpful?  If so, Contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).