It’s not your average shoplifting infraction. Retailers around the country report that they are losing tens of billions of dollars a year to organized retail crime.

“It’s like a wildfire burning out of control with no easy way to stop it,” said Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group and a top consultant in retail. “The communities want the criminals to have consequences and be arrested.”

But in many cases, that’s not what’s happening.

“Either New York state or California, a person can steal up to $949 per person per store per day with no criminal consequences, no arrest, no jail time, basically a parking ticket,” Flickinger said.