There's a new liquid asset in town. It's blue, it's viscous, and it's versatile: You can pour it in a machine with your clothes, or sell it for pot. Meet the weird and wild world of Tide bandits.



If recent media reports are to be believed, there's a new fad sweeping America's criminal underworld: detergent theft.

Earlier this week, The Daily's M.L. Nestel wrote that Tide liquid laundry soap appears to have become a favorite target of shoplifters around the nation, who are jacking the product from store shelves in bulk, then selling it on the black market. Thieves simply load up shopping carts full of the bright orange bottles, then bolt out the door. One con in Minnesota appears to have liberated $25,000 worth of the stuff in 15 months before he was eventually arrested. Meanwhile, police in Prince George's County, Maryland have taken to calling Tide "liquid gold." According to the Associated Press, officers there say that drug dealers have started urging their clientele to pay with Tide bottles in lieu of cash.

A alleged quote from one dealer: "I'm out of marijuana right now, but when I get re-upped I'll hook you up if you can get me 15 bottles of Tide."

Dialogue from The Wire, this is not. However, there may be something deeper going on here than a bunch of quirky crooks. It's possible we're getting a peak into the world of organized retail crime -- or ORC, as the government likes to abbreviate it.*

ORC, INC.



"Each year, organized groups of professional shoplifters steal or fraudulently obtain billions of dollars in retail merchandise," says the Government Accountability Office, which released a report on the epidemic last June. Criminals tend to pilfer products that are small and expensive -- razor blades, infant formula, gift cards, teeth whitening products, cosmetics, and over-the-counter medications, for instance. While it's a little bulkier than most of the items on that list, a bottle of Tide would seem to make a good target because it's a leading brand, everybody needs it, and it's pricey; one bottle can cost up to $20 retail, and it allegedly sells on the street for between $5 and $10.