Retailers lost more than $37 billion to theft last year, according to an annual survey recently conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Commercial, a major security systems integrator.


The National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) preliminary results show an increase in theft from $33.5 billion in 2009 to $37.1 billion in 2010.


It is possible this increase is due to the prevalence of Organized Retail Crime (ORC) where items are stolen in quantity and then resold to consumers on the Internet or at flea markets, said University of Florida criminologist Richard Hollinger, Ph.D., who directed the survey.


Retail theft includes shoplifting, employee theft, administrative error and vendor fraud. As in years past, employee theft made up the largest portion with $16.2 billion in losses or more than 43 percent of the total. The second biggest category was shoplifting and ORC with a loss of $12.1 billion or almost 33 percent of the total losses.