Stemming the Tide of Crime…(insert weak laugh here)

"And they got clean away" (he he)

What gives? It seems that  nine out of ten crooks prefer the laundry washed in Tide over the other brand. For some reason, there have been a rash of crimes in which Tide detergent was shoplifted.  You would think that, like consumers, some shoplifters were prefer All or Downey...Nope! Just Tide!

A Minnesota man was recently busted for swiping some $25,000  of the stuff in just over a year. This guy is now behind bars..but don't his shirts look nice?

Law enforcement officials report the detergent, which retails for $10 to $20, is being sold on the black market for half that, and is often traded for drugs. “There’s no serial numbers and it’s impossible to track,” said Detective Larry Patterson of the Somerset, Ky., Police Department, where authorities have seen a huge spike in Tide theft. “It’s the item to steal.”

Amazing! "Let's see, I think I'll have some of that black tar heroin, a crack pipe and a large bottle of Tide with Spring Fresh Scent".

Thieves load up carts with dozens of bottles and dash out the door to waiting get-away cars. The problem has gotten so bad that some stores are putting Tide — now dubbed “liquid gold” by many cops — under lock and key or assigning special security to watch the shelves.

Sarah Pasquinucci, a spokeswoman for Tide manufacturer Procter & Gamble, said, “We don’t have any insight as to why the phenomenon is happening, but it is certainly unfortunate.”

Yes, that's a shame alright. You can't buy advertising like something like this gives!

I'm not buying into the "crooks just wanna keep clean" theory. Don't you think that there has to something more behind it? You know, like it's an ingredient in some new drug or if you smoke it you see firetrucks and taxi cabs and squirrels tap dancing.

[The Daily]