Organized Tide Detergent Thefts Prompt Colorado Retail Stores To Retaliate With Locks and Extra Surveillance

Several Colorado retailers are combatting the recent trend of Tide laundry detergent thefts by locking up the product as well as having undercover security guards patrol the aisles, ABC News reports.

Colorado Retail Council is allowing the measure, as shoplifting laundry detergent has become increasingly more popular as of late and ultimately hurts consumers.

"It's a very large problem that we have to spend a lot on and, unfortunately, that cost gets passed on to the customer," Chris Howes, president of the Colorado Retail Council, told ABC News.

In Colorado alone, organized retail thieves reportedly have lifted thousands of dollars’ worth of Tide products from store shelves; they simply load up shopping carts full of Tide and walk out of the store, the news report said.

Police have been tracking one man, who is said to have stolen more than $8,000 worth of Tide laundry detergent in the Ft. Lupton area in Weld County. The man has apparently been caught on surveillance video in six different stores, shoplifting not only detergent, but also expensive face lotions.

Other states are not immune to Tide trafficking either; in Minnesota, a man was finally caught thanks to surveillance in March 2012, after having stolen more than $6,000 worth of Tide products over the course of 15 months in a town near Minneapolis, according to ABC News.

Considered “liquid gold” in the black market, Tide detergent, which usually retails for between $10 and $20, is often sold by the cap-full at laundry mats, allowing crime rings to make up to $60 per jug of detergent, the report said.

"Tide is highly recognizable, it's very difficult to trace and it's easily resold," said Brad Garrett, an ABC News consultant and former FBI special agent.

Tide’s bright-orange container makes it one of the most-recognized and sought after laundry detergents on the market.

"Tide is a staple item," Lt. Brad Pyle, of Prince George's County, Md., has told ABC News.

"Everybody uses it day in, day out. And it's the most popular brand, so they can move it and get a lot of money for it."