Police across the country are baffled by the latest crime wave of Tide laundry detergent theft that in some cases has become more popular than drugs.
Tide is known as ‘liquid gold’ on the streets according to one Maryland detective and is being traced to the drug trade with one recent sting producing more Tide than cocaine.
‘We sent in an informant to buy drugs. The dealer said, ‘I don’t have drugs, but I could sell you 15 bottles of Tide,’ Detective Harrison Sprague of the Prince George’s County Police Department told The Daily.
From the East Coast to the West, some CVS drug stores have begun locking up their detergent while some cities have set up special task forces to tackle the recent spree.
The brand, however, is almost always Tide police say.
‘Everybody knows that liquid detergent Tide is an expensive item,’ said Robyn Cafasso, the chief deputy district attorney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to the Daily.
She says her own city has seen its own increase in Tide theft.
As a household staple, the Procter and Gamble detergent costs between $10 to $20 a bottle in stores – being one of the more expensive detergent brand names – and can easily go for $5 to $10 a bottle on the street.
It’s also easily recognizable with its neon orange and yellow packaging, detectives say, in all, producing some relevancy to the uptick in theft.
In one recent shocking example, a Minnesota man was arrested in February after allegedly stealing over $25,000 worth of the product.
Patrick Costanzo, 53, was arrested in West St. Paul after police say he loaded up his shopping cart over a period of 15 months with the cleaner, wheeling it past workers.
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