Shreveport’s Own Meat Bandit Caught Red-handed At Target

Shoplifting is a big problem across the country. Shreveport police have been battling it for quite sometime. The police department has a specific team from the property crimes division that is working to curb the retail theft numbers.

As we have seen in some cities, retail workers have surrendered to these thieves and they just let them walk out of the stores with stolen property. We haven't too many of those reports in the Shreveport-Bossier area.

In fact, you never know when you might actually find an undercover team inside one of our local stores. It happened this week in southeast Shreveport.

How Did Shreveport Police Catch the Meat Bandit?

A suspected meat bandit is caught by police in south Shreveport while trying to scamper off with expensive cuts of meat. This man is accused of being an habitual offender. He has been arrested after allegedly stealing from a local big box store.

How Did the Undercover Operation Work?

Shreveport police were conducting a retail theft operation this week and they quickly jumped into high gear when a man starting jamming packages of meat in his pants.

Officers who were positioned inside the Target store on Youree Drive were able to observe what was going on. The man was approached by a security team from Target, but he fled. Gabriel Williams ran out into the parking lot, but Shreveport officers chased him.

Members of the property crimes unit caught him not too far from the store.

This is not his first rodeo. SPD sources say Williams “is a well-known repeat offender, with 16 prior arrests for theft and 10 theft convictions."

He’s believed to be linked to at least six more pending theft cases involving Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.

Williams is charged with seven counts of felony theft as a habitual offender and one count of resisting arrest.

SPD will continue these operations in our retail businesses to try to deter theft and put these repeat offenders in jail and hold them accountable.

If you see someone committing retail theft, be sure to report it to police. It helps if you document as much as you can without putting yourself in harms way.