Reno store owner speaks up on retail theft hurting her business

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – A Reno business owner is speaking out regarding rampant theft in her store as she says she feels helpless.

Kytanna Prokosch started making swimwear for body building competitions right out of high school. Enjoying the creative freedom, she turned that passion into a full-time business as owner of Battle Born Bikinis. Prokosch puts a lot of love into her bikinis as she hand designs and sews each one. She says she always keeping the customer in mind with her swimwear because each one is reversable, giving the buyer a two for one deal, and she puts her logo in the print to avoid “pesky” tags.

“We have our fabric printed in California. We then have it shipped to us and then we cut it and sew it. From the sewing part, it takes about an hour,” explains Prokosch.

But lately, Porkosch has found the fruits of her labor aren’t paying out as she’s experiencing increased theft at her store.

“When it does happen, it’s not just one suit. It’s multiple, and other little items that we have,” said Prokosch.

The loss of revenue has forced Prokosch to pass that loss not only onto the customer but also to shut the doors of one of her locations.

“It definitely makes the prices of our product go up at the end of the year. It’s frustrating. Especially when I pay my employees for the sewing hours just to see that item walk away,” Prokosch said.

Prokosch says that if she’s in the store she has no problem confronting a thief but doesn’t feel comfortable asking the same of her employees to avoid possible danger. She adds that retail theft doesn’t become a felony until the items stolen surpass $1,200 and that thieves aware of the law will steal close to that amount but wont go over to avoid jail.

“Even though we have cameras it doesn’t stop them dead in their tracks. We then have to do extra work afterwards to find that person and it’s hours out of my day,” said Prokosch.

To help combat this issue, Sparks PD started the “Back our Businesses” initiative in which they set up stings involving officers in plain clothes.

“The scope of retail theft doesn’t just occur at big businesses. It impacts small businesses as well and impacts consumers. If you’re ripping off a small business in our community, you may be ripping them off so much that they have to go out of business,” said Wes Duncan, the Sparks City Attorney.

Similarly, the Reno PD has what they call “crime prevention through environmental design” where they go into stores to teach business owners what they can do to protect themselves.

“We’ll have an officer come out and evaluate your business to see if there’s ways to help reduce crime by setting up your store a certain way, or making sure windows have a good sight line. Just things that would prevent criminals from wanting to target your business,” said Stephen Greenlee, the Public Information Officer for Reno PD.

Greenlee explains that the department will even take it one step further by sending in uniformed officers to act as security. Both departments have said that in the event of theft, owners are within their rights to detain criminals in a citizens arrest until they can show up on scene.

“Anytime we can have that deterrence where officers are making arrests and people are going to jail based on these retail thefts I think it deters criminals from going to these businesses because it puts the idea in their head that maybe this isn’t the day and maybe I shouldn’t do this criminal activity,” Greenlee said.

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