CHICAGO — Google the terms “dry cleaner” and “robbed” and you’re likely to find several news reports of incidents that have occurred in the last month or so. Yes, dry cleaners’ cash business can be an attraction for robbers, and minimally staffed drop stores can be targeted.
In this month’s AmericanDrycleaner.com Wire survey, members of the trade audience were asked if any of their stores had ever been victimized by criminals. Nearly 43% of respondents said their businesses had been victimized in the past.
Of those incidents, 83.3% involved an “in-person robbery of cash or merchandise” and 66.7% involved a “property crime such as burglary or vandalism.” One-third of respondents also said someone in their store had been involved in a “physical assault or serious violent crime” or “another type of crime,” including receiving counterfeit bills. Just 16.7% said they had been victimized by a “fraud or confidence game that cheated the business.”
