VIDEO: California Targets and Walmarts Lock Up Underwear to Curb Rampant Shoplifting

Two major retailers in California’s Bay Area are putting socks and underwear under lock and key in an effort to deter shoplifters.

A Target store in Richmond and another in Pleasant Hill are locking up their items, NBC Bay Area reported Thursday. The outlet also noted that customers are being forced to wait quite some time for employees to retrieve the merchandise from the cases.

Likewise, a Walmart in Hilltop has placed its underwear inventory under lock and key due to daily shoplifting instances.

“It comes to the point of: how ghetto does it look that they have to lock up the socks or whatever it is that they have under key,” one shopper, identified as Olga Leon, told the outlet.

However, undergarments are among numerous items being guarded in cases in stores across the nation that have decided to take the same drastic measures amid rampant shoplifting, Breitbart News reported on October 23.

WATCH: TONS of Products at Target Store SEALED Behind Glass in Crime-Ridden San Francisco

@srdreamtorch via Storyful

According to the outlet, Inside Edition’s Lisa Guerrero recently tried to buy a tube of toothpaste that was kept in a case at a Target in Manhattan. However, she and her team had to wait several minutes for a worker to arrive and take it out of the case.

“In April, Breitbart News reported Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and other large retailers were closing some of their store locations across the country because they were suffering from rising thefts,” the Breitbart News article added.

Target decided to shutter three stores in the Bay Area because of theft that was making workers and shoppers feel unsafe, NBC Bay Area reported September 26:

Richmond City Councilmember Cesar Cepeda said he was worried more stores would close due to the criminal activity in the Bay Area, a situation that would not be good for his neighbors.

“The cost will go up, our residents will have to pay more, or they’ll have to commute and travel farther to pick up their groceries, to pick up their socks, to pick up their prescriptions. It’s really going to be hurting our community,” he said.

In November, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper voiced his frustration with a local Target that appeared to have blocked officials from catching shoplifters in the California store.

“We don’t tell big retail how to do their jobs, they shouldn’t tell us how to do ours,” he stated.

The store apparently did not want to create a scene to avoid negative social media attention and negative press.