GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids man with dozens of shoplifting-related convictions over the last few decades is going back to jail for his latest spree.
Richard Kuikstra, 54, has dozens of retail fraud convictions dating back to 1988. According to court records, the latest string of thefts started just a few weeks after he got out of prison in January. Investigators say he hit nearly a dozen stores across metro Grand Rapids over several months and stole more than $8,000 worth of items.
“How much longer is this going to go on for?” Kent County Circuit Judge Paul Denenfeld asked Kuikstra at his Wednesday sentencing. “Is this going to be for the rest of your life, or are you finally going to get it?”
Kuikstra was often captured on surveillance video wearing sunglasses to conceal his appearance. Investigators say he targeted big-box stores, gas stations and smaller grocery stores.
According to court filings, Kuikstra stole three 18-packs of beer from the Speedway on 68th Street SW in February. In March, he took several Ciroc bottles from the D&W on 28th Street, investigators said. The alcohol was worth $300. Kuikstra also stole $100 worth of liquor bottles from Forest Hills Foods on March 7, according to court filings.
In April, he walked out of Lowe’s with $860 worth of DeWalt Combo kits. Investigators say he targeted Forest Hills Foods again in May and stole nearly $1,700 worth of alcohol.
The shoplifting continued into June, prosecutors say. On June 12, Kuikstra was seen taking four items, including a cordless DeWalt drill, from the Walmart on 28th Street.
It didn’t always work. Three days later at the Family Fare on Kalamazoo Avenue, employees say Kuikstra tried putting beef tenderloin, chicken breasts and pork chops inside a damaged paper towel package before he ran off.
SpartanNash, a food distributor and grocery store retailer in Kent County, wrote in a victims’ impact statement that Kuikstra stole $6,400 worth of products over a five-month period this year and hadn’t paid a “penny” back.
“(SpartanNash) is downright fed up with you,” Denenfeld said.
At his sentencing Wednesday, the judge told him that retail fraud doesn’t only hurt businesses but also customers who end up paying more at checkout.
“When I go to SpartanNash or one of the grocery stores they own and I’m paying extra money for the items just like every other person who goes into those grocery stores, how do you think they make it up?” he asked. “They make it up by raising prices on the rest of us.”
“When you commit crimes, whether it’s financial or not, there are people who are paying the price for it,” the judge continued. “Not just the retail operations you’re stealing from, but me, who’s now paying an extra buck for a pound of butter because they’re going to pass that on.”
Stores are seeing more theft nationwide. A September study by the National Retail Federation found that retailers lost $112 billion in 2022, up from $93.9 billion in 2021. Nearly two-thirds of the losses were due to theft, the study found.
Andrea Bitely, spokesperson for the Michigan Retailers Association, said theft can especially hurt mom-and-pop stores.
“Smaller retailers like mom-and-pop stores are looking at a 2% to 3% growth if they’re lucky, their annual profit,” she said. “If someone steals 2% to 3% of their goods, they are not going to make a profit for the year.”
“In order to stay open, those dollars have to be passed along to other customers,” she continued. “Theft isn’t really a victimless crime, because you and I are going to end up paying more for products because there’s a shortage.”
Bitely explained that shoplifting nowadays isn’t people taking small items, like “a tube of Chapstick,” but organized theft involving multiple people taking large amounts of products from stores.
“It can be a big-box store, it can be a mom-and-pop store, really anything and everything is the target of these large retail crime operations,” she said.
It can also negatively affect store employees, Bitely said.
“Seeing products disappear off the shelf can make you nervous about losing your own job,” she said. “Will the store stay open? Will management be able to keep you on into the next year? It’s more than just the store as the victim.”
Kuikstra apologized for his behavior at his sentencing.
“I am truly sorry, afraid, sorrowful, ashamed and embarrassed how I’ve conducted myself,” he said.
But for the first time in decades, Kuikstra said he’s hopeful he will turn his life around. While in the Kent County jail, he said he is part of a program that gives him medication to help control his addiction, as well as obtain housing and a job once he’s out.
“I’m not saying this is a cure-all for all of my problems and by some miracle I’ve been healed of my addiction, but I am saying that given the chance to reform myself with this all-inclusive opportunity, I just might be able to break the cycle,” he said. “I hold out hope that my mistakes will not be what ultimately define me, and I will overcome my addiction.”
Denenfeld responded that while he recognizes Kuikstra has an addiction and needs help, he needs to be held accountable for his decisions.
“I’m not sure, but you might be holding the world record in front of me. With these seven felonies you’ve been convicted of here, you have 20 felony convictions,” he said. “There were one heck of a lot of cases that were dismissed as part of this deal: 26 misdemeanors. You’ve been to prison eight times by the age of 54. Jail, 15 times.”
The judge ultimately sentenced him to a year in jail. He will not receive credit for time served because he was on parole when this year’s recent thefts happened.
The judge also ordered him to pay more than $8,431.23 in restitution to his victims.
“$8,000 you stole from a number of different stores that most of us actually end up going to buy our own goods,” Denenfeld said. “But most of us pay for those goods, we don’t steal them.”
Denenfeld then told Kuikstra that if this happens again and he’s the judge in the case, things will go down differently.
“Either you’re going to take advantage of what I hope is an opportunity I’m giving,” he said, “or you’re going to spend more decades of your life sitting in a prison cell wondering why you made such terrible decisions.”