Criminals are targeting a popular St. Johns County shopping area.
Three stores at the St. Augustine outlet malls have been hit in the last month: Coach, Kate Spade and Sunglass Hut had merchandise totaling more than $20,000 stolen.
"It makes you pay attention to the people who are running around," Creative Soul manager Paul Chokota said.
With the stores sitting right off the interstate, Action News Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson said the mall is an easy target and called the recent thefts crimes of opportunity.
"It would have been very difficult for them to do it during the holidays with the mass of people and make a clean break," Jefferson said.
And after the holidays is when the thefts started to pick up.
On Dec. 31, $18,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from Kate Spade.
And then Jan. 5, more than $2,000 was taken from Coach and this past weekend, three men stole more than $1,500 worth of sunglasses from Sunglass Hut.
"When it gets busy, some customers aren't being watched so it's easy for them to, kind of, if they're good at it or know what they're doing, they can get away with it," Taylor Made Golf manager Stephen Sauey said.
To prevent people from stealing from Taylor Made Golf, which is located a few stores down from Coach, Sauey said all the merchandise has sensors.
"Ever since we opened the store, they made sure we hunkered down,” Sauey said.
It’s something that Jefferson said all store owners should do.
"They’ve got to change the way they do things if they don't want to suffer that kind of a loss," Jefferson said.
Managers said more security officers were added to the outlets after the recent thefts.