Posted October 15, 2026 1:28 pm.
First Row Collectibles are no stranger to retail theft, so much so that they’ve had to replace this front window multiple times. Now police say they’ve made progress combatting the issue with a recent crack down, but is it enough for businesses like these.
“Most recently I had a young woman come in on a Saturday afternoon and try to grab one of my jerseys and run out,” said Curtis Howson, the owner of First Row Collectibles.
“Fortunately for us she didn’t make it too far, I was able to run her down and get it, no physical contact, she was pretty good about giving it back, but yeah, we’ve had things like that.”
Howson’s shop sells a variety of collectibles, from action figures, to Pokémon cards, but he says things are frequently going missing.
“It’s very costly, especially for a small business like this, we’re not Walmart, we’re not target or anything like that, if a $100 item goes missing, that’s huge for us, that’s a bill, so it’s very frustrating,” said Howson.
Right next door, Virginia Groshak has had issues of her own. She’s even had to take measures into her own hands, keeping her front door locked at all times.
“They’re here on a mission, they don’t really care, they’re here to….steal,” said Groshak.
“Every day I’m wondering, okay will I get them strumming my door again, or smashing my window, or throwing my sign at me, its crazy…but no, I just hate having to feel cautious all the time.”
As part of the Winnipeg police’s fall retail theft initiative to crack down on retail crime at shopping centres and businesses, 123 offenders were arrested, with over 240 criminal charges laid and almost 22,000 returned in stolen merchandise. Police say 15 of those people were repeat offenders.
“It has to be done, like there’s so much retail theft in our city that some of that needs to be done, so yeah I applaud them on that,” said Howson.
But Howson says the problem won’t be solved until bigger picture issues are tackled.
“I’m a firm believer that the root cause of this all is the drug crisis, so I think that adding mor really going to help with the retail theft that’s happening in our city.”
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