A local man who is an expert on retail crime will talk about that topic during a live appearance this morning on NBC's Today Show, and he also will do a segment to run Sunday night on MSNBC.

Jerry Biggs, a Porter County resident who works in Merrillville for the Walgreens Organized Retail Crime Unit, is appearing on the Today Show with another retail official and an FBI official.

"It (the television segment) is about organized retail theft, the magnitude of it, how it funds other things, how it's believed to be funding terrorism, how illegal immigrants are being recruited to steal," Biggs said.

Biggs said retail theft costs stores as much as $40 billion each year in this country. According to information Biggs provided to The Times, a professional shoplifter steals an average of $315 per incident, compared to $33 for nonprofessional shoplifters.

Among the most commonly stolen items, Biggs said, are infant formula and over-the-counter medicines like Claritin and Rogaine. Thieves either conceal the merchandise in their clothing, backpacks or purses, or they just load up a cart and push it out of the store. Thieves often work in teams, with some creating a diversion to benefit the others.

Biggs said most major retailers have organized retail crime divisions, and they work with law enforcement to educate store employees what to look for. Retail crime teams also try to work with caught thieves to infiltrate crime groups.

It is not uncommon for investigations to lead to federal indictments and the recovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise, Biggs said. But each time thieves get away with a theft, that merchandise can end up at a flea market or can make its way to dishonest wholesalers and get sold back to stores.

Biggs, who drove to New York to be on the Today Show, is part of the Biggs family that is well known in local law enforcement. Several members of the family worked or still work in law enforcement.