‘It’s 100% disheartening’: $2,000 worth of health supplements stolen from store

By Orko Manna

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    ROSEVILLE, California (KCRA) — Several expensive supplement products created by the companies Enzymedica and Nordic Naturals were stolen from Sunrise Natural Foods in Roseville Thursday afternoon, according to the store’s manager and owner.

Surveillance video given to KCRA 3 shows two men walking into the store with puffer vests. The security footage also appears to show the men holding bottles of the supplements behind their backs and stuffing them into their vest pockets. Sunrise Natural Foods manager Laura Ryan said they were in and out of the store within just about three minutes.

“It’s 100% disheartening. Was I shocked? Yes,” Ryan said. “They had swooped all of that out.”

Now, there are empty shelves for certain Enzymedica and Nordic Naturals products inside the store. Enzymedica is a digestive supplement and Nordic Naturals specializes in Omega 3 supplements. Many of the stolen supplements were expensive, with a few priced at more than $100.

Ryan said this is not the first time Enzymedica has been stolen from Sunrise Natural Foods. Ryan said back in August 2023, thieves broke into the store overnight by smashing a window and specifically stole Enzymedica products. She believes certain products are being targeted.

“Something’s up because we had already been hit before for this one brand. This Enzymedica brand,” Ryan said. “There’s a lot of expensive products in this store, so at that point it dawned on me, that there is something more than just an unusual theft.”

Sunrise Natural Foods owner Judy Gillespie said she has spoken to other health food and supplement shops in the area and said they also had the same or similar products stolen.

KCRA 3 reached out to some of those other stores, but they could not confirm if they had those products stolen. The Roseville Police Department said they are investigating the theft from Sunrise Natural Foods last week, but they added that they have not gotten any other reports from other stores.

KCRA 3 also contacted the companies that make the supplements that were taken. Enzymedica said that they were only aware of one other theft of their products at one other store in the area, but they do not consider it a widespread issue. A media representative for Nordic Naturals did not immediately respond to KCRA 3, but a sales representative for the company said she has noticed thefts of Nordic Naturals products at several stores across California over the past couple of years.

As they try to figure out the next steps following what they say were two thefts of the same products, Sunrise Natural Foods said they are moving the products to a spot in the store more easily visible to employees. KCRA 3 asked if they considered putting the products in locked cases, such as what other larger stores, including Safeway, Target and Walmart, have done.

“If we try and lock the products up, that’s not going to work because no one is going to wait 5, 10 minutes while I’m helping another customer to get their little bottle. They just go somewhere else,” Ryan said. “We’re a small business. We don’t have the wherewithal to have 10 employees at the beck and call to unlock stuff.”

Ryan said she wants to see more action to help businesses such as Sunrise Natural Foods.

“I would love to know what the people who govern us in general,” Ryan said.

Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley represents the Roseville area of California. He said while local law enforcement agencies are doing what they can to combat crime, a potential ballot initiative for November could help bring more change.

“We have some laws in this state that have made it really, really hard to hold thieves accountable and have allowed them to continue stealing again and again, without there being any consequences, so the good news there is that there is an initiative that looks to very likely be on the ballot this November that is going to restore some common sense consequences for stealing, and other kinds of criminal activity that I think will go a long way toward getting this situation under control,” Kiley said. “It would reverse many of the provisions of Proposition 47. This initiative is going to restore some of the consequences that were taken away. For example, Prop 47 said you can steal $950 worth of merchandise, and it can’t be charged as a felony, and there’s no consequence for being a repeat offender, so you could go and steal $950 here, steal $950 there, and law enforcement has very limited tools to actually bring you accountability.”

Californians for Safer Communities, a bipartisan group made up of law enforcement, elected officials and businesses, said it has collected more than 900,000 signatures in support of the measure to roll back parts of Proposition 47.

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