CHICAGO - CVS pharmacies have "locked down" bottles of Tide detergent, CBS Chicago reports, because it's become a hot stolen item that thieves are ripping off store shelves.
At $10 to $20 a container, laundry detergent is both a necessity and expensive and has become a hot black market item in a very tough economy. There's also some speculation that soap thieves are trading Tide for cheap drugs.
But others say the Tide theft issue is a hoax, and nothing to be concerned about at all.
"We are not experiencing a 'wave' of Tide thefts," CVS/pharmacy public relations director Mike DeAngelis wrote in email to FoxNews.com.
"In a few markets, we've placed security devices on Tide bottles that will trigger an alarm if a shoplifter tries to remove it from the store without paying," DeAngelis said. "However, theft of Tide is not a new issue in the retail industry."
