The recession is driving more people to crime and KELOLAND isn't immune.  Retailers have seen the largest increase in shoplifting and fraud over the past year.  While you may think that doesn't have much to do with you, you're the one who ends up paying for it.

If you ever get the feeling that someone's watching you when you're shopping, it's because someone is: just look up.

“We’ve got digital cameras, pan and scan cameras. Each store has five to six of those, you can read the dollar amount the customer gives at the check out stand on the digital screen,“ Gene Elrod of Lewis Drug said.

Security cameras may be watching and people should know it, but it doesn't stop thieves from coming up with new and creative ways to steal from retail stores.

Lewis sees so-called custom shoplifters come from out of town.

"They'll have six, eight, 10 pages of stuff they're supposed to steal in Sioux Falls and go back home and sell it, fence it on the streets or take to the pawn shop or whatever," Elrod said.

Elrod says even some of the store's sonic toothbrushes have turned up on eBay.

“It’s getting a lot more prevalent because of the economic times, I believe and again in seasonal times, it really gets to be a task in order to stop," Elrod said. 

Retailers have seen a nine percent increase in store theft in the last year. And that five finger discount is no bargain for the average consumer. A new report says it costs the average American family $435 because ultimately the loss retailers take is passed onto the consumer in the form of higher prices.

"If they steal a $10 item, it takes $40 in sales to make up for that $10 item. If you could cut that down, wages would go up, business could flourish better, but there's billions and billions of money stolen each year in shoplifting," Elrod said.

Shoplifting isn't the only problem retailers deal with. There's also plenty of check and credit card fraud. Plus employee theft actually costs retailers the most.