When iPhones were new, my cousin was a police officer in a high school. Every time a kid stole an iPhone it was a felony on their juvenile record, and no one wanted that.
[1] https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-def...
Before I left California, I had this argument with many of my liberal friends who did not believe me that their proposition would lead to this despite it stating it quite clearly in the text.
While arguing I was accused of being a right wing conspiracy theorist and spreading fox propaganda.
Now the chickens are home and Californians have no one to blame but themselves.
Other areas with a...ahem...more positive view toward cars spend a significant amount of resources to make it relatively safe to leave things in your car, but that's not San Francisco's priority, for better or worse (it's one of the weird places where the power brokers are either on a bike, in an Uber, on Muni, or being chauffeured privately).
Then they had another phone call where he asked how fast he could get the money, as he needed to replace the CDs before he could return to work.
The quick witted agent said something like 'oh so these CDs that were stolen were for your work?" - He replied yes. Claim was then denied - his policy was not a commercial policy.
Don't recall the insurance co.
I think the data is totally inaccurate. In other places I have lived, I would make a policy report about any crime, expecting the report to generate some good. I wouldn't bother in SF, unless, as you mention, I really expected to file an insurance claim.
That Walgreens employee told me that nothing happens. No police report. Nothing except, presumably, a note to corporate. Her sentiments were echoed by another employee at the time. And both explained how much worse things have gotten. They were incredibly pissed because they felt so utterly helpless.
While this was last year, it was at a Walgreens that I've been frequenting for years, and from what I gather from some of the chattier employees, things are still pretty bad, and altogether definitely much worse than before COVID. They have a security guard on duty more often now, but they also have significantly reduced hours.
I find it odd that people expect Walgreens to open up their books to prove the increased theft. In other contexts that's called blaming the victim. And why should I care if Walgreens is taking the opportunity to downsize at the same time? That's the epitome of whataboutism. But in any event, AFAICT, Walgreens and Target have been privately more transparent with some of the local politicians. Public transparency would just be a lose-lose from the perspective of these large corporations, especially in the current media environment where left wing social activists will blame them regardless ("Oh, look at how many millions they've been extracting from our community!") while the right wing will try to further make martyrs out of them--theft notwithstanding, not the kind of public persona these companies want.
Regarding insurance, I wouldn't be surprised if Walgreens and Target self-insure in situations like this. What I do know is that after a spate of burglaries along the commercial strip in my Outer Richmond neighborhood, the local business association (the president is the owner of a restaurant we frequent, and we're on some of her mailing lists) ran a funding drive to help those businesses recover. The implication seemed to be that either the businesses lacked the necessary insurance coverage altogether, or it fell short of what they needed. Which wouldn't at all be surprising to me. (Also wouldn't be surprising if not every business filed a police report. When nearly every business on both sides of the street, up-and-down three+ blocks is burgled in the span of two weeks, what would be the point? Even an insurer might not even care at that point; it'd be like asking each and every claimant to prove an earthquake or hurricane.)
I agree for personal insurance people would file a report, but that assumes the theft exceeded your deductible.