Continual shoplifting at Wal-Mart — ranging from toiletries stuffed in pockets to 60-inch televisions brazenly carted out — has law enforcement cracking down on all thefts from the Cody store.

In late January and early February, Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters issued several stiff sentences for misdemeanor shoplifting. They included 90 days in jail for a Powell man who stole $25.86 worth of food, 60 days for a Cody man who stole a phone cord, toothbrush holder and other items valued at $24.46 and 10 days for a Clark man who took a $4.13 bottle of deodorant.

Although there were other factors, the sentences also reflected Waters’ frustration with how often people have been stealing from the big box retailer.

“Wal-Mart’s become quite a target around town by most everybody who thinks they can get away with a fast one, and there’s some big ticket items that wind up walking out the front door. There’s a lot of little stuff that winds up walking out the front door. And that means whenever I walk in the front door I’ve got to pay more, and that annoys me — although this isn’t personal,” Waters said at a Feb. 8 sentencing. “But the fact is that’s what happens when people are stealing right and left from a business, and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve decided I need to kind of crank down on things and make sure the word gets out that Wal-Mart is not someplace to be walking out the front door with all their stuff without paying for it.”

The recent sentences — which also included six months of unsupervised probation and between $390 and $490 in fines and fees — came at the recommendation of Park County prosecutors.

“Shoplifting is a major problem right now,” Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric said last month. “It’s not something new, but certainly I think the message needs to be sent that enough is enough.”

Skoric said the problem “just seems out of control.”

Cody Police Department’s dispatch logs indicate that, between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, a total of 12 thefts were reported at Wal-Mart, seven different people were arrested and at least four others were cited for shoplifting. Only four other thefts were reported across the rest of the city during those two weeks — meaning 75 percent of Cody’s reported thefts came at Wal-Mart.

Cody Police Sgt. Juston Wead said the department has recognized the problem and made a conscious effort to cut down on shoplifting at the store over the past couple years.

“It’s been kind of a team effort, as far as open lines of communication between Wal-Mart and working together to help combat it as much as we can,” Wead said.

Reducing the thefts was a passion of former Cody Police Chief Perry Rockvam, and techniques have included extra patrols from police and a more proactive approach from the store, Wead said.

“It’s shoplifting, but it brings different elements of crime besides shoplifting to our community,” Wead said, adding, “The people that are committing these crimes are sometimes from Cody, but they’re also from other communities where they’re coming and trying to seek out a new place or a new Wal-Mart to commit these type of crimes.”

Perhaps as a case in point, over a 12-hour span in January 2015, a Washington state man walked out of Wal-Mart with nine shopping carts loaded with items that included two flat screen TVs, a Keurig coffee maker, a vehicle power converter, boots and an electric stove. (He also stole cash, clothing, towels and blankets from a Cody woman who’d let him stay at her home.) Sean C. McAteer was ultimately apprehended when police in Douglas caught him trying to sell one of the stolen TVs out of his RV, according to a report compiled by Cody Police Officer Rick Tillery and included in court records.

McAteer received a two- to four-year prison sentence in November.

Similarly, two Lovell residents — Brian Rodriguez, 32, and Shanna Jolley, 27 — have been charged with felonies alleging they walked out of the store with three televisions and a vacuum cleaner one day in August. The two were confronted by store staff as they tried walking out with their fourth TV, authorities allege.

“There’s probably more stuff going out the front door that’s not being paid for than is being paid for. It seems people are packing up stuff, doing it right and left, and it’s time we pretty much put a halt to it,” Judge Waters said on Jan. 29, as he sentenced Chad Morrow to 90 days in jail for stealing $25.86 of food items.

Morrow, of Powell, had failed to scan some of his items at the self-checkout station and had been shopping with two other people who also got caught with stolen items.

“I think it’s pretty high, considering, you know, I paid for a bunch of stuff and I might have accidentally not swiped something,” Morrow had said. “I think that’s kind of severe, but, you know, whatever.”

(In a letter to the judge sent after his sentencing, Morrow said the theft had actually not been an accident.)

The prosecution had asked for the three-month sentence because of Morrow’s past crimes, including felonies; Judge Waters added to Morrow that, “you’re not employed, not doing anything useful anyway.”

The judge reiterated his intent to put a stop to the Wal-Mart thefts (and noted a past history of shoplifting) when he gave Adam Denney a 60-day sentence for pocketing $24.46 of items.

Denney, a 25-year-old Cody resident, likely hurt his cause by telling his arresting officer that he’d shoplifted before and “Wal-Mart made it too easy.”

Denney told Waters he hadn’t been meaning to brag and was simply nervous, but acknowledged, “I know it makes it look extremely horrible in my case.”

Denney had been with another man, 21-year-old Cage P. Johannsen of Clark; Johannsen had stolen the $4.14 bottle of Old Spice and — although having no prior record — received a 10-day sentence. Johannsen said the theft was “a very very stupid decision.”

Park County Sheriff Scott Steward’s office had highlighted Denney’s and Johannsen’s sentences in a Feb. 12 news release.

Steward said potential thieves should think twice before deciding an item they might consider of little value is worth the potential fines, jail time and criminal record.

“And that not only applies to Wal-Mart but also to any business in Park County,” Steward said in a statement. “If you are caught shoplifting, you will be prosecuted.”

While Wal-Mart has been the most frequent target of shoplifting, it’s not alone.

A 33-year-old Cody man, Brad L. Corbin, stole six video game consoles and one game (valued at around $1,800) over three trips to the Cody Kmart in early December 2014. Corbin had prior convictions and ended up receiving a six- to nine-year prison sentence in February 2015.

Two Cody women, meanwhile, each served nearly three months in jail after fleeing out the back door of Powell’s Family Dollar with a shopping cart carrying $535.75 worth of merchandise in mid-November. Erica L. Ward, 31, served 85 days in jail and Kristen C. Sam, 25, served 82 days.

Prosecutor Skoric said the intended message is “there’s going to be consequences” for shoplifting.

The increased punishments appear relatively recent, or at least not universal.

Back in December, 19-year-old Cody resident Samantha Downey served four days in jail for taking a couple phones from Wal-Mart valued at a total of $558.88 (plus a separate drug possession charge).

Weeks later, Johannsen got 10 days for the bottle of deodorant while 19-year-old Ivy Abraham of Powell got the same sentence for taking a $11.41 shirt while with Morrow.

When asked about the apparent discrepancy, Skoric said “we try to be a little more uniform than that.”

Downey is facing additional jail time because she was cited for shoplifting from Wal-Mart again on Jan. 17. She has pleaded not guilty.

Reports of shoplifting at Wal-Mart have slowed since last month’s series of thefts, arrests and sentences, but a 22-year-old Cody man was arrested for taking $95.81 worth of merchandise on Wednesday. Bryan Floyd received a 10-day jail sentence, plus probation and an order to pay back Wal-Mart and to pay $490 to the court.