A 33-year-old man accused of repeatedly ripping off liquor stores across Oakland Park this summer is now behind bars, but the two men who allegedly helped him pull off the thefts are still out there. Kendrick Wallace was arrested on July 30 and now faces multiple retail theft and petit theft counts tied to a spree that hit several ABC Fine Wine & Spirits locations over the course of June and July.
According to the Miami Herald, the Broward Sheriff's Office says Wallace and his accomplices simply walked into stores, grabbed bottles of alcohol, and walked back out without paying. A judge set Wallace's bond at $10,000, and he remains held at BSO's main jail in Fort Lauderdale. As of the sheriff's office's Tuesday update, no information about legal counsel for Wallace was immediately available.
The theft pattern was more extensive than a single bad afternoon. Detectives reported the scheme involved at least eight separate incidents during June and July across multiple ABC Fine Wine & Spirits locations in Oakland Park, according to Boca Post. ABC Fine Wine & Spirits is Florida's largest privately held alcohol retailer, operating more than 125 stores statewide since it was founded in Orlando in 1936.
Two Suspects Still Wanted
BSO has released security camera footage showing the men stealing alcohol, and detectives are now looking for two men suspected of helping Wallace with the thefts, per the sheriff's office. Investigators believe the group also robbed other liquor stores throughout Broward County, per Claudinne Caro, though the full scope of that broader activity hasn't been confirmed.
Anyone with information about Wallace's alleged accomplices is asked to contact investigators. Tipsters can reach BSO directly at 954-202-3121, or submit anonymous tips online through Broward Crime Stoppers at browardcrimestoppers.org, which offers cash rewards of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in felony cases across the county.
A Record Dating Back to 2011
Wallace's criminal history isn't new to Broward County. He has felony convictions dating back to 2011, including grand theft and burglary, according to the Herald. That record could carry weight as prosecutors decide how to charge the current case.
Florida's retail theft laws have gotten notably tougher for repeat offenders like Wallace. Under House Bill 549, signed in 2024, Florida Statute § 812.015 now lets law enforcement and prosecutors aggregate multiple retail thefts occurring over a 120-day span — expanded from a previous 30-day window — to push charges up to felony levels, as reported by WKMG. The same legislation made retail theft a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison for offenders with two or more prior theft convictions, according to WQCS.
Part of a Statewide Crackdown
Generally, shoplifting under $750 is classified as petit theft in Florida, but prior convictions or coordinated thefts across multiple stores give prosecutors room to file felony retail theft charges instead, per the Sammis Law Firm. That's the legal mechanism that could turn Wallace's eight-incident spree into something far more serious than a string of misdemeanors.
The case fits into a wider pattern state officials have been tracking. The Florida Attorney General's Office runs the Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange, known as FORCE, a statewide task force and shared database built to track cross-jurisdictional retail theft patterns and coordinate prosecutions across agencies, according to My Florida Legal. National Retail Federation data cited by Action News Jax shows retail shoplifting incidents rose 18 percent nationally between 2023 and 2024, a trend that has pushed South Florida law enforcement to prioritize retail crime enforcement.
Oakland Park contracts its municipal policing directly to the Broward Sheriff's Office, which staffs a dedicated district of nearly 90 sworn deputies in the city, per Citizen Portal. BSO itself is one of the largest public safety agencies in Florida, serving 15 municipal contract cities and unincorporated county areas with more than 5,400 total employees. Whether investigators can track down Wallace's two remaining accomplices — and whether the group will be tied to additional unsolved thefts elsewhere in Broward County — remains an open question detectives are still working through.
