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More than $70,000 in stolen goods recovered from a local pawnshop were on display Wednesday morning to illustrate a growing trend in Prince George's County called boosting.

Boosting — a term police use to describe the act of shoplifting items or burglarizing homes and selling the stolen goods — has become a profession in the county, Police Chief Roberto Hylton said at a press conference Wednesday at Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights.

While overall crime is down 14 percent in the county this year, including store burglaries, home burglaries have risen 14 percent.

The recovered stolen goods on display —$50,000 of recovered jewelry and $23,000 of Sylvania automotive bulbs — are an example of thieves working with pawnshop owners, Hylton said, adding that pawnshop workers let thieves know what items they are looking for and what items sell well.

"These are thieves that know exactly what they are doing," he said. "They are not stealing a chocolate bar. This is not a petty crime."

Hylton said the department became aware of the problem when Sylvania alerted police to irregular sales in the county. Stephanie Anderson, a spokeswoman for Sylvania, said Wednesday afternoon she had no information about the thefts.

County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said Wednesday that police will begin to enforce stronger penalties against pawnshops found selling stolen goods.

"We are going to shut you down. We are going to close the doors," Johnson said.

Hylton added that if pawnshops are found selling stolen merchandise they will be charged with conspiracy.

Michael Marin Cohen, owner of Ten Dollar Pawnbrokers in Oxon Hill, said he is just as concerned as other local businesses about burglars.

Cohen said he spent hours Thursday morning sending out photos of stolen items, after a store manager was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night in front of his home. Cohen sent the photos to area pawnshops "in hopes that the criminals who robbed [the manager] are stupid enough to visit a pawnshop so that he can regain ownership of his stuff and the criminals can go to jail," he wrote in an e-mail.

Cohen also said that over the past two years he has tried to report local businesses that are selling stolen goods and added that many of these businesses are not pawnshops.

"The side door of the takeout restaurant, local gas station, hardware store, street corner, Ebay, jewelry store that buys [and] trades gold... are where most of the stolen goods are being sold," he said.

To combat both commercial and residential burglaries, the police department has constructed a partnership with community members, business leaders and the county's executive office for the "You, Me, We" campaign, which will involve educational posters encouraging youth not to shoplift.

"We have raised our children better than this," Johnson said, adding that it takes the efforts of a community to limit crime.

In a separate effort, officers will take part in the Operation Summer Heat initiative, which will assign officers who normally handle administrative work to patrol critical areas vulnerable to burglaries and other crimes. Hylton said this effort will free up officers on patrol duty to respond to calls of service without neglecting their patrol area.

Hylton encouraged residents and business owners to make sure all windows and doors are kept locked and to ensure homes and venues are well-lit.

Sherman Ragland III, chair of the Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce, said that while boosting affects larger companies such as Sylvania, it also affects small business owners.

"We can't do the job we do without having public safety," Ragland said, adding that residents, businesses and leaders must work cooperatively to combat the issues.

Hylton said he will be attending the next Chamber of Commerce meeting to speak with any business owners who have questions or concerns.

E-mail Megan McKeever at mmckeever@gazette.net.