(Image Source: WXIA )

BY DAVID EARL

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

It’s a dirty crime wave that might have you scratching your head and media outlets are having some fun with it -- calling it a grime wave. Chances are, you might use what the thieves are stealing. Here’s KABC with the headline...

“Tide laundry detergent is apparently the latest hot commodity on the black market. Police are saying thieves from all across the country are swiping the bright orange bottles right off store shelves.”

KNBC has the video of thieves loading grocery carts full of the 60 year old Proctor and Gamble staple. Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC -TV reports...

“With this apparent rising crime wave, even national retailers like CVS are considering special security measures to keep Tide tied down.”

So Tide has now become a form of street currency. But why laundry detergent? And why Tide, of all brands? The Daily explains...

“The retail price is steadily high — roughly $10 to $20 a bottle — and it’s a staple in households across socioeconomic classes. Tide can go for $5 to $10 a bottle on the black market … ‘There’s no serial numbers and it’s impossible to track,’ said Detective Larry Patterson of the Somerset, Ky., Police Department … ‘It’s the item to steal.’”

But you have to wonder if this tidal wave of Tide thefts is an actual trend. NPR w eighs in.

“Is this for real, or is this a ginned-up trend story? — [that’s] harder to answer. The story does not have clear data, but it does have a bunch of good anecdotes from around the country...One guy in Minnesota stole $25,000 in Tide over 15 months before getting caught last year......a recent drug sting turned up more Tide than cocaine.”

More Tide than cocaine?  For real?  Alright, so it’s expensive, and it’s easy to swap -- but a blogger for Mother Nature Network really can’t see loads of people loading up on Tide...

“Given that I’m not exactly an expert in the ways of shoplifting bulky items from the laundry aisle of brightly lit chain drugstores, I have to wonder how Tide thieves get away with it or, ahem, clean up. I mean really, you can’t exactly conceal 52 loads of HE liquid laundry detergent with Febreeze in your coat or in your pants, can you?”

Tide’s maker, Procter & Gamble, doesn’t have much to say on the products popularity on the black market. And there’s no word whether black market Tide works better on your black shirts.