AUBURN – Fewer youth shoplifters in Auburn this year have led to an overall reduction in the number of shoplifting charges filed, according to Auburn Police.

“We’re certainly impressed with the juvenile shoplifting decrease,” said Jason Moen, Auburn’s assistant police chief. “It could be the work in the schools we’re doing, teaching kids to make better decisions. But we are very happy with it.”

Shoplifting charges against those 11-to-17 years old were down 42 percent for 2008 compared to 2007, Moen said. That helped reduce the number of shoplifting charges in Auburn by 8 percent for all ages.

That’s bucking a national trend that shows shoplifting charges increasing as much as 10 to 20 percent.

But Moen said shoplifting among Auburn’s adults did increase. Adults 18-to-24 years old were charged with shoplifting 12 percent more in 2008 than in 2007, and adults 35-to-54 years old were charged 46 percent more, from 38 charges filed in 2007 to 57 in 2008.

Dale Brann, store manager at Wal-Mart in Auburn, said that fits with what he’s seeing at his store. Shoplifting does tend to increase near the Christmas holiday.

“I don’t think we’re seeing any more than usual,” he said. “We get busier this time of year, and there is more opportunity for shoplifting. But whether it’s the clientele we have or what, we are not seeing any kind of escalation.”

Brann would not say what kind of items were more likely to be shoplifted, and referred those questions to Wal-Mart’s corporate office. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said information about what kind of items were shoplifted from the company’s stores nationally was proprietary.

Moen said Auburn’s statistics showed that the majority of shoplifting arrests occurred between 12 and 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays were the most popular times for shoplifting arrests, he said.

Officials from JC Penney in the Auburn Mall and Sears in the Lewiston Mall declined to comment.