They’re not just stealing the stuff — they’re also using it as a medium of exchange:

…police in Prince George’s County, Maryland have taken to calling Tide “liquid gold.”  According to the Associated Press, officers there say that drug dealers have started urging their clientele to pay with Tide bottles in lieu of cash.

A alleged quote from one dealer: “I’m out of marijuana right now, but when I get re-upped I’ll hook you up if you can get me 15 bottles of Tide.”

Here is much more, and here is JP Koning on what this has to do with liquidity premia (puns aplenty).

15 bottles of Tide, by the way, allegedly retails for up to $300, and goes for about $112 on the street.  Retailers are getting ripped off by “organized groups of professional shoplifters” (source), but depending on what it costs to buy wholesale from Tide they might be able to recoup some of their loss by buying wholesale from the streets and selling retail in the store.*

* That is not advice.