well... this isn't exactly about DVD theft but about DVd player theft.

I work Loss Prevention for a drugstore chain and usually around Christmas time, we always get DVD players in. Which is a big worry for me as I work in pretty rough inner city stores. One store manager wanted the players displayed where the customers could touch and hold the box. IMO of course, bad idea. I'm more for putting them behind the counter and having the cashier sell them to customers as they check out.

So I decided if they wanted to display them on the sales floor where people could touch the box, i'm going to have ONE box out on the sales floor, on an endcap. The trick of course was that INSIDE the box, I removed the DVD player and instead, put in a bag of potting soil.

Sure enough, soon thereafter, a heavily tatooed gangster type latino decides he's going to pick up the box and run outside the door as fast as he can.

With his $1.00 potting soil inside.

He did manage to get away. With his free dirt.

Yeah. Ditto.

I beleive the shrink ratio is 70%-20%-10%

Employee-pilferage-error

If you're really lucky, rock will save the handcuffs for later.

You would be exactly the kind of employee I would be looking for!! You would be easy to lure into a fight, for all the wrong reasons, leaving your store in an indefensible position. Plus, I would have every right to give you a beating. That would be the icing on the cake.

I can just see what would happen when the police showed up...

Police: asks the security gaurd "why did you detain this man"
Security: "he looked suspicious. i thought he stole something"
Police: "did he steal anything?"
Security: "i don't know for sure"
Police: "what happened next?"
Security: "i grabbed him, that is when he beat the crap out of me"
Police: "so he did not steal anything, and when you tried to illegaly detain him he defended himself?"
Secuirty: "ummm...."
Police: "you're under arest for battery, illegal imprisonment..."

LOL, I might even let you get a good hit on me, somewhere that I could get a visible bruise to take to court. Hell, I might even have to bend into a hit to make sure it would be in the right place. That would be worth lots of extra money. And lets not get into what you did to my back, how I'll never be able to work again because I have soft tissue damage.

The moral of the story is no security gaurd has the right to take away the rights of any other person. If they see someone is a theif, call the stinkin police. It is their job to arrest people. But I guess this is like from the movie "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle", only the security gaurd could not even become a cop so they hire him to watch after teenagers.

You live in a delusional world Doogie.

Y'know, in his own troll-like way, he's absolutely right.

You must really, really hate BB.

The point I was making was missed with all the masculinity. You're worried about winning a fight. The guy starting it is thinking cha-ching. You might as well hand him the keys to the store.

And there is something deeper I was getting at. What is that $40 game worth? What is that $15 DVD worth? Is it worth a camera in every corner of the store? Is it worth security gaurds like rockmjd, who is looking for a reason to put a whipping on someone?

BTW, if you are serious, how about posting your name?? If I don't take you up on your offer, I am sure there are others who will.

I am not sure what point you are making. Are you saying that it is ok to steal? That people shouldn't worry about it?

Let's say to Best Buy a $40 game is worth $20 and a $15 DVD is worth $7.50. Let's also say with no security at all, the average theft rate in a store in a bad area is 10 games/day and 20 DVDs/day. I think those are all fairly conservative numbers. That's $350/day lost. That's over $120k a year. Probably enough to make it worth throwing up some cameras and hiring a security guard or two. And that's without taking into account higher price items.

If you re-read your posts, you're the one looking to put a whipping on someone with the whole 'if someone put a hand on my arm, I'm going to start swinging, beat the hell out of them and then sue the shit out of Best Buy.' If a security guard pushed you up against a wall and you beat the hell out of them, you might avoid jail and he'd most likely be fired, pretty doubtful you'd be getting any money out of Best Buy's pocket though. If a guard put his hand on your shoulder and asked you a question and you started swinging, you'd go to jail. Depending on the guard's restraint, you might possibly end up with a fun little detour through the local ER.

The point is, you PURPOSELY look for a fight. You try to give them any reason to try to stop you. That makes you as bad as a shoplifter. You should try this in a mom and pop store with no cameras and see how fast they will probably hurt you.

I don't know but I think once he graduates high school and joins the real world he will look back and see his opinions as being rather immature.

Someone's e-penis is gigantic in this thread.

Id say in about 99% of cases the police are going to be predisposed to believe the loss prevention folks side of the story. If the store makes lots of legal and justified detentions, you may find the cops know them personally and respect their report of the situation. And if there is videotape showing you throwing the first punch, your case will find itself on shaky ground. And if there is stolen merch on you (or clearly shown on a tape) your case has just evaporated.

I know several people who have worked in this industry, and I know that none of them have any authorization to detain someone who just looks suspicious, they have to actually see something get concealed, then someone has to maintain a 100% visual (usually on camera because its difficult in person) to make sure they dont ditch it before the person on the floor gets to them. This is usually the bare minimum in rules.

Well I work in electronics @ walmart, and all of this is familiar. We find empty DVD cases frequently. And the Spanish music section is a high target area as well. We have Loss Prevention and they're always around. I enjoy seeing people, who just got bounced off the pavement in the parking lot.

Those spider tags are fun to play with. But i never put them on too tight, since I know how anal we are about mint boxes

Someone stole a computer one time. Not sure how that happened. DVD players are also common.

But the other day, i found an opened copy of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. This genius stole the bonus disc, instead of the feature. That made me smile

It's not established in the story that the kid actually was stealing something, only that the employees accused him of doing so. The accusation could have been false (such things do happen). When I was a young teen, I was accused of shoplifting more than once when I hadn't even attempted to take anything. Admittedly, I never made a scene, though it helped that the owner of the store I was often accused of stealing from was a friend of my father's, so I could take any complaint right to the top if need be.

Personally, I'd rather lose some money here and there than falsely accuse someone of something they didn't do (especially knowing that many store clerks profile based on factors that have little to nothing to do with actual loss prevention).

your exactly right. I worked this field for several years, and we had a great relationship with the police. we also fired a few people who stopped someone who ditched the merchandise. you have to maintain a visual at all times to insure this doesn't happen; otherwise, you will find youself on the tail end of a multi million dollar law suit. I remember a case a few years back where wal mart settled out of court for 3.4 million because someone stopped a suspected thief and he didn't have the merchandise on him. hate it when that happens.. we always worked in teams in order to maintain a visual besides that it was safer.

that might be the case in your store, but not every store is the same. the neighborhood I worked in, if you went out to get a shoplifter, it was almost guaranteed you were going to get in a struggle with someone resisting; however, I worked in a couple of other stores where the shoplifters just automatically gave up without a fight. after a while, it wasn't hard to figure out who was going to fight and who wasn't.

U know what sucks even more than getting caught shoplifting? Getting accused by the stupid old prick who monitors teens at Blockbuster of stealing a f***ing AVP slipcase (not even the DVD). As you can tell, this happened to me pretty recently and pissed me off. She frickin called the manager over and s*** and practically searched me (which is against the law) for the f***ing slipcase when she knew i hadn't even touched that stupid f***in flick. Anyway, I was eventually found innocent by the manager, to which the crazy bitch actually accused me of stashing it or even having a friend hold it for me. So, as the manager went over to serach some other guys in the place I flipped the dumb broad the bird and tossed a stack of Troy DVD's off of her desk and across the store. Then i ran my ass outta there

yeah, we wasn't supposed to either, but my manager and I enjoyed our job too much.. we actually had a 10 foot rule, but for some reason, that always went out the window when we started chasing shoplifters..

I saw someone go into a Bathroom at wal-mart,and try to steal the following
Princess Diaries
Blade Runner
Spider-Man
Love Actually
Invaders From Mars(Remake)

He opened them. Didn't take off the security tags,just the wrapping,then walked out. I followed him at a distance,and he tried to go out the door and BEEEEEEEP,he's busted. He acts all innocent,and cops arrive and they searce him,not only did he have those,but he had $260 worth of CDs in his jacket. I have more stories,but this is the one I tell most people when talking about dumb people. More stories will be posted at a later date.

holy hell how couldn't the people who work there notice that? i mean, s*** its pretty hard to cover up 5 dvds and like 20 cds in your jacket

I think it's time to get a lawyer and sue their asses. Sue for a million, settle for $500,000.

Anyhoo, can't a shoplifter sue a company if they are being detained against their will? Professor told us that the shoplifter can say he/she was detained and went along with it because they were intimidated. This = more blingage for shoplifters.

Fixed.

Nope, as a citizen, if you witness a crime, you have the legal right to detain that person until the police show up, but you better make sure you have your facts straight or you could end up at the tail end of a lawsuit along with the company. that's why companies usually only allow certain employees to stop shoplifters. it's just like the police; you have to have probable cause to detain that person. if you don't, life will suck for a while..