ctyankee

Agreed. Unless your specific duties are loss prevention I don't see why any clerk would get involved with shoplifting.

I don't know how many of you have been in a situation where someone has pulled a gun or a knife on you. Fortunately for me it was just very scary ... the kind of scary where your whole body shakes afterwards.

I didn't notice anyone mention internal theft (maybe I missed it). The Wall Street Journal reports that theft by employees is significant. At the Tower Records in Stamford employees are checked when they leave the front of the store. I feel bad for them. Just as I feel bad for me when some security guy at BB or CC checks my receipt 20 steps from the cashier's register.

jessebo

Wal Mart is the same way. a regular associate can't approach a shoplifter or they can get fired. the only people who can stop a shoplifter is management or loss prevention. since most wal mart stores don't have loss prevention, and most of the managers I've met aren't real brite, you can imagine the amount of shrink the company has as a whole every year. it's no big deal to them, because they just raise the prices. it'll get to the point where they won't have "everyday low prices" anymore. you can't allow that much theft to go on and still keep prices low..

jessebo

yep, Employees are the worst. I've watched them take customer credit card numbers, and manually type them in to literally buy thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for themselves and then hand a bag off to a boyfriend or a girlfriend. at one of the stores I worked at, I took out 9 employees in one month for various crimes of credit fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, and outright theft. then aproximate total between them was $17,000.00. when asked why they done it, everyone of them told me they wanted the stuff, but the store didn't pay them enough to actually purchase it. we also checked employees leaving the building, and you'd be surprised at how many people would actually tried to get by with taking merchandise out. they actually made my job quite easy sometimes..

KTIK

Wait, so the cashiers would type in the numbers, remember them for later, and charge them again for products they'd buy?

DrS

For great shoplifting stories, check this, esp under villainy:

http://www.actsofgord.com/

Have fun!

jessebo

no, they wouldn't remember them. sometimes they would actually keep the credit card. the customers were usually so busy getting the merchandise they bought, that they would forget to take their credit card. also, at the time, they could actually go back on the detail tape and it showed the full credit card number.. the customer got a receipt, and the store kept a detail tape of all transactions. they would then use the credit card or the number and purchase merchandise for themselves. it falls under identity theft today. it's pretty big business..

PerksGTI

The only thing listed there that has any real theft deterrance would be the hard cases that get removed at the registers, like are sometimes used on video games. With the other stuff, shoplifters simply run a knife or razor blade around the edge of the package and remove the disc, takes about 2 seconds. All the security strips are just there to piss you off.

Stores don't put these cases on dvd's because the cost of purchasing the cases and the labor to put them on and take them off would cost them more than the loss from theft.

copiedline

I work at Target and we have a large number of DVDs stolen everyday. I've never seen anyone actually do it, but I find the empty boxes all over the store. And yeah, we're not allowed to stop anyone if we see them doing it. A few weeks before Christmas one of the head cashiers got fired because he helped the assets protection team try to stop someone. I forget what the guy was trying to steal, but he went nuts when they tried to stop him and started smashing his head into the wall. It was pretty scary for a few minutes. We do get a reward if we turn an employee in for fruad, but at least at my store, everyone is a good egg.

rsa

Here in NZ all the dvds and cds are removed from the cases and kept behind the counter in big filing cabinets, so all the cases on display are empty.

Just walking down the road you can see display bins outsite the stores full of dvds (cases that is). It must cause a few raised eyebrows to visiting North Americans to see unattended bins and racks of dvds out in the street!!

I'm sure they still loose a lot to shoplifters and fraudsters though.

Some full cases (box sets etc) are kept behind the counter with just a few empty shelf copies out in the store.

dealer

When the BB in my hometown first opened, they had a guy buy a bunch of computer stuff with a stolen card. Somehow they found out the card was stolen and security chased him into the parking lot. They tackled the guy and in the process of holding him there for the police, he had a heart attack and died. The family sued the crap out of BB for it.

tjr2mental

I wish he would update his page more often, I love his stuff.

woofman

Just yesterday I was eating at a Subway that was in a 7-Eleven and I happened to look in a mirror up on the wall and saw some punk kid put some cigars in his pocket. Right after he bought something and left I went up to the counter and asked if he had purchased cigars, the clerk said no, and I said "well he walked out with a pack in his pocket". The clerk thanked me. I thought about saying something while the kid was still in the store, but I didn't know for sure if he was going to pay for them or not, but like others have said, it wasn't worth a possible situation, especially me being just an innocent bystander. It pissed me off that he got away with it though. Hopefully they'll catch him the next time he visits that store if he's a regular.

Spiky

There you go, great post. This is exactly why some people are paid to be security and police. It's their job, let them handle it. Informing them is good, but don't try to be a hero over something like this. Save the heroics for when your town slides down a hill or something.

This is why I mostly shop here on the net, the world's biggest store. I've been in a couple situations where people were stealing or beating up on employees or something. Once with my 2-3 year old in tow. I don't need that kind of danger, nor the inflated prices due to shoplifting. Occasionally I run into a store to see something in person or just to buy it after I've picked it out on the web. Ex: I spent hours this month on the net shopping laundry appliances, very little time in B&M stores. Eventually went into the local scratch-n-dent shop and walked out minutes later with a dryer. All done, no mess.

jessebo

I wouldn't let it piss you off too much. there was a time when I'd get pissed off when a shoplifter got away from me, but then I realized that greed always brings them back. I'd just keep the video tape, and the next time they would come in my store, I'd catch them and then prosecute them for both crimes. anyways, don't worry about it. the kid will be back and he'll get caught eventually..

Tarantino

I work at Best Buy and there isn't a day that goes by that we don't find DVD's and CD's stolen. Mostly in the Anime section.

nodeerforamonth

Yet you said at your store you've "caught countless shoplifters doing this". Good customer service must not be THAT much of a theft deterance! (unless you were talking about two different stores you worked for)

Y2J850

Well i used work at wal-mart as a cart pusher in Houston and everyday we use to see police cars outside the store and we knew that lost prevention had a shoplifter. On many occasions The cart pushers would have to help persue the suspect. One time me and another cart pusher were resting up and we see a big dude running out and the Lp chasing him an wrestled him to the ground in the middle of the street.The shoplifters girlfriend evidently was waiting in the car for him,she ran out and started swinging her purse at the Lp's head, he called for us to help an we ran over and held the guys arms and legs while the lp tried to cuff him which was hard since he wouldnt stop squirming and saying he didnt do anything.All that effort and work and all he had was 1 new release dvd (cant remember which). ( At walmart the lp will cuff the suspect if need be which is pretty weird). I have seem many people get cought and alot end bloodied and have to be dragged back in the 'office' while they wait for the cops. its sad to see that people go to the store and just take the most expensive dvd boxset and dvds they could find(sorpanos, star trek sex and the city) just to take them to a pawn shop to probaly score drug money or somethin equally stupid. And when I got moved inside it was even worse as i'd see many many empty dvd cases everyday.

And just this weeknd someone came in the store and removied 6 big toys that were 19.99 out of the box,than went to some sewing machines and put 6 over$300 sweing machines in the empty toy boxes and walked out with over $2000 in sewing machines for $130

mdkdc

Yesterday I was sitting in Taco Bell eating lunch with my friend and some guy just walked in off the street, filled his cup with soda and walked out. We were the only two (paying) customers in there and neither of us bought a drink so obviously a Taco Bell employee looked around the counter to check it out. He just caught a glimpse of the guy leaving so he looked at me and I just shrugged because I had no idea what happened. The employee asked if he had a Taco Bell cup and my friend told him he had a plain, clear cup. The employee said "He just stole that!" and I said "And he took a straw too! I saw it!" The manager caught up to the guy and he surrendered his soda. The end.

NobleRabbit

At the video store where I work, we have VERY strict rules when it comes to shoplifters.

1. We're not allowed to make any physical contact with them EVER.
2. We can only accuse someone of shoplifting if we see them hide the product on themselves, and can continuously monitor them until the moment they step through the security gates. If we lose eyesight of them for a split second, we must assume they decided to put the product back on the shelf.
3. If our security gates beep, we can only ask them to give us any product they've purchased so that we can try to re-de-activate it.

Sooo... A person could walk up to me, and say, "Hey there, I'm stealing." They could stand in front of a shelf with their back facing me, hold up a movie, stick it down their pants, shuffle around a bit, and leave. I would be able to do NOTHING about it.

Buford T Pusser

The cup and drink were fine but that was the last straw.














*groan








I was in BB today and kept thinking I'd run into an open case.

talemyn

Buford T Pusser

Cameron

What the paper says you can do and what you can do are diffrent things

i would rather be fired for what is right, than work in a place that caters to thieves

Perkinsun Dzees

At the supermarket yesterday, I saw some guy take one of those plastic bags -- the ones on the spools which you're supposed to fill with fruit or veggies -- and he just stuck it in his pocket without filling it up with fruit or veggies. He started to walk out of the store with the bag so I alerted one of the cashiers. She told the manager, who chased after the guy in the parking lot and got the bag back. I hate it when people try to get something for nothing.

Buford T Pusser

So he was caught holding the bag.















































*ducks talemyn