SHARING INFORMATION

I believe that one function of a community website is to share information that one may have learned in the past. This is such a post.

ALL RETAILERS AND CITIZENS THAT THOUGHT THIS COULDN'T EXIST HAD BETTER TAKE NOTE!

I was reading the police blotter in the St Augustine Record this morning when I decided to post this blog about shoplifting. I was a Loss Prevention Agent for a few years and worked at many different places, but KOHL'S was my favorite place! They have 7 day a week LP on duty and all of those camera domes you see...NONE are "fake". They have the BEST hi-tech, pan, tilt, zoom color digital cameras money can buy. I used to be able to zoom in on a UPC tag 30 feet away and read the numbers on the bar code! But enough bragging on KOHL'S. If I were a few years younger and hadn't had a severe heart attack 2 years ago, I'd probably STILL be working for them now. Not that I like KOHL'S so much but I LOVE their equipment and I love busting THIEVES!

We ALL pay for shoplifting. In case you didn't realize that, it is NOT a "victimless" crime. It impacts everyone. There are many different kinds of shoplifters, but the ones I am going to focus on in this post are the "professionals". OH YES! There ARE professional shoplifters; people that do this for a LIVING and nothing else. How do I know this? I have busted a few of them, that's how.

Many of you may remember the case that was in the news a few years ago about the woman beating her kid in the parking lot, caught on camera doing it. The cops were called, she was sent to jail. The camera was an outside camera at a KOHL'S store. When the investigation proceeded it was discovered that this woman was punishing her little girl for not stealing in KOHL'S. She was just too young to grasp what her "mommy" wanted her to do. Her "innocence" almost got mommy busted for shoplifting. The woman was discoved to be a member of an infamous community up on the Michigan/Indiana border, (Michiana as we referred to it), and the community? None other than the often unknown "Irish Travelers". The men travel and run the driveway/roofing/home improvement scams all across the country. The women, kids, older folks all shoplift...DAILY! They take their loot and sell it at flea markets etc to raise money for their "communal community". This means that they ALL "profit share". These kinds of people, and the Irish Travelers are NOT the only ones that do this, prey on our economy. THEY are one of the PRIMARY REASONS you and I pay higher prices at retail stores.

A day or so after Christmas, 1999, in Anderson, Indiana, I was surveiling a "known no reciept returner" in the line for returning Christmas gifts. (Most retailers will, or used to, accept no reciept returns for Christmas presents.) This woman I was watching was a KNOWN THIEF but we had been unsuccessful in nabbing her. We DID refuse to refund her anymore without a reciept. All of this is just leading up to the next facet in this story: There was this other woman that entered the store and walked up to this woman in line and they chatted for a few minutes. My observations have always been that "birds of a feather flock together", so I dropped the watch on the woman in line and started focusing on the other woman. The cashiers at the refund line counter had already been alerted to this thief in the line so they were watching her while I turned my attention to the other woman.

No big surprize...she shopped, picked out jeans, tops, coats, underwear, bras etc...by the HANDFULLS and never once looked at the tags or prices. This is a dead giveaway to you LP's that are reading this. But you knew that already, I hope! Long story short, she filled her shopping cart to over-filling and then started "shopping" in the Junior's Department which just happens to be 5 feet or less from the EXIT DOORS! She was coy, she waited until a stranger man was approaching the doors and made her move. The man, like most gentlemen will, held the door for this woman with her loaded cart.

I apprehended her at her Chevy Astro van in the parking lot. I noted that her van was literally FULL of shopping bags, all full of "shelf folded" clothes with the tags still attached. In my LP office an associate helped inventory her load while we waited for the cops to arrive. She had over $3,500 worth of high dollar clothing items in that cart. The police arrived and took her to jail. The responding officer requested that I guard her vehicle and he would return with a tow truck in about 30 minutes or so. It was cold outside and snowing. The parking lot was covered in snow and ice so I made certain that a car was parked in front of her van and I stood beside and behind it. (Heck, I needed a long smoke break after that anyway.)Guess who showed up??? The woman that was in the return line along with an elderly woman about 70 or so in a new red Monte Carlo. The woman had keys to the van and got in to start it up. I just told her that if she tried to move the van that I wasn't going to move since the police had assigned me to guard it. She hollered out to the elderly woamn driving the Monte Carlo, "Momma! He said that if I tried to move it I could be charged with attempted murder since he isn't going to move out of the way!" Now folks, that old woman started cussing me like a sailor, (I was a sailor so I can say that...ok!) I was called everything but a child of God! The woman got out of the van and left with the old lady, both shouting cuss words all the way. (Of course I got their tag number, description etc...he..he..he)

Last chapter in this: The woman's van had over $15,000 worth of merchandise in it, NOT counting the $3,500 or so she had in that cart! It was ALL STOLEN! The van was confinscated under Indiana law as being used in the commission of a felony. (ALL theft in Indiana is a felony.) It was auctioned off by the police dept. The woman got 2 years. The woman in the refund line was HER SISTER and the old lady? HER MOTHER! ALL OF THEM: IRISH TRAVELERS!

You may be sitting there reading this and saying, "So what? That was in Indiana." Folks, these people migrate all over the country in cycles. Michiana just happens to be their "home base", thats all. How many times have you seen on the news that someone jipped someone on a remodel job or a concrete driveway job? Got $$$ up front and disappeared? It is VERY LIKELY that these people are in cahoots with the "families" traveling with them. They work an area for a while and then move on. That's how they operate and that's how they elude capture too. They are always on the move. The shoplifters use everything from fake medical devices, (O2 etc) to baby strollers to hide loot inside of. They usually just wait until they think the coast is clear and "casually" walk out. These are the pros...they KNOW what they're doing and thay are GOOD at it.

Last quickie: While out at the Nike store in the outlet mall in St Augustine I observed 5 young men, all high schoolers and white, enter the Nike store. I was outside waiting for my son shopping inside. Out of habit, I focused on their shoes as they walked in. Not too terribly bad of condition, but all were showing obvious wear. 10 MINUTES LATER -Same group walks out. ALL have new shoes on, no bags, boxes...nothing. They split up and each veered intop the parking lot in slightly different directions but ALL ended up at the same vehicle in short order. (These guys were being SOOoooo obvious to the trained eye). They all got in and drove off. OF COURSE THEY STOLE THESE SHOES!!! The manager of the Nike store was "monitoring" the front doors, standing right by the doors. I spoke with her for a few minutes. She was completely clueless that these guys had just ripped her store off for 5 pairs of new Nikes. She had NO TRAINING about what to look for, she just figured her "presence" at the doors would deter theft. WRONG!!!

Honestly, I could write a book about this stuff. I even entertained the idea of starting an LP school to train and certify LP's from stores that would enroll them in my classes but I just don't have the $$$ to do it.

Solutions: COMMUNICATION!!! Retailers need to form an alliance that meets with local police and the stores SHARE their info, pictures of shoplifters, videos etc so everyone KNOWS who the thieves are! We had that kind of association in Indiana. It worked VERY well and many of the "pro-thieves" started bypassing stores in the association. It takes an EFFORT on the part of retailers and the local police. Need help? Contact me, I can offer suggestions.