That's some dandy infiltration work there, Lou.I just hope the 17.99 to 34,000,000.00 of merchandise is retrieved.

calbert: maybe they were distracted:

[i238.photobucket.com image 640x272]

Yowza!

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: They seized movies, video games, clothing, electronics, and even crayons, to name a few things.

They took forty crayons.

They took 40 crayons.

That's as many as four tens.

And that's terrible.

A lot more stories coming in from San Antonio recently on Fark....perhaps we need a Texas tag to compete w/Florida.

FMLYHM: perhaps we need a Texas tag to compete w/Florida.

not until new jersey gets one you state seceding fools!

/I would be surprised if any state other than florida gets one.

I used to work at Target, but not in loss prevention. No, I had to clean the bathrooms, and that being the case, it wasn't hard to notice a couple of teenagers sneaking CDs into the stalls and unwrapping them to steal them from the store. Especially when they were talking to each other about it when they thought I was out of the bathroom.

I told loss prevention about it. They made a note of it.

Feeling kinda surly at teenagers in general at the time, I confronted them when they exited the bathroom -- calmly, not at all aggressively -- and suggested they return the CDs before they leave. I gave the opened CDs back to loss prevention.

They told my manager, and I got written up.

"Loss prevention" at Target, and most stores of that nature, is a complete misnomer. Their job is to record and monitor thefts, and then let the police do the actual prevention and apprehension. Despite the professional-looking uniforms and badges and, yes, even handguns they wear, they won't stop anybody from shoplifting anything. It's simply not in their job description.

I'm really surprised it doesn't happen more often, what with all the 'don't confront shoplifters' policies all major stores seem to have.

And, of course, they factor 'shrink' into the price of the goods they sell.

What might be interesting is a speculative fiction story where companies get their prices, shelf tags, sales signs, etc. all completely computerized, and a back-end system that adjusts prices in Real Time. The protagonist goes into a store for an item, sees other people literally walking out the door with the same item, reports them, gets told the employees can't do anything about theft (except call the cops, who are all busy writing parking/speeding/etc tickets), and then has to pay more at the register to make up for the ones that were just stolen. All while the thieves get off scot free.

/It'd be an analogy for paying taxes

2:00 pm
All the kitchen staff was standing around on the loading dock by the freezer.
A Merciless Benz backs up, guy in a suit gets out and starts removing cases of food items from the freezer and into the cars trunk.
Gets back in and takes off.

Mgmt was all upset. I pointed out that #1) it 100deg in the kitchen- the minimum wage staff is dead beat, doesn't speak english and doesn't want to confront a white man in a suit.

Thief was a restaurant consultant got hired and immediately began to destroy the clientele and all established business BUT he stopped the thefts. facepalm

Not surprising -- I never worked at Target but I worked at a chain bookstore (not Borders, if you're wondering) where people stole stuff constantly. You could stop people if they set the buzzer off and look through their bags but if they just kept on walking and ignored you there was nothing you could do. Basically all a thief had to do was ignore you and they were home free. Another problem with the security gates was that there were a lot of false alarms, for example, people wearing coats or other clothing where they'd never cut the security tags out.

RenownedCurator: Not surprising -- I never worked at Target but I worked at a chain bookstore (not Borders, if you're wondering) where people stole stuff constantly. You could stop people if they set the buzzer off and look through their bags but if they just kept on walking and ignored you there was nothing you could do. Basically all a thief had to do was ignore you and they were home free. Another problem with the security gates was that there were a lot of false alarms, for example, people wearing coats or other clothing where they'd never cut the security tags out.

Things they stole from other places, perhaps?

This guy i know ... use to buy a 30 pack of beer from wal-mart walk out go right back in and grab another case and walk out ... if they checked his receipt it shows that he bought the thirty pack ...

While I worked at Target, one of our neighboring stores had a group of guys come in, grab carts, go to the electronics section, grab the display TVs and walk right out.
Hilarious since it didn't happen to our store

bruce4bruce: This guy i know ... use to buy a 30 pack of beer from wal-mart walk out go right back in and grab another case and walk out ... if they checked his receipt it shows that he bought the thirty pack ...

That's clever as hell, but the receipt ain't how they get ya. It's the eye in the sky ya gotta watch out for. Tape showing first purchase and attempted theft... bam! Nailed. Tell your "buddy" not to use a credit card.

Works in just about any large store. As a matter of corporate-wide policy for most retail chains, nobody in the store is supposed to actually DO anything to stop a person, save call security or the police. Since a lot of stores may not have active LP at all times, and I'm sure the local PD will come RUSHING if they hear that there's some horrible criminal with the gall to steal a CANDY BAR from the store... just keep walking, they won't do anything to you save ban you from entering the store (maybe).

RenownedCurator: Another problem with the security gates was that there were a lot of false alarms, for example, people wearing coats or other clothing where they'd never cut the security tags out.

A few years ago I kept setting off those alarms in stores, (and getting waved through) and finally in one of them I got fed up and after some experimentation (hold my coat in the field, OK, it's something in the coat..) figured out that it was the tag on the storage packet for a pair of clip-on sunglasses that cost maybe $10..

Arctic Phoenix: RenownedCurator: Not surprising -- I never worked at Target but I worked at a chain bookstore (not Borders, if you're wondering) where people stole stuff constantly. You could stop people if they set the buzzer off and look through their bags but if they just kept on walking and ignored you there was nothing you could do. Basically all a thief had to do was ignore you and they were home free. Another problem with the security gates was that there were a lot of false alarms, for example, people wearing coats or other clothing where they'd never cut the security tags out.

Things they stole from other places, perhaps?



I have a purse that I totally paid for that seems to set off those security gates at some stores. For example, the alarm will sound at CVS but not Target. Go figure.

Used to happen at the store I used to work for all the time.

Not a big deal.

75 year old greeter once chased someone out and the guy threatened to stab her.

Usually what we would do is follow you out and write down your license plate.

Someone once stole a large TV and could not get it into his car. The box would not fit. So I just stood there and wrote down the plate. He had to take it out of the box to get it into his car and I wonder if he noticed me laughing at him. The police caught him a short time later.

geoduck42: A few years ago I kept setting off those alarms in stores...

I got sick of no one reacting whether it was a false alarm or not. So now I just keep walking. Don't even break stride. Don't let them check my bag or receipt on the way out either. Ain't got time for that.

Was in a store a while back when a hot chick walked out ahead of me and set off a false alarm. She turned around and had a panicked look on her face. Again without breaking stride, I leaned toward her as I walked by and quietly said 'run for it!'. She broke into a big smile and eventually walked out.

Back when I worked at Target (not loss prevention) the people in uniform guarding the door couldn't do anything to actually stop theft except scare kids into leaving the stuff behind. Their bosses could detain thieves, for a long time their bosses only worked the day shift.

I despise thieves normally. But Target shoplifters are known to donate 10% of their profits to worthy local causes that benefit our communities.

They're a slightly classier variety of crimal than what Wal Mart has to offer.

I was in a Target several years back minding my own business, shoplifting the old fashioned way, when a guy in a banana suit came running through yelling "Help! Help! He's going to eat me!" Shortly followed by a guy in a gorilla suit.
They ran the length of the whole store and the fat, stunned "security" guards were so comical in their pursuit, that they were near me at the front of the store running further into it as the guys ran out the door practically right behind them... one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
True gorilla theater bro.

used to work in home center--we locked the floor cleaners in one night, and when my manager let them out, the alarm kept going off--he finally "bumps" into one of the persons and felt something hard---turned out when we left, the lady takes her dress off and starts taping over a thousand dollars worth of merchandise to her---a router bit had a tag on the back---and thats how it went off.

was meeting with manager later that day and he is explaining all the details, and had a list of all items stolen----i asked him if he included the tape they took to wrap this stuff up---he pulls out the paperwork, and added all the tape they took.

Bathia_Mapes:

About two months later I was cleaning out my wallet, pulling out old receipts & the like & found a small magnetized card in an unused portion of the wallet. Apparently it was caused the alarm to trigger everytime I entered or left Target.

*snerk*

I laugh at your misfortune cause the exact same thing happened to me with 2 main differences.

1. The little hidden security card set off EVERY alarm, not just at one store. Groceries, hardware, the mall...I couldn't go into half the buildings in town.
2. This went on for almost 6 months. At first it was funny, then annoying, then downright infuriating. I never did make the connection until - like you - I was cleaning out my wallet and there it was.

/really should clean out my wallet more often
//but a wad of napkins levels things out just fine

calbert: maybe they were distracted:

I saw the preview for the movie when it first came out in 1991. In about 2007, I was about to go to bed when the movie came on cable and I, remembering the preview I had seen about sixteen years prior, watched the entire pile of shiat movie just to see that one scene.

I had a friend that every month, almost like clockwork, would go to Wal-Mart, pick up a receipt off the ground in the parking lot, walk in, grab everything on the receipt from the shelves, then take it to customer service and return it for cash. He explained to me that if you avoid big ticket items and stick to the groceries and things without unique S/N's they wouldn't be able to tell if it was already sold or not. And he rotated stores around the city (Memphis). Never got caught to my knowledge, claims to have made more than $100k doin it.

/csb

blazemongr: "Loss prevention" at Target, and most stores of that nature, is a complete misnomer. Their job is to record and monitor thefts, and then let the police do the actual prevention and apprehension. Despite the professional-looking uniforms and badges and, yes, even handguns they wear, they won't stop anybody from shoplifting anything. It's simply not in their job description.

One way of looking at that is that Target could give a shiat about the $0.53 all those CDs cost them wholesale, but they'd be really cheesed at having to settle with your estate's lawyers for seven figures when the teenage punks accidentally broke your neck trying to escape Target justice. Not very satisfying, but it makes sense from the corporate perspective.

I'm surprised the Target cops have guns. I'd bet anything they're not loaded, or that they're under orders never to use them in anything less than a terrorists-invade-Target-and-Jean-Claude-Van-Damme-who-is-shopping-for -a-Christmas-present-for-his-niece-is-pinned-down-in-sporting-goods-an d-needs-you-to-lay-down-covering-fire-so-he-can-get-to-the-air-rifles kind of situation.

Gyrfalcon: If your store security doesn't have authority to stop & detain--or if your company hasn't got the balls to exercise their perfectly legal "shopkeeper's privilege"--you may as well not even have security, and just accept stock shrinkage as part of your annual lost profit.

IT'S SHRINKAGE!

Like a frightened turtle!

johndalek: used to work in home center--we locked the floor cleaners in one night, and when my manager let them out, the alarm kept going off--he finally "bumps" into one of the persons and felt something hard---turned out when we left, the lady takes her dress off and starts taping over a thousand dollars worth of merchandise to her---a router bit had a tag on the back---and thats how it went off.

was meeting with manager later that day and he is explaining all the details, and had a list of all items stolen----i asked him if he included the tape they took to wrap this stuff up---he pulls out the paperwork, and added all the tape they took.


The retail store I worked for before I got a real job did a study on automated checkouts. The study showed that there was an increase in theft that became essentially unpreventable with automated checkouts. But ultimately the company was ok with that, because they would save more money than what was stolen by eliminating the cashiers positions.

/one day everything will be automated
//capitalism will collapse upon itself

I was in Walmart last week. It was 6 AM, so I was the only one in the store. I didn't see what happened, but all the workers were running around telling each other that a Large Flat Screen TV was stolen.How did he get it out? The guy dressed up as a repairman, walked in, loaded it up and walked out. No one stopped him because everyone thought someone else had authorized him, after all, he had a name tag.

So everybody just watched him steal it. Guy had brass balls.

hbk72777: I was in Walmart last week. It was 6 AM, so I was the only one in the store. I didn't see what happened, but all the workers were running around telling each other that a Large Flat Screen TV was stolen.How did he get it out? The guy dressed up as a repairman, walked in, loaded it up and walked out. No one stopped him because everyone thought someone else had authorized him, after all, he had a name tag.

So everybody just watched him steal it. Guy had brass balls.

No matter where I work, this is the trend. Don't sneak. Don't hide. Don't run. Dress the part, wear a nametag, and act like you have every damned right to do precisely what your doing and no one will be the wiser. I used to work at themeparks over the summer so off duty people would come in through the back gates to see their friends sometimes, or give them "unofficial tours" or what not. If you act like you know what your doing 99 times out of a 100 no one is going to say a single word to you.

Acquiring lots of money from Targets stores takes up an entire chapter in my book....

I knew a women (new window) who did the exact same thing and got away with it repeatedly. She would fill her cart with TVs, laptops, game consoles, other expensive shiat, and just ran out the door. Her big mistake was doing it at the same Walmart three times in three days .

Gah, this thread is making me depressed.

No incentive left in this country to be honest, is there?

Another reason they don't care so much about theft is that most of the real loss comes from employees. Why chase down someone dangerous when you can catch a bigger fish and you already have his home address on file?

dragonchild: Gah, this thread is making me depressed.

No incentive left in this country to be honest, is there?

When has there ever been?