60 minutes a few years ago had a feature where they showed a gang of El Salvadorenos infiltrate a clothing store. First an english speaker started asking questions to the employee, and somehow the gang of at least 4 others robbe dthe store blindly of enough clothes that they needed a van to get away with it.
So how do they so successfully pull the blinders over the employees of these stores? I can see being distracted for a moment, but totally unawares? Many cases, the staff doesn’t realize anything is wrong until too late. Are these employees incredibly stupid or do the thieves have some kind of magical powers?
It could actually have been quite easy. In K-Mart, for instance where I worked, we had a side door leading to the garden shop. It was remakrably easy to slip unnoticed out of there. We also had people who’d get a baby stroller box, fill it with VHS tapes (this was just before DVD’s came out), and make off after taking through the register.
Sadly, theft is not that hard. Most stores can’t afford really strong anti-theft protections (which can amount to much, much more than stolen merchandise) and if the store is understaffed or simply large, there may be no way to see what’s going on. A Sunday night at K-Mart was usually too late for even the thieves, but early morning was a popular theft time (as we didn’t fully staff till later in the day).
Losing situational awareness when talking is pretty common, isn’t it? I have read of groups of teenagers being run over by a train (something they’d have heard approaching for a minute at least if they had paid attention) when walking along tracks and chatting.
I have sometimes waited for minutes in front of a pair of shop assistants before they noticed me.
Once every employee present is engaged in conversation by one or two of the gang, it should be pretty easy to make off with a lot of stuff (assuming no electronic theft alarms).
Good points, but to clarify, the sixty minutes segment showed an attack on a clothing-only store, not a department store (or the wasteland that was KMart with few employees in a large area). Even considering distraction, it was hard to believe that the employees missed half of their inventory going out the door.
These organized shoplifters are literally a gang that specializes in these things. Apparently it’s called “Boosting”
Ah now I see one of the reasons: The thieves have a way to nullify the alarm tags on the clothing, so the employees falsely assume that the clothes are safer than they really are.
When I worked at Suncoast (a teeny-tiny store), once when there was only one worker in the store a pair of guys came in, one of them had a question for the employee towards the back of the store and the other one dumped maybe 50 new release DVDs into a bag and ran. Of course, we had instructions not to give chase anyway, but it’s not like you can just ignore a customer who wants to ask you something - and poof, there you go.
I had a first-hand demonstration of this on Saturday.
My wife and I stopped by a 7-11 on the way home so I could pick up a bag of munchies. As I stood at the register, two young guys came up and stood behind me in line.
I patiently waited as the clerk reached for my change.
Suddenly the front door burst open and a very unbalanced looking dude smashed through, shouting at the other two guys in a high whiny voice, babbling incoherently. He was waving a big piece of white cardboard that had a sketch of man-junk on it with the words “You are Gay” written below it.
One of the first two guys started shouting back at him, “Get back in the car, you a-hole!” and “You’re such a retard…”
The clerk paused to reach for the phone as I thanked him and walked out.
All three guys ran out full-tilt to their car and left.
It wasn’t until I was talking with my wife that I realized that they probably had stolen loads of stuff as the obnoxious guy was going on. It was very weird, and I was so distracted by listening to what he was saying and reading the sign that I didn’t notice anything else that was going on in the store.
Such is the power of distraction.
Of course, maybe he truly was an unbalanced dude and that’s all there was to it.
I’ve heard that this is standard practice for many retailers, and I’m sure that shoplifters know this as well and take advantage of it.
I’ve also heard that a lot of stores forbid anyone but a manager to call police or approach a customer who appears to be stealing. So if one times it properly, it doesn’t matter if a staff member notices the theft.
Bingo. I work private security at a retail center, and this is the number one reason shoplifters can continue their craft. In some cases I personally can watch someone loading up a baby stroller with merchandise and leave a store and not be able to do a damn thing about it. If a store has a “no prosecute” policy, the employees aren’t allowed to call me or they will get fired. If they don’t call me, by my company’s policy I cannot intervene.
It is all about legal liability. Many retail stores’ corporate offices do not trust their employees further than they can spit. They would rather lose some merchandise than get sued once for a low-level employee going all commando and trying to stop a shoplifter only to have the stop go sour. People are sue happy, and retail stores don’t find it worth their time.
Yes, this frustrates the employees as much as you would imagine. Would you like it if your boss blamed you for all missing merchandise, but would fire you if you tried to stop someone from stealing it? It’s a bullshit system, but it’s the one we have.
For instance, usually at closing employees are in a rush to get out. They don’t care as much. They just want the customers out of the store.
Distraction is common. A typical act is to have someone OBVIOUSLY steal something, but not leave the store. Then the employee is busy watching, waiting for them to cross the check out so they can catch them.
However the person that took the item has managed to leave it in the store, so when they cross the check out there’s no alarm or if they are stopped. There is nothing on them.
I’ve worked with cash and in retail, and you’d be surprised how if your not on your toes, it’s easy to get taken in. Especially if you’re distracted.
I used to work in a mall with one anchor store in the center, a Capwell’s department store. They hired their own security rather than use mall security, and the two sets of employees had a mutual non-intervention policy as well as some personal dislike. Shoplifters regularly ran the short distance from the Woolworth’s to Capwell’s and essentially claimed asylum. Stupid.
I check out a customer service forum every once in a while to read the stories and they are very consistant about not having any authority to accuse or chase a shoplifter outside. They can say “Are you going to pay for that sweater” or whatever…but most say that if the shoplifter responds with “what sweater?” they end up walking out with it.
Heh, all of my security experience was amusement park, one of our owners was a retired police officer, and very much encouraged us to detain folks where it looked prudent under the circumstances. Made for a far more emotionally rewarding form of employment. If Retail worked like our park, shoplifting would die a fast, messy, merciless, death in a few months.
Yes, stores will forbid their employees from doing anything to a shoplifter.
B) Even if they didn’t, I’m sure as shit not risking a punch in the mouth by going after someone. I made $9/hour at the grocery store working for a jerk of a manager. Let him go get punched if he wants to.
If you can’t even chase the shoplifter when you see it yourself, I’m confused, trying to figure out what they pay you to do. I have only two guesses: (1) You’re there strictly as a deterrent, in the hopes that your presence may scare away some would-be shoplifters. (2) Maybe it is the mall that pays you, and you can intervene in thefts from some of the mall’s stores but not from others?
Had a loss prevention (security) department head approach two shoplifters in the parking lot. He ended in the hospital for a month. Also it is not theft until they leave the store with the stuff.
Two white males (description of clothing/and persons) left store carrying a 42" plasma TV, they loaded it into a pickup (description of vehicle and plate #) and left travelling East on X Ave
Amazingly enough, many places dont have an extra body to send out to even try to get basic info like that.