Shoplifting stories?

[Secret Shopper]

I'd love to read some stories by forum members about catching shoplifters. Could you all share?

[boringscreenname]

Ok I've got one from when I worked at retail. I worked at Target as a cashier in 06over the holiday season. One of the cashiers was on break, and browsing in the DVD section. He noticed this guy had a large plastic tote inside the cart and the lid was at angle, between the cart and tote, and stuffed DVDs into the little space it created. It was actually pretty clever because you couldn't really see the DVDs due to them being blocked by the container and lid. The cashier informed our Team Leader, and from then on we made the customer pull out their container, and open it.

Second one didn't happen in retail, but I'll share anyway. My step dad's mom is a pretty sharp older woman, but she's a compulsive liar, and likes to manipulate people and is very two faced. She's obviously got mental issues, but she's not flat out crazy if you know what I mean. Anyway this woman is very well off, but for some reason is a total kleptomaniac.

She was banned from the local Hy-Vee, for stealing magazines. She'd grab several roll them up and put them in her purse. The management suspected it for awhile but couldn't do anything until one of their employees finally watched her do it, then later checked her out, and she didn't remove it from her purse.

She was also banned from the local Wal-Mart, for stealing underwear. It was winter time and she wears one of those really long coats, and just stuffed her coat full of underwear. They too had suspected her of shop lifting but were waiting to catch her in the act. So every time she came in she was monitored pretty closely (small Wal-Mart in a small town). Apparently an employee caught her stuffing her coat, and alerted management, who had the local Police Department in the parking lot in a matter of minutes.

As she was walking out of the store, she was trying to keep her coat closed tightly enough so she didn't lose the underwear, but failed and all the underwear fell out to the pavement right in front of the cops and she was arrested on the spot, and is banned from Wal-Mart. This was actually published in our local newspapers police report, and one of her kids read it and asked why on earth she felt the need to do that. She claimed it wasn't her, just someone who looked like her, even though her kid pointed out it was her name in the paper.

[princess4life]

13 year old doing loss prevention

Sorry this is long

I have been doing karate since I was about 8 years old. My mom ended up marrying my instructor after my parents got divorced. My step dad also owns a martial arts supply store, during competitions my mom and us kids would set up a table and sell some supplies that people sometimes forget or decide that they need. When I was about 13 I was hanging out at a competition in between my own divisions with my mom. This compitition was at a community collage with a pool that locals would go swimming in. While my mom was helping a group of people a couple boys come walking out of the swimming pool area. I notice them out of the corner of my eye but didn't say anything to them. Then one of the boys picks up a pair of nunchucks sitting on the table and runs out the door. With out even a second thought I yelled to my mom I would be right back and ran after the kid. When we got out to the parking lot the entire time I am yelling at him to stop and come back here.

When we got behind the building the boy stops and turns around, then he threatens to call the police because I was chasing him. I pointed out that he just stole the nunchuks and that if he wanted to call the cops feel free he would be the one in trouble not me. He tried to tell me that he paid the "other lady" when I pointed out I was watching him the entire time. He got mad and starting calling me names. Me being the crazy girl I was walked up to right in front of the kid told him to hand me the nunchucks and we will call it even. He swings the nunchuks and hits me in the knee. I stepped back and stuck my hand out again telling him this was his last warning he could return the nunchuks, pay for them or I could have the police called. He swings them again but this time misses. Right then I heard a males voice behind me asking what is going on here. Turns out when I ran out like I did my mom freaked out and sent one of the guys from my karate class out to find me. He saw the first time the kid hit me and didn't think he would really try it again. My classmate puts his hand on my shoulder and asks "what’s going on here?" before I could say anything the kid throws the nunchuks at my head and runs off.

I picked up the nunchuks and went to walk inside but found my knee didn't want to hold my weight. My classmate put his arm around me and walked me in while I explained what happened. I went straight into the bathroom so I could look at my knee and see the damage (lots a bruising and swelling but nothing broken) when I came out I expected to get yelled at by my mom and everyone for running after the kid like I did. My classmate had already told everyone what I had told him and what he saw everyone thought I was some kind of hero cause I was brave enough to do that on my own.

[LadyAndreca]

Working at the service desk, we're right in front of one set of doors and most of the time there's a LP guy standing nearby. The guy who looks least threatening, N, is actually the one you have to watch out for, he's trained in unarmed combat and has this quiet way of informing you that if you touch him, you'll have assault charges slapped on you as well as whatever you just did.

Incident 1, Dec 2006: I'm doing a return for two people, with a third friend standing by watching them. N comes up to the guy really quietly and says "turn around and put your hands behind your back". The guy starts acting like he doesn't know what's going on, so Nick repeats himself and adds on the assault speech. Because the guy started making a scene, people are starting to look. N steps foward and the guy starts screaming "I'll pay for it! I'll pay for it!"...N cuffed him anyway. I felt bad for the two friends, they came back to the desk later to ask what had happened to the third guy because they were his ride and they felt responsible for getting him home.

Incident 2, Black Friday 2006: I didn't see how this started, but I was on register and I look up to see two LP guys tackle a customer to the ground. He was fighting hard, too, but they had good teamwork and pinned him and cuffed him. He tried to run when they got him up, too, but N had kept his hand on the chain and he didn't get anywhere. The other LP guy picked up a half dozen DVDs that fell out of his coat. I needed the laugh that day...

[crazylegs]

Which of my 50 shoplifter arrests do you want to hear first?

Ok first up we have the simple genius.

Dude comes in looking to steal some bits and bobs, he goes to the Box sets (this was in a DVD/CD store) and begins to remove the cellophane (which had the security tags on) and stuffs it in his pockets. He would pick up each box set, remove the wrapping the replace it within the browser. He then got each box set from the shelf took it out of the main carboard wrapper and stuck it in the bag he pulled from his coat pocket.

Because he was going for about 8 box sets and a full set of Star Wars this took about 20 minutes so I had about 10 LP staff from other stores on standby as well as the Police CCTV on standby filming hte front of the shop.

Eventually he exited the store to be dragged back in by the LP wherein he announced he Knew Sgt Bob Cryer (kudos to those who spot this one) and that the Sgt will sort it all out.

At this point he becomes violent (struggling) and we bring him to the floor. Police take about 5 mins to arrive. The 1st PC tries to cuff him at which point he goes batshit and I swear she was about half a second before spraying him before we regained control.

When he was eventually searched he still had the fully functional security tags in his pockets so although removed from the product it still activated the pedastals.

Next is the young pretender

This chap about 15y/o tried to steal a CD, after a short foot chase I dragged him bodily back into the store where he admits it boo hoo I'll never do it again. Anyhow Police arrive and search him and they find a razor blade (old fashioned type) and he gets nicked for possesion of an offensive weapon as well as for theft.

My personal favourite was just after I had detained one lot of shoplifters I had the Police in my office taking a statement where we see a couple walk in and start to remove tags. The PC calls up on her radio, I call up on mine (all the LP in the town was linked by this radio) so we had about 25 people outside the store for the stop. When the couple exit this horde of LP and Police descend, the couple sensibly decide not to run.

I'm sure I'll remember some more detail about the kid who gave me a chinese burn whilst trying to help his friend who I'd nicked (and was dragging back into the store); and perhaps the one who offered me £80 to let him go may work out one day that bribery is wrong.

Stay Safe

ps the chinese burn kid was arrested and cautioned for assault, result!

[Secret Shopper]

Is LP short for a store security officer? Or is it a regular police officer?

Thanks for the stories, btw...

[crazylegs]

Is LP short for a store security officer? Or is it a regular police officer?

LP is Loss Prevention, that is Store Detectives and Security Officers

[going gaga]

Little hands, little pockets

I’m not sure if this fits because it’s more a story of inattentive parenting in both these instances nothing was done.

We have a little jewellery section; it’s in a blind spot, so unless you’re in that section you can’t see what is going on.
I’m walking around the mat serving customers on a busy Saturday, when I spot out the corner of my eye a flash of hair from behind the stand bobbing back and forth.

My first thought is little lost kid has become interested in shiny things,
the second one equates the fact all the stuff is well in reach of little hands.
(nothing to do with my preferences, this is how we are told to put the stock)
Specifically little hands that still don’t know the difference between mummy taking stuff from the shops (and paying for them) and them taking stuff.

So I wonder round to see what I thought would be a lone kid, it’s not.
Mummy is far to busy chatting to pay attention to her little darling.
I was right on the second mark, the kid was just a toddler, and fascinated by the pretty shiny things, and wanted to take them home with him.
So I bob down to the kids level smile and stare.
The mother hasn’t noticed my presence, but the kid has.
He becomes fixated on me and my unblinking stare.
A bit unsure of how to handle the situation (I can’t call security on a two year old that doesn’t understand what he is doing), I decided to get the mother involved.
In a voice loud enough to be heard across the mat I say
“You looking at all the shiny things?”(little nod from little person)
The mother finally notices there is a member of staff, and her little boy has some of our stuff in his hands
“So are you going to put them back now? Or is Mummy buying you them?”
The result was a very embarrassed mother putting the stuff back, while interested people looked on tutting.

(Same kind of thing from a few years back)

This time it’s a Sunday one of our quietest days, there are a few people about .I notice a customer lurking, her body language was odd. I’m not sure what she’s about, I wondered if she was waiting for me to be distracted.
Turned out she wanted the opposite she wanted no one else about and my attention. The conversation started with profuse apologies and I’m very confused as this doesn’t normally happen and I can’t figure out what she babbling about.
Eventually she calms down and produces from her pocket a small toy, it’s a generic brand something you could get anywhere.
Turns out it’s one of our display toys, the previous week her son had had soo much fun playing with it he decided to take it home with him.
(at this point I felt a smile tugging at my lips and am trying not to laugh as this was a frequent occurrence, but the first time the stuff ever came back)

So she gets home and finds later he has a new toy , she can’t place where she has seen it before and wonders where the hell he got it.
Then his Grandma (who she thought had given him it) points out in surprise “Oh you got him it ,oh he loves that .He always plays with it in XXXXX”

Which results in her ashamedly returning it to our store, assuming that we had noticed it was gone. (after a tantrum or two I’ll bet)

Here’s the funny part, we hadn’t.
She could have kept it, we didn’t care that it was gone. All of the display toys we’re considered lost stock the second they were taken out the wrapper, for this exact reason.
Though I applaud her honestly and guts, for walking up to a member of staff and returning the stock.

[Forensic Waitress]

To be honest I have been a bit of a thief. My first incident happened at the first pub I worked at in the UK after moving there from Australia for a year, I had quit my job there because it was an hours train ride out of London and I wanted to live in London, well just before I left the boss really pissed me off so I took a couple of the beer glasses with the names marked on them. Other incidents happened while I was usually well intoxicated and would wake up to find that I had added to my collection the previous night. I have no justification for having taken them and I did steal them but beer always tastes better when you drink it out of a beer glass with its name emblazoned on it. /

[Depot Denizen]

Loss Prevention is the usual term.

[crazylegs]

Loss Prevention is the usual term.

My old job was LPO
Loss
Prevention
Officer

So I'm rather used to the abbreviation, sorry.

[TruthHurts]

I was working at an arcade back in '98 and had a problem with one of the kids who hung out there. He believed that since I was the only female worker there that I had no authority over him. He constantly made an effort to push my buttons and management wouldn't ban him.

One day he thought it would be a lark to grab a soda from the cooler and walk out the door without paying. I told him to get back here at once and he flipped me off and kept walking.

I immediately picked up the phone and called the police. When he realized what I had done he came running back nearly crying saying that is was just a joke.

He got lectured by the police, grounded by his mother, and banned for life (finally) from the arcade. After that the other kids who hung out there treated me with a lot more respect.

[Whyme]

We get shoplifters all the time but these are the ones I always remember.

One night a drunk man decided to hit a member of our staff who was outside on break. Cops were called, old man was yelling at our innocent (and thankfully uninjured) staff, yelling at us, etc, etc, until cops showed up. CSM and myself are standing right outside the front doors of the store with some of the cops telling them what happened. Two men walk right by us. One has a 2 24 cases of beer, the other is carrying a bunch of steaks. It wouldn't have been so odd had the steaks been in bags and not falling out of the guy's arms.

CSM and I look at each other then say "Hey! Guys! Stop!". Guys keep going, then going faster. CSM says to confused cops "Those guys are stealing! then one of the cops says "FREEZE!" (just like the movies!) and the guys stop. Apparently they've heard that word before. We go up to them and ask for a receipt. They both claim the other one has it, then they each say "You don't have it?" to each other, then they say the cashier has it. We ask "Why didn't the cashier bag your steaks?". Guy "Um.."s for a few seconds then says he didn't want a bag. Finally one of them says "Okay, you got me. We were stealing.". Kudos for the honesty. They were actually pretty funny guys and took being arrested a lot better than the drunk guy was taking it.

Story #2: I was washing my hands in the bathroom and saw a lady at the diaper thingamajing out of the corner of my eye. Upon closer inspection, I realize her baby is a head of lettuce and some bananas. She was stuffing her "baby" into her backpack. Okay, maybe she bought the stuff and decided to pack in the bathroom for some reason. Well, we can check the cameras, right? I realize there are no cameras in the bathroom so I get a manager. Manager says he can't check tapes going into the bathrooms or registers, or produce because he doesn't know how to work them. We also couldn't stop her and ask for a receipt because the LP wasn't there. I check with the other cashiers and no one remembers the lady. I'm still sure she shoplifted the stuff.

Story #3: This lady obviously has some issues. I always see her talking to trees, fences, doors, walls, etc. She also likes to sway to and fro in front of some of our displays. She has actually been banned from the store but keeps coming back in. She will take an item and just walk out. When you go after her she will either curse you up and down or say she paid for it, then when unable to provide a receipt, will saunter back in to a register and pay for the item.

Story #4: Is more about our current LP then the thieves. He has decided most of the stealing takes place at self check. So he gets a magazine, stands at self check and reads his entire shift. Meanwhile, we've had to interrupt his reading to let him know there are customers walking out the front door with entire carts of groceries (happens once or twice a week). When someone is trying to steal at self check we have to poke him to pay attention. We have also had employees tell him when someone is stealing in the alcohol aisle. His response is "I'll check the tapes later". Later? When the person is gone? Why he hasn't been fired yet is beyond me. He doesn't understand why I don't like him.

[d962831]

The Hy-Vee I work at had been open for about three months. I'm walking from the lot into the store to start my shift when I notice that about three assitant managers and the two head honchos of the store are all outside moving toward a car. One of the AM's runs in front of the car to stop it and a guy get's out holding a dinner chicken. The two head honchos begin to escort him inside and I get stuck behind them. They have to push him and drag him back into the store because he keeps trying to get away, meanwhile I'm behind them keeping a safe distance and hear the guy saying things like, "I was gonna pay! She just started driving off!" and the ever so popular, "This is bull----! You all are racists! This be discrimination!" I kinda of laugh and then when I get a chance go around them, clock in and head to my register. About two hours later I was told to go clean the break room and as I walk by the offices I see the guy sitting in one on a chair, with the two head honchos and two cops surrounding him while the cops talk to him. I kinda felt sorry for the guy because he seemed really sorry about it, but I decided not to stare and went to clean to break room. When I walked by again the cops were handcuffing him and he was muttering some more obscenities. The chicken was sitting on a table in the same room after two hours, it was cold and couldn't be sold and the guy refused to look at it. I laughed a bit and went back to my register.

This one's more of an employee stealing but oh well. I wasn't present and so don't know all the facts but apparently one woman who worked at the paystation( for those that don't know it's a register next to the kitchen and other food venues where you can pay for your food quickly) well this woman apparently for some time had been giving family and friends free meals. She was suspected but no one had proof, that is until my brother was stcuk covering someone else who was supposed to be there. So it was my brother and this woman and a bunch of her family and friends come in all cheery and one of my awesome managers, S, called my brother over and told him to notify S if they didn't pay. Now I don't want people to think I'm discriminating but these people and the woman are LARGE, so they eat alot. They ate nearly four hundred dollars worth of food in a span of around three hours. They then walked up to the register, the woman took their receipts and threw them away without ringing them up and sent them on their merry way. Brother told S, S flipped. Making a big scene S stormed up to the woman and began yelling at her, told her all that money along with some other amount for everyone else she had let not pay would be coming out of her pay check. She was then fired. Now I know S, he's really laid back and cool. I find it hard to see him mad. It takes alot to annoy him, I would've loved to see him angry like my brother described, just because I can't imagine it.

[ShadedWings]

I have a few stories I remember off the top of my head... not sure if I have time to type them all up, but I'll try.

When I worked as a cashier/front end supervisor for a grocery store, there were a few times where the undercover security caught a female shoplifter, and I was the only girl off register that could be spared to accompany the thief and the security guy back to the office. Granted, usually a Manager accompanies, but that store had very few female managers, but required another female to accompany to ensure no abuse was done on the officer's part toward the female thief.

First thief was a younger girl, about 16 or 17, stealing makeup and hair accessories. The security guy told her to take the items out of her purse, and she took a few things out. He asked her if that's all, and she said "yeah". Then the security officer looked at me and told me to inspect her purse to double check. Boy, what a liar she was. She had sooo much stuff still in there that was obviously fresh off the rack. Hair dye, a brush, scrunchies, tons of makeup, all adding up to about $120. Her older sister was there, old enough to be given release custody of the girl, but the officer spent about 40 minutes trying to hammer into both their thick skulls that they WILL be notifying their parents in any case, and they WILL pay the fine.

- The way that store worked, is first offense, the "real" police (no offense intended to any LPOs, just the only way I can think to differentiate with my tired brain) were not involved, just a ban from the store and the offender had to pay the price of the items plus a fine (roughly $150-200 if I remember right). In addition, the thieves don't get to keep the items they are paying the worth for. It's basically their punishment for attempt of theft, but some people don't get WHY they can't keep the things if they are "paying" for them.

The second one was kind of embarrassing... for me, the officer AND the thief.

The thief was an older lady, probably between 50 and 60. Her theft? A $2 bag of melting chocolate, the type you melt to use in fondue or in baking. Unfortunately for her, she still had to pay the fine on top of it. So not worth it. She had gone through the self checkout, a few items bought, then on the way out the door, saw she forgot the chocolate, and didn't want to go back in line and "wait so long", because she had a doctor's appointment, supposedly. Not only was her theft a bit embarrassing, but her behavior was more so for all three of us. The whole time, she begged, pleaded and whined to just pay for it, she has to get to the doctor, she promises she'll never do it again, she just wanted to not be late, it was only $2. While the officer kept just shaking his head at her and being stoic, she kept turning to me and pleading with me to "do something, can't you just heeeelp me??". My face must have been so red, I could feel it, because there was literally nothing I could do. I was just there to ensure fair play on the officer's part and remove possibility of accusation of abuse/threat toward the thief. That, and she was literally begging and pleading so hard, I would have been embarrassed to do that. When it came time for me to poke around her purse... I think she gave up at that point. She did get a little pissed off by the look of it, but boo hoo she shouldn't have tried to steal it.

One thing that kept making me twitch, was her ankle. Supposedly that was what she was going to the doctor for.. and I believe her. She had a thick sock wrapped around it, and I feel bad for her being injured/afflicted with something potentially nasty.. but.. *shudder* I could see it PULSING through the sock. I dunno if it was a vein thing, or inflammation, but it just reminded me of some sort of alien egg sac pulsing.

Bleh, sorry that might have been a bit insensitive, but I was trying not to look her in the face, because she was embarrassing herself and all of us, and it kept grabbing my attention and urgh.

To wrap up my ramble... hmm, I know I said at some point in an older post of mine don't expect any of my posts to resemble something short *laughs*...

The other three short ones I remember off the top of my head... one I was told about, a guy tried to shove a couple hundred dollars worth of raw steaks down his pants. So many bad comments to say about that!

Second, I don't know what that guy tried to steal, but I saw him literally TACKLED by the burliest manager we had at the time, and the security officer. He was fighting like all hell and yelling, and the burly manager had to stand like a bouncer on the outside of the door while two other managers accompanied the officer inside the manager's office and they guy was handcuffed to the chair.

Last, a guy tried to steal a box of fried chicken. The store has a hot foods section.. the guy had a box of cookies, a box of chicken, a newspaper and something else. One minute I see him standing by the customer service desk, talking to the girl behind the counter, and half trying to gesture to the manager nearby to get her to look away/be distracted, the next, the manager (a woman, who is QUITE the tough sort... all by-the-book, no-nonsense type that many employees hated because of her strictness, but she was a decent person to know when she wasn't being work-minded) had half-tackled, half-pinned him to the counter, and the chicken and cookies went flying everywhere. I'm not even sure if that's all he tried to steal, but it was quite a display to see chicken fly after being fried.

Anyway.. ramble, ramble. Hope you all enjoy the stories!