Shoplifting Tips from a Loss Prevention Officer
Wearing out articles of clothing.
Opening packages and putting the item in your bag/pockets/whatever. Seriously, don’t take things out of packages. If there are security tags on the packaging, take them off, but for the love of god stop taking things out of packages and leaving behind the empty boxes. It’s really obvious.
Carrying whatever it is you’re going to steal around the store for ages looking for a nice empty aisle to conceal it in. Walking around with a bunch of video games in the bath towels makes what you’re about to do fairly obvious.
If you were in my store, and you draped your jacket over the stuff in your cart, I’d definitely watch you. People do that kind of stuff to hide what their hands are doing (opening packages, tearing off security sensors, etc).
Make you you actually look like you’re shopping. If you aren’t looking at the prices of items and you’re just grabbing whatever it is you want off the shelf, it looks like a red flag.
Concealing the stuff that you want to steal while you’re in line waiting to pay for something else. If we’re following you, and you get in line to pay for all of your stuff, we’re probably going to stop watching you at that point.
Don’t take things out of packages! it takes too much time, it makes noise, you leave the the empty package behind and if we see you set down an empty package, even if we didn’t see you stuff the item in your bag/pockets, we’ll probably apprehend you.
If you’re going to conceal the merchandise on your person somehow, don’t leave the store right away after you do this. Chill out, browse, use the bathroom (a lot of retail stores have policies like this– once you go into the bathroom, it’s over, we’ve technically lost sight of you). If we lose you for a while, it’s very dangerous to make the apprehension– stores face a huge liability if loss prevention apprehends someone and they decided not to steal the item and left it in the store somewhere.
Steal during busy hours of the day, when there are lots of people shopping.
Also, if you’re youngish (under 22 or so) and with a group of similarly aged friends, don’t even try. The second a group of teenagers walks in, we’re probably watching them.
If you’re going to hide the merchandise on your person somehow, DO IT WHILE YOU’RE WALKING. Don’t stop, look around, and then stuff it. I cannot stress this one enough. It is much harder to see what you’re doing if you’re walking around from aisle to aisle, especially if loss prevention is following you around on foot instead of with CCTV.
I’d recommend not concealing merchandise in the bathrooms, but definitely using them after concealing merchandise, because it’s a break in surveillance. I’d recommend concealing a couple things that you don’t really want in addition to what you DO want (on the sales floor, not in the bathrooms), and then leaving the items you don’t want in the bathrooms, because they will check the stalls. Confusion is key!
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