T@rget 🎯 tips y'all! Straight from T@rget LP! Pay attention! 👀👀👀📝📝
So y'all want some tips for the store with the red bulls//eye🎯? We’ll have I got some tips for you, straight from the horse’s (AP) mouth. Now remember this guide may not be true for every single target but from all the one’s I’ve worked at as AP (6 so far) I can say with certainty that most follow the same layout/ pattern when it comes to camera placement. Note: I want to apologize if this “guide” is super lengthy and all over the place. I’m literally typing everything down as I remember so it is a bit jumbled and mixed up
🎯 So for cameras, again its important to note this may not ring true for all stores but has been from my viewpoint. Electronics is always fully covered! Health and beauty is hot or miss with full coverage but NYX, NO.7, Soap and Glory, L'Oréal, PIXI, the eyelash display, nail care (not nail polish but like the nail tools and tweezers) and expensive shampoo, men’s razors have always been covered. Home/ bedding usually never had any cameras there except for in vacuums which will always be covered since they’re the biggest booster pushout item. In toys the only camera is usually pointed to the lego aisle and that’s it. Clothing will have cameras scattered throughout mainly focusing on teenage clothing, activewear, and swimsuits. There’s never any cameras in market and school/office supplies since AP doesn’t really care about that stuff since most of it isn’t super high value. However this is only true of the still cameras. The store will always have between 4-7 PTZs that can move around and go into places without still cameras like market or bedding. However the cameras are only moved when an actual person is in the office to move them. Otherwise they’re usually focused on the area with the most high theft. Example the electronics PTZ will most likely be facing like the console aisle that holds the games and controllers.
🎯 Now let’s go into the type of AP the stores have. There are 4 levels of AP here:
1) There’s the TPS who is uniformed and stands at the door to act as a deterrent for the majority of their shift. TPS cannot perform apprehensions by themselves. If the TPS is in the store by themselves and they notice someone is stealing they will attempt to burn them into dropping the merch since they cannot stop them. TPS can only receipt check merchandise that isn’t in a store bag. If it’s all in plastic bags- no receipt check. All in reusable bags?- no receipt check.
2) The next level is APS, who is your undercover position. Their role is to fiddle around on camera, watching any suspicious people and to go out on the floor in plainclothes and follow people around. APS can perform solo apprehensions as well as calling TPS to aid them in apprehensions.
3) Next level is APTL which is basically the same as APS but has more responsibilities and is held more accountable for how the team performs.
4)Final level is ETLAP, the big guns. They’re in charge of the entirety of the store, ensuring everything is safe and the merch is protected. They focus on both internal and external equally. Note: not every store has one of each position. Some stores might not have a TPS or APS and only have an ETLAP. Other stores might have 3 TPS and 2 APS etc etc.
🎯Now onto apprehensions. Obviously we need all 5 steps in order to perform an apprehension. We can’t do fitting room stops so if you go into the fitting room and leave we can’t stop you. However, if you have visible merchandise on your person we can stop you. Example:/ you conceal headphones into your jacket pocket. You go into the fitting room. We can’t stop you. However, you exit the fitting room and a portion of the headphones box is visible we can stop you. When doing apprehensions usually the person performing the stop will go outside and wait for you to exit. Once you go through the doors, aka pass all points of sale, AP will step in front of you and ask you to follow them. We are allowed to go hands on and if you fight the cops will definitely be called. If you come in and see TPS at the door and as you leave they’re missing they might just be outside ready to apprehend. If you have someone waiting in the car they should be able to see whether someone is waiting outside or not. If you already know you’re about to get caught, I’d run out of the fire exit. We can’t make fire exit stops so just run the fuck out and don’t stop until you’re blocks away.
🎯Now back to cameras and methods: Clothing is tricky. There are of course cameras there, however it’s almost impossible to find clothing once it’s stolen since they’re all over the place. The only way we know clothing has been stolen is A) We watched them steal it with our own eyes, or B) They left the fucking tags. This chain isn’t supposed to use removable tags on clothing since it makes it unappealing so the RFID will be inside the price tag. DO NOT FREAKING LEAVE TAGS. Bring an exacto knife or nail scissors in your handbag and cut the shit in half and take it with you!!! Fitting rooms are hit or miss. Some places are extremely strict and keep the rooms locked and will count the items before you go in. Others don’t have anyone over there and all the doors are unlocked. Scope yours out to see how secure the fitting room is over there. If there is an associate there, they are supposed to stop you from bringing any non clothing items into the fitting room.
🎯Moving on… So there’s cameras over NYX, but you still want it? Well if your store uses those push dispensers you are in luck. Basically the push dispensers will push another product back out after you select one. This shit is so hard to review on camera. Also the smaller it is ex/ eyeliners and lipstick the harder it is to spot on camera. If you want something bigger, say a PIXI face mist and they don’t use push dispensers? Take it from the back of the display. We track known thefts by camera movement. If the front product doesn’t move it’s nearly impossible to find. That being said, remember the cameras are above not below or to the side. NEVER TAKE AN ITEM FROM THE TOP SHELF. We can see exactly how many of each box there are signs the camera is pointing down towards it. The best place is the bottom shelves since the top shelves cover most of the products aside from the front ones.
🎯Now continuing, if you’ve shopped here before you might have noticed the yellow security tabs on some makeup such as eyelashes and razors. These will make the doors go off. If the doors go off and you have only bagged items they are allowed to check regardless. Now you don’t want to leave packaging behind right? Just rip that sucker off and leave it somewhere not in beauty or electronics (bedding or behind paper towels is ideal). We can’t identify what was stolen with only the yellow tab so you should be all clear as long as you were being cautious. Another thing: the sleeve or take two put back one method is so god damn fucking hard to catch on camera so utilize that as best as you can in cosmetics.
🎯Personally, I would say utilizing self checkout is one of the absolute worst methods. Never ever ever use anything other than cash if you opt to choose this method since we can run cards district wide to catch activities in other stores as well as previous activities in that store. Self checkout is also always overseen by an attendant who is trained to spot theft through either ringing everything up and leaving without paying, passing merchandise over the scanners without actually scanning it, and sticker swap where you use a different barcode for an item. I would say you’re 10x more likely to get caught using a self checkout method. Now we probably won’t catch you the first few times but we will continuously build cases. Sticker swapping is hard to get all 5 steps on so we normally let it run until we can get all five steps. Just don’t do SCO it’s way too easy to track. There are people not on the scene whose job it is to track sticker swapping and send us reports to help us find these cases. If you’re going to sticker swap, do it with similar items. Want a pair of $50 headphones? Swap it with a $10 headphones. Never swap with target brands like heyday though. We will know those aren’t heyday headphones. The camera that you see isn’t accessible to us in the office. The cameras are gonna be above you on the ceiling, looking down so we can see every item you scan and check if it matches up or not. If you bag and go, the light at the top of the self checkout turns red. Once the attendant realizes someone didn’t pay since only they can remove the transaction before some else can use it, they will inform AP and we can see exactly who scanned it.If you were lucky enough to not have been spotted by AP during your visit but are found out later, our best face shot is usually gonna be the exit shot which isn’t the greatest quality at times.
🎯We normally base repeats on certain features like hey does this look like the guy that pushed out toys last week? Nah the hairline is different. Go crazy with the disguises. Wear a wig, cover up existing tattoos or apply temporary realistic fake ones. Contour your nose, wear glasses or take them off. Change you body shape through different trips by wearing tighter/looser clothing. Make sure each time you visit you look like a completely different person and we usually won’t piece all the thefts together. The way you dress is very important. If you dress shabby/ look homeless we’ll watch you. A group of young people? We’ll automatically watch you. For stores near colleges ex/ Mississippi state if you wear a college shirt well usually watch you for a bit cause young people are easier to catch and more likely to steal. Dress maturely and like you have money. But don’t overdress cause you’ll still stand out. Dyed hair stands out to us and lots of tattoos or piercings. Guys with hats and sunglasses and backpacks automatic watch. Your purse is very important! No totes EVER. Always use a structured purse if you’re going to conceal and make sure it’s normal sized.
🎯Now for pushouts. Pushouts are very iffy, it all depends on luck and your store layout. You can get away with a lot more using the pushout method, and they usually won’t notice until right when you leave so don’t come back after a long while when pushing out and wear a disguise!!! We catch repeat pushout subjects super fucking easily so don’t do it often.
🎯Now let’s talk about after the theft. We do write reports about thefts that we find happened due to stuff like empty packages, noticing items are missing from the counts, customers or associates giving us pointers. If we find an empty package but there’s no camera in the area we don’t write a report since we don’t know who stole it. If someone pushed out a cart of groceries but it was all in reusable bags that you can’t see inside of we literally cannot write a report since we have no idea what you took since there’s no cameras. Even if we have one selection out of the entire cart full of stuff we will write a report. Police reports are written for known theft of between $26-$75+. Each district has a different minimum when it comes to police reports. Police also usually don’t take shoplifting reports to seriously if it’s after the fact. If you’re driving, please park far away. Like in a different shopping strip far away. If we get a plate you are screwed since it makes it so much easier for us to identify who you are.
🎯So electronics. Not the wisest move, but if you must make sure you bring the items forward on the peg after you take one and do not fucking take something from the top. If it’s in a boxleeo protector you need an s3 key to open it but leaving the box behind is pretty damn evident. Note: if you use tools (s3 key or magnet) or any kind of weapon is seen on you (razor, scissors, gun etc) the cops will be called immediately so be cautious when using tools. If you’re a minor and you get caught we have to call your parents no matter what and they have to come. If they don’t we go to the police since we can’t release you due to liability issues.
🎯Let’s talk about behaviors now. Don’t be an idiot. We obviously don’t catch everyone. I’d say we only catch about less than 2% of theft that occurs. As long as you’re being cautious and keep up a good appearance you should be fine. Don’t cart build, putting lots of high dollar merch in the cart is an instant red flag. Don’t look down every aisle or look up at every person that walks by. Innocent shoppers shop mindlessly, they don’t pay attention to every person that walks by. Its also weird to go to different areas of the store sometimes. Most people getting groceries aren’t gonna stop by for electronics so don’t bring unnecessary attention to yourself. If you look nervous, are sweating and it’s not hot, have red cheeks it might raise some flags, especially after we have someone service you. We do have rfid target stickers that we stick on high theft merch. The stickers will always be visible. Again, cut through it or simply peel it off. They will make the doors go off. If you’re unsure if anything has manufacturer rfids inside ex/ plan b, buy something cheap like $10 wireless headphones and when we check you at the door we’ll just dismiss it. If you walk out and you beep but you didn’t buy anything we won’t even acknowledge you at the time, but we will go back and review to see what you did. Try your best not to beep as you go out. If someone beeps and they don’t turn around we usually research to see what they did. Sometimes when people beep and they turn around I won’t even check them because the innocent thing to do is turn around and be like ??? Why am I beeping? Do you need to check me?
🎯Hidden cams: Bulls/eye does utilize hidden cameras. If you notice an aisle has no visible camera but something is out of place in the ceiling it’s probably a hidden camera. They can see through the tiniest hole. A weirdly placed vent or miscolored ceiling tile is usually a dead giveaway there’s a hidden camera. Not all stores use hidden cameras though since most only get like 2 and they usually use it to spy on employees in the back for internal theft.
🎯DO NOT hit the same thing repeatedly! Fixed cameras can be moved if we think they’d be useful covering something else! If we notice an insane amount of like nail polish theft we can move say the NYX camera over to cover the nail polish.
That’s it. If anyone has any tips not mentioned feel free to add! Also if you tag this or reblog this outside the community I will find you and kill you 🔫😉.
HAPPY LIFTING!
