Do you have, like, a comprehensive guide or just tips for a clueless first-time l!fter? (I'm a teenager still living with my parents & white, btw.) I mostly want to l!ft makeup & skincare from sëphørá, últä, çvs & wãlgrëêñs, but maybe also snacks & clothes, and I specifically want to learn about detagging (?) cosmetics, concealment methods, and how to get out of the store unnoticed. Thx for any advice ❤️
hi, thanks so much for your ask!
user @kleptomadame has a great post titled “THE ULTIMATE GUIDE” that should help answer a lot of your questions because it’s all a lot of learning and advice when you first get into it! something I always tell to people about Iifting is it’s so much easier than people think it is. just don’t overthink your behavior too much, try your best to act natural and like you’re actually going to pay for the items you have. it gets easier and easier the more you do it. when I was in your position, I honestly just stayed up all night doing a bunch of research on tumblr, that’s definitely a great place to start! go through the users in my notes (likes, comments, reblogs, etc.) see their hauls and the advice they give and what they like to do! no Iifter is 100% the same! example: I love visiting stores closer to open/closing because it’s less busy and I feel like the workers won’t pay much attention to me because they’re busy with opening/closing duties, but some people prefer going during peak hours when it’s super busy to blend in with the crowd. I personally only use my purse to conceal or walkout with items in my hands, then some people will mainly use their body to conceal (hide things under clothes). as you get more accustomed to it, you’ll find your preferences and come into your own as a Iifter. if you literally have never done it before, I recommend starting at stores like d0llar tr3e, chain drug stores, and chain thrift shops, as those are the easiest and places you are least likely to get caught! practice a whole bunch of different things, don’t be afraid to experiment. go at different times of day, purse conceal then body conceal then walkout, find what suits you and move on to “harder” stores when you feel super confident. I hope this helps at all and if you ever make a Iifting tumblr, I look forward to seeing your awesome hauls! happy Iifting! :)
I’ve noticed a lot of newer l1fting accounts using tags & I can’t find any old posts about l1ftblr safety rules so I have decided to make my own post on it. For newer members of the community, long, long ago before these precautions were used, l1fters of all ages (including minors) were harassed, stalked, and doxxed. People were affected online and in real life. Members of the community felt the need to leave for various reasons regarding safety and privacy. So here goes:
Remove exif and meta data from all pictures. It only takes an extra few minutes at most and erases identifying information such as your exact location.
Do not use tags. This can lead antis to the community which may lead to both harassment and doxxing of vulnerable members. We want to keep anyone who despises l1ftblr off of l1ftblr.
Do not share any private information. Any information that can be used to identify, lead to, locate, or gather information on you- should be kept to yourself. This is basic internet safety when working in anonymous spaces.
Keep your l1fting blog separate from any other blogs you use. Do not share or interact with non l1fting blogs with your l1ftblr, just like using tags, this can attract antis and cause harm to the community.
You don’t have to post everything, especially as soon as you get it. If your city’s loss prevention happens to be on liftblr, posting exactly what you picked up right after could provide extra evidence for building a case.
Keep in mind this is a crime. This is the reason for this post, the reason we need to keep non l1fting blogs away, the reason to avoid doxxing.
Be safe. In addition to the aforementioned list, keep in mind your regular internet safety tips and trust your gut. Ex. If a link looks shady don’t click, if someone in your messages seems suspicious ignore/block them, etc.
If you think the idea of someone being so jealous, spiteful, and enraged that you got something free that they will try to cause you trouble is ridiculous, you’re not alone but, it has happened. Loss prevention has been confirmed to peruse l1ftblr as well.
This is all I can remember & think of off the top of my head. If anyone has anything to add please do. Our individual safety’s are important as is our groups’ as a whole and it is all of our responsibility to protect.
if you want, can you make a post on how to get back into lifting? i done it in summer but i stopped but i wanna get back into it. ive only lifted a pen and some sweets so far ❤️
U know what hell yeah i can bro im stoned and bored so here goes:
So you wanna get back into lifting?
Thats fine. Some of us take breaks its good to do that its a pretty smart thing to do!
So the first thing you need to do is get back in the old mindset of lifting.
So heres some tips:
Practice concealing again at home to work your speed back up.
Practice looking for cameras discreetly, go around stores one day you don't want to lift, buy something if you can. Use this time to refresh yourself on where the blindspots are. Genuienly shop around, look for tags, etc.
Work on being more aware of your surroundings again. I know I for one don't pay attention to my surroundings nearly as much when Im out actually shopping as I do when Im lifting. You want to be aware of your surroundings at all times while lifting. Is someone following you around? Maybe not directly but how often do you see them in different sections of the store?
Get back into the habit of checking for tags like mad. I know I've noticed a lot of changes to VS clothing over a short period of time. Almost all clothing have seperate rfid tags on them in a tag near the price tag. The price tags say RFID now too.
Some places may still be more relaxed than others. My ulta only box tags too faced and naked palettes. (Bless them) Yours might be different though.
Even if you didnt do this last time you should this time if its relevant to you; practice folding. (I steal clothes and its important to keep as much free room in my bag as possible or for body concealing.)
Remember the basics of not concealing in front of cams, using blindspots, making your own if you have to. Always remember this is a crime, not a game, and you need to treat it like one. You dont start out nearing 1000 every haul on day one. You have to work your way up to it. Be smart be safe and please dont bite off more than you can chew.
I never see anyone mention this so I thought it could be useful. Do not l!ft in an area that may discriminate against your identity in any way. You want to blend in and look like the typical buyer for that area, it's not worth the risk. You will put a huge mark on your back by doing that.
Also no ID no case but no one ever mentions to make sure you're not bringing anything else that may ID you such as loyalty cards found on key chains, library cards, club cards, gym cards, or any other affiliations. As well as anything displaying school names/mascots or workplace gear and paraphernalia.
Good reads, guys. If you can read body language then you can outsmart the lps.
Just remember guys, LPS are just humans, if you can outsmart them ( make them second guess themselves, out-run or overpower them. Then your always be ahead. But remember guys lifting is a game of luck.
One had 4 charges. He beat one so far.
He never been stop by LPS in person. They usually catch his license plate then report him after.
When one encounter lps they usually recover the items then go away. Most times they don't want to fight on the spot. It's always better have two then one. Don't ever admit to nothing. When I go lifting with a parther I make sure we be ready to rumbled
I've seen so many of you get "caught" by LP or staff
you need to f*cking stop cooperating with staff members and LP
let me let you in on a little secret here
LP AIN'T LEGAL AUTHORITY !!!
get this through your head plz!!
if you get stopped by someone other than the pòlice, this includes managers staff members and loss prèvention
DO NOT COOPERATE!
do not admit to shit no matter what they tell you if they say they have it on camera and threaten to call còps, leave the store, get out of the area and let them. if they have no legal Authority do not cooperate ever!! as long as they visibly aren't còps or tell you they are law enforcement you can basically tell them to f*ck off and leave the store and you will be fine I promise.
if you get stopped by anyone other than a legal officer just leave get out of there. do not get scared they cannot hurt you no matter what they threaten as long as they're not putting you in handcuffs I promise you're fine do not cooperate NO NOT. COOPERATE. UNLESS THEY ARE COPS.
loss prevention or staff cannot hurt you I promise no matter what they threaten as long as they are not legal law enforcement I swear you will be fine just get out. ilysm guys b safe.
So on my most recent lifting adventure to w@1ma4t my lifting partner and I got caught, like full on police caught. Here are some of the stupid mistakes made that resulted in it.
Our appearance- two people who look like minors walking with each other into a store with bookbags, wearing black (in my case a black baggy hoodie) is not a great look. While I wouldn't place the most importance on your disguise or how you look this definitely did not help our case.
Concealment- this part was more me but I felt like all of the conceals I did were absolute shit. There was at least one time where it was possible that someone saw me and other than that I just felt like I concealed very poorly the whole time.
Plainclothes- there was a guy that I saw multiple times throughout the store. In multiple different sections that were a decent distance away from each other. At the time I didn't notice but looking back he wasn't buying anything (should have been a massive red flag). NEVER discount someone as a plainclothes lp because of how they look. The guy that caught us looked like he was 30 and living with his parents. He didn't look like he had a job let alone be lp. Lastly we saw him again standing at the door as we were about to walk out. This really should have been the moment I knew to turn around and dump however I did not.
RFIDs- I did not check as thoughly as I should have for RFIDs and so on top of everything we beeped at the doors 🤦
I don't know if this one is a mistake or not but, once we left the store the plainclothes lp started yelling at us. He followed us out the store and said he was calling the cops. So me and my friend ran. Like full on sprinted outa there. I don't know if the cops would have been called if we had stayed with lp and cooperated but I wasn't going to find out.
We also got very unlucky with the timing of everything because apparently there were already many police near the store and it must have been a very slow day for them because I heard that 5 police officers all responded to the call. It took less than 2 minutes for a cop car to find us.
The overall experience with the police wasn't very bad actually considering the situation. We were detained and searched. Then they took us back to the Walmart to look through our stuff. It ended up being only $50 from the w@1ma4t, and some more from other stores (I don't even have a close estimate for the rest). w@1ma4t actually didn't press charges, which I hear is very very lucky ( this made me wonder if we had not run it would have been a similar situation just without police, I still think that just trying to get away is the best advice tho). We basically just got off with a warning and they took all the stuff we lifted. They did a pretty bad job searching my bag tho because they left a entire hoodie that I got. I was very confused because I saw an officer pick it up and look at it, it still had the tags nd everything nd they just put it back in my bag. Like thanks ig?!
At the end of the day remember that you risk something on your permanent record every time you take a penny from somewhere. my lifting partner and I were VERY lucky we didn't get charged, this is not usually the case. I will blame at least part of this on me. lifting more and more recently and becoming too comfortable with lifting. If you guys are anything like I was my first time lifting you took every possible precaution. Making sure you were in a blind spot and that nobody was even close to you. Even so you were still probably scared doing it. DO NOT LOSE THAT, everytime you lift you should be thinking of consequences and how to avoid them. DONT let it slip to the back of your mind.
TL;DR- ruh roh spaghetti Os my partner and I got caught, no charges tho so yay! Things to learn from us- IF IT WAS A SHIT CONCEAL GO BACK AND TRY AGAIN ANOTHER DAY. you never know who saw it and it isn't worth the risk, swallow ur pride dump nd try again in 1-2 weeks (probably longer if you know someone saw or u thing and employee saw). EVERYBODY CAN BE A LP, this is one of the most important things I have learned no matter what they look like they can be lp, don't discount them based on appearance. BEWARE OF PEOPLE YOU SEE MULTIPLE TIMES. Especially in large stores, the average shopper you should only see once maybe twice (unless it's a smaller store) if you see the same person in the grocery section, nd then across the store in the electronics area, nd then again by the clothes section U GOT A PROBLEM THEN, dump nd get out. CHECK FOR RFIDs AND THEN CHECK AGAIN. seriously you should check multiple times for RFIDs. lastly DONT LOOK LIKE A SHOPLIFTER, I personally hold this at a lower importance because I feel like it's not the main thing you should be focused on but it is still something to keep in mind (this goes for appearance not actions, your actions are very important you you must know how to act like a normal shopper.
Double TL;DR for you real lazy people
MAKE SURE YOU CONCEAL WELL
ANYONE AND EVERYONE IS LP
IF YOU SEE SOMEONE MULTIPLE TIMES DUMP
CHECK FOR RFIDs
DONT GET COMFORTABLE, STAY ANXIOUS ABOUT LIFTING (jus don't walk around looking like your nervous ofc)
Other than that I will likely be taking a rather lengthy break from lifting if I ever go back to doing it again. I will stay active on liftblr just don't expect any more lift hauls for a long while.
i’ve been doing this seven years and i still shit myself l0fting from makeup stores, so here’s eucas tips post on how i’ve never been caught
1. know exactly what you’re going to get and don’t just throw whatever you see and like in your bag. normal shoppers don’t have infinite money and they don’t pick up every item without reading a price tag. read ingredients, check price tags, swatch items, compare two items and get one, don’t act as if you don’t think about paying for an item because that’s a huge sign that you’re l-fting
2. if an SA asks what you’re looking for, have a plan on what you’re saying. don’t say the item you’re l-fting!! if the store doesn’t carry lime crime products, say lime crime. if they don’t carry tatcha, say tatcha. say you’re looking for a gift for your sister and she just started getting into makeup. say you’re here looking to stock up/refill on a product that you use every day. say you just got a gift card and you’re looking for a couple items to spend it on. if they ever ask for a budget for a specific item, know what an expensive brand of the item costs, and say that.
3. stop using the cotton ball trick, it’s old as the hills and they know it.
4. conceal in hair care, large appliances like hair dryers, clearance, sometimes face masks if it’s an ooltaa.
5. when you’re about to leave, go to the register area and look at small travel items, as if you’re checking that area last and ur about to pay. they won’t watch you while they’re scanning other people. do it while they’re busy scanning and just leave. i like to look disappointed too. if an SA asks if i found anything, i say either 1. they didn’t have what i wanted 2. the item i wanted was out of stock or 3. nothing caught my eye 4. the item i wanted wasn’t in my skin tone so i’ll just buy it online
To all the new l1fters that have joined this little community while I took a hiatus from posting. And to all "borrowers" from tik tok. We don't want this community to get outted like it was in 2015. Keep our community small, hidden and safe. This isn't tiktok. This isn't a game.
Like the first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club. The first rule of l1ftb1r is you don't talk about l1ftb1r.
DO NOT USE LIFTING TAGS! You are endangering l1ftb1r and yourself!!!! If you have used tags edit your posts so they don't have tags
DO NOT USE LIFTING TAGS! You are endangering l1ftb1r and yourself!!!! If you have used tags edit your posts so they don't have tags
DO NOT USE LIFTING TAGS! You are endangering l1ftb1r and yourself!!!! If you have used tags edit your posts so they don't have tags
DO NOT USE LIFTING TAGS! You are endangering l1ftb1r and yourself!!!! If you have used tags edit your posts so they don't have tags
DISCLAIMER: This is a post I created for my own personal use that I'm now sharing to help others. This means that you may recognize some of this information from other posts (or your own!), because I like to compile and rephrase any information I find helpful. I don't list sources for everyone's safety, but that is in no way because I want to pass off some of this information as my own. Feel free to comment or message me if you think someone should be credited and I will gladly do so <3 Any additional info is always appreciated!
General Tips & Tricks:
Remember, no ID, no case. Avoid using your credit/debit card whenever possible, as they can ID you this way and case build. You can either pay with cash, load up a V1sa credit card, or don’t pay at all ;)
Park away from camera view in the parking lot.
Act like a normal shopper. Browse, look at prices, and don’t look around at other people.
Avoid looking at the doors if there is beeping, most normal people wouldn’t notice or pay attention.
Always do your research before hitting a store. Scope out the location ahead of time, check out the cameras in the parking lot and in the store, get an idea of how vigilant they are about checking receipts, find out when they’re the busiest, check for LP and security.
On weekdays when it’s slower some stores won’t have security, but will bring them in on the weekends. This is true for stores like Tom Finger and Kroh-ger.
Self Checkout:
Use reusable bags. Place the less expensive items/the ones you plan on actually paying for at the top of the bags. Scan those and “forget” the items at the bottom.
Bring a new looking receipt, or create a fake receipt of the items you’re taking (buy a receipt printer and print your shopping list using the store's template/format for receipts)
Create fake label stickers at home. Take a picture on your phone for barcodes and get a label sticker. Make your code for whatever dollar amount you want (like $1 each).
Scan things quickly and cover the barcode with your hand on “accident” when scanning. This is riskier because sometimes the camera or machine will catch this and stop your checkout process to replay video of you skipping an item (which is so embarrassing lmao).
Get a packet of dressing or gravy (which runs .30 to .50 cents) and hold it under the item you're scanning. This is also a little more on the riskier side just because an employee or cameras can physically see the price of the item scanned versus the item you’re holding.
If you’re satisfied with a nice self-given discount, it’s lower risk to tear the tag off a cheaper item similar to the one you’re getting. For example you can hold the barcode for a cheaper pillow against the actual tag for a more expensive pillow.
A good rule of thumb for self checkout is to act as quickly as possible. Your actions will be much harder to catch if you’re hard to keep up with. Don’t come off as frantic or worried though, just look like you’re busy and have someplace to be.
Place smaller items underneath cheaper bigger items or underneath the cart and “forget” to scan them at self checkout. This creates very realistic plausible deniability. One good example is placing a pack of toilet paper on top of a dozen sheets of pimple patches or face masks. It’s not going to occur to anyone to look underneath such a big item.
Likewise, you can place smaller items into bigger items and buy that one bigger item. For example, buying a large plastic bin or laundry hamper and placing items inside. This is higher risk though, because you will have to conceal the smaller items on the floor. Finding blindspots can be difficult, and hidden cameras are a thing. If you are seen doing this, it will be obvious what you are attempting to do so be sure you are being tactful. This may also draw attention because this is a common and well known thing that people do, even if they are not experienced lifters.
To create more plausible deniability, wear earbuds/headphones and play music. If you're caught you can pretend you didn't hear that the scanner didn't beep on the item.
Pretend you’re shopping for 2 people and need to do 2 different orders. If you're caught trying to leave without paying for something, just say the rest of the items are for someone else. Scan them, take the L, and move on.
Buy bulk. If you have multiples of items, it's easier to make it less obvious you stole something. So if you have 5 bottles of the same soda and only scanned 3, it looks less suspicious than if you only had 1 and it never left your cart.
Body Concealing:
Go to the freezer section, as you are “looking for ice cream” have your bag of choice situated on the side of your body where the door is blocking you; the condensation should block your actions. The items you want to conceal should be in your hand, so then just drop it in. Make sure no one’s on your other side.
Get two meat packs and have them facing each other for easy concealment.
The makeup aisle is highly monitored, for the love of god don’t try to conceal until you’re in another section. Don’t get too much makeup at one time either, try to grab moderate amounts like someone spending their own money would.
Carside Pickup:
Tell them that you have store credit, most will never check and as long as it’s less than like $50 they’ll probably give it to you. It might be more believable if you say “last time I picked up you guys forgot to give me my “xyz”, and I didn’t want to come back to pick it up so you said you’d take the $10.99 (or whatever amount) off this order”.
You most likely will not get ID'd at carside.
Walkouts:
Find a store with a Stardollars inside. Have a drink and have your bag already filled and leave after you’re finished. This works for smaller hauls, don’t attempt with a whole cart, it will be more obvious. To my knowledge, this is a well known method by employees so in some situations this might be higher risk.
Don’t stop if they ask you to. Wave them off (as if you couldn’t be bothered and you find them an inconvenience), pretend not to hear, quickly flash a receipt, etc.
Be patient and fight your window of opportunity. Don’t rush out, wait and see when no one is paying attention to the doors.
You can have someone watch your back as you leave. Meaning, they can stay back to see if anyone notices and follow you out after or if it’s a high risk situation, they can block the exit with a shopping cart and tell you to run.
The best approach is to do walkouts when no one will notice. This means going when it’s busiest (the weekends, specifically Sunday afternoon) and at higher income areas where they will not be on high alert.
Do not double dip too often at the same stores, rotate the stores you hit unless you are going in disguise. The same logic applies with lifting anywhere, dress nice and blend in. Face masks are preferable.
Some stores have shopping carts with wheels that will lock up for one of these two reasons:
1. You attempt to leave without paying (meaning the wheels will lock at the store doors). This is meant to prevent theft known as “pushout” or “walkout” theft.
You can get around this by either walking out with a basket or reusable bags instead, or by going through the point of sale areas to deactivate the locking mechanism. Either walk through an empty cashier aisle so it appears you paid, or through self checkout.
2. You attempt to leave the premises. This is meant to prevent shopping carts from being taken off the lot, so unless you’re trying to steal the cart too or you parked far from the store it shouldn’t be an issue.
Usually there will be signs throughout the store notifying shoppers of this, or you can tell by looking at the carts’ wheels. There will be two out of the four wheels either on the front or the back that look different from the others, like there is some sort of clunky shield on them.
You can learn more about how this works at:
How Do Anti-Theft Wheel Locks on Shopping Carts Know to Trip at the Edge of the Parking Lot?
Local Fred Meyer stores are rolling out a new device to hopefully keep shoplifters from leaving with merchandise.
RETAILERS like Walmart and Target have used anti-theft shopping carts with rollercoaster-style wheels that are small but stay strong for 35,
***This is a new idea I have not tested yet, but I will edit this portion of the post when I do. Wear a F@/vor or insta-nt-cart shirt/cap and bring the company bags to fill up (you can probably find these items online on eB@/y, etc). Routinely check your phone as you shop like you are collecting an order for a customer that already paid online. Walking out will raise less questions when you seem like a mere worker carrying out someone else’s order. That way you can also claim the items have already been paid for online if you are stopped. You could go as far as to have a fake item pulled up on the app or create a fake picture/screenshot.
Best places to go grocery shopping:
Trade Joey's (best for body concealing as there are few, if any, cameras)
Sproots
Worst places to go grocery shopping:
Fuckin’ T@/rget. I’d only attempt low risk methods if there’s something you REALLY want.
W@/m@/rt, unless you’re only occasionally skipping items at self checkout.
Kroh-ger. They’re known to case build.
Stores that have locking carts (this will not apply to every location):
claiming damage for sëphora doesn’t work bc i just tried & they’re asking me to return the broken things even tho i told them i cut my fingers on it and the package has blood stains and glass shards in it
This can be tricky and takes some practice, but don’t be discouraged! Spotting cameras is a whole other tangent I could get into so I’ll just focus on blind spots specifically. Lower traffic areas in stores are going to be your best bet for lack of cameras (such as home decor, bathroom items, etc. Basically boring places the company’s not going to be as worried about people stealing from- so the opposite of makeup, electronics, etc). Don’t rush to these areas, naturally “shop” your way into them so it’s not obvious. Keep in mind if you don’t see cameras in a place that seems too good to be true, there might be hidden cams (specifically in the electronics section). Personally, I find it less stressful to create blind spots by holding items behind shelves or displays that block the camera’s view of your hands. For smaller items, sometimes I like to reach into the back of shelves and “dig around” as I shove something up my sleeve away from camera view. This applies to lifting in general, but the quicker and more efficient you can be the harder it will be to catch. Sorry if this is a lot of info, I like to be thorough! The more we help each other improve our ~skills~, the less we all get caught! Learn together, thrive together hehe. Hope that helps!!
i’m ngl, as someone that has been caught before and had the police called on them, some people on here really downplay the consequences of if you’re actually caught and prosecuted and i don’t like that. i feel like it’s very misleading , especially since there are a bunch of teenagers on here. i was lucky enough to afford a criminal defense attorney to keep it off of my record, and i am so grateful for it everyday, but not everyone is that lucky. a theft misdemeanor or felony (depending on how much you stole) is going to ruin your life. some of you, please take your safety more seriously.