There’s never “just a normal day” in my line of work. During this time of my loss prevention career, I was the Loss Prevention Manager at my company’s top performing store. This store was our flagship location and brought in more sales than any of our other stores nationwide. With that amount of business, shoplifting was a battle we fought day in and day out. The store was set up with checkpoint tags on most of the most commonly shoplifted items. It seemed like as soon as the doors opened each day, there was just a steady stream of shoplifters that would try their luck. While most would get caught, to say no one got away just isn’t true. We definitely had our fair share of runners, but every now and then the stars would align and they too would get caught and have the pleasure of spending a few nights in a tax payer provided room.
Well it was a Friday night and it had been relatively quite. Maybe, even a little too quiet. I knew I wouldn’t end the night without a shoplifter, but the minutes were ticking away and nothing was standing out. My agents were getting a bit restless… it was short lived. A group of two females entered the store with some rather large purses that were very clearly empty. No, really, they were clear, as in completely see through. As soon as they hit the apparel carpet, they began concealing (and I used that term loosely) whatever they could grab. They didn’t seem to be bothered by the clothing security tags, either. It didn’t take very long before their clear bags were stuffed to the brim with about two thousand dollars’ worth of product each. I knew they wouldn’t stop, so as soon as they started stuffing, I contacted our local police to have an officer en route.
The two ladies attempted to exit the store and I approached. They told me that they hadn’t stolen anything, to which I replied that I could clearly see the product and the clothing alarms on the product in their clear bags. As I knew they would, they failed to give me my merchandise back and took off running through the parking lot. . I watched them run into a large, empty field adjacent to the store. This filed was probably 15 acres of grass. I had no idea where they were running to. Still, I though they may get away since a police officer still hadn’t shown up.
At about this time, a wildlife enforcement agent exited the store after purchasing some ammunition and saw me watching the two women running. He asked if they had shoplifted and when I told him they did, his response was “I’ll go get em!” He ran to his 4×4 truck and in no time, with lights and siren going, jumped the curb to the field and was in an off-road chase. As he got closer to one of the runners, he pulled up alongside, and she wouldn’t stop. He gently opened his door into her and she fell to the ground. The other was smart enough to call it quits. When he brought them back to the store, it was like a scene from Walker, Texas ranger. They were handcuffed to the bed of the truck and they were covered in mud, twigs and hay. “Told ya’ I get em!” The agent told me they tried to fight him in the field but were no match. I believe his exact words were, with a bit of a southern draw, “They tried fighting, but they just don’t know, I fight with alligators at work.”
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
There’s never “just a normal day” in my line of work. During this time of my loss prevention career, I was the Loss Prevention Manager at my company’s top performing store. This store was our flagship location and brought in more sales than any of our other stores nationwide. With that amount of business, shoplifting was a battle we fought day in and day out. The store was set up with Checkpoint Tags on most of the most commonly shoplifted items. It seemed like as soon as the doors opened each day, there was just a steady stream of shoplifters that would try their luck. While most would get caught, to say no one got away just isn’t true. We definitely had our fair share of runners, but every now and then the stars would align and they too would get caught and have the pleasure of spending a few nights in a tax payer provided room.
Well it was a Friday night and it had been relatively quite. Maybe, even a little too quiet. I knew I wouldn’t end the night without a shoplifter, but the minutes were ticking away and nothing was standing out. My agents were getting a bit restless… it was short lived. A group of two females entered the store with some rather large purses that were very clearly empty. No, really, they were clear, as in completely see through. As soon as they hit the apparel carpet, they began concealing (and I used that term loosely) whatever they could grab. They didn’t seem to be bothered by the clothing security tags, either. It didn’t take very long before their clear bags were stuffed to the brim with about two thousand dollars’ worth of product each. I knew they wouldn’t stop, so as soon as they started stuffing, I contacted our local police to have an officer en route.
The two ladies attempted to exit the store and I approached. They told me that they hadn’t stolen anything, to which I replied that I could clearly see the product and the Checkpoint Tags on the product in their clear bags. As I knew they would, they failed to give me my merchandise back and took off running through the parking lot. . I watched them run into a large, empty field adjacent to the store. This filed was probably 15 acres of grass. I had no idea where they were running to. Still, I thought they may get away since a police officer still hadn’t shown up.
At about this time, a wildlife enforcement agent exited the store after purchasing some ammunition and saw me watching the two women running. He asked if they had shoplifted and when I told him they did, his response was “I’ll go get em!” He ran to his 4×4 truck and in no time, with lights and siren going, jumped the curb to the field and was in an off-road chase. As he got closer to one of the runners, he pulled up alongside, and she wouldn’t stop. He gently opened his door into her and she fell to the ground. The other was smart enough to call it quits. When he brought them back to the store, it was like a scene from Walker, Texas ranger. They were handcuffed to the bed of the truck and they were covered in mud, twigs and hay. “Told ya’ I get em!” The agent told me they tried to fight him in the field but were no match. I believe his exact words were, with a bit of a southern draw, “They tried fighting, but they just don’t know, I fight with alligators at work.”
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
I once worked in a store that had a problem with a group of shoplifters coming into the store and stealing wine, beer, and cough medicine. The group would come into the store and fill their backpacks with wine and beer, putting as much in the bags as they could possibly fit, while others from the group kept watch at the end of the aisles. We also started finding cases of beer with the boxes ripped open and some of the beer missing from the package. This made it easy to see that a theft had been committed. At the time, the store didn’t have any amount of bottle security to speak of, only a camera that observed the area from a long distance away. It wasn’t even meant to look at this area, it was focused on other merchandise and the wine just happened to be seen in the background on video.
After finding open beer cases and reviewing video, we found that we were losing the items during the weekends. You may have guessed it already, but these were underage shoplifters. Most of them were considered adults, just not old enough to legally purchase alcoholic beverages. The store was located in a large shopping center, where young people would hang out and congregate on the weekends. The wine problem could have been easily solved by placing bottle locks on the wine bottles if they were available to us in the store at the time, though it would have taken a huge amount of locks to cover all of the bottles in the store. The beer issue was a little more difficult, so we decided to increase employee presence in this area and increase customer service as a deterrent.
In a perfect world, all stores would segregate all of the alcoholic products in a secured area, where anyone under the legal drinking age wouldn’t have access. If this were an option, it would have been great, but it was a large store with several different departments and this option was not realistic for the business. Instead, we did everything else we were able to at the store level. We started limiting the amount of product we put on the shelf for the cough medicine. We also began tagging some the boxes of product that were on the shelf, and placing other boxes in hard plastic keepers like those from Alpha Security, so they wouldn’t be as easily accessible.
Once we figured out when they were coming into the store, we made sure we were there at the times they would come in, and eventually caught some of the group. They said that they were using some of the products themselves, and selling the rest to other people that weren’t old enough to purchase it themselves. This information was not surprise because I had heard of this type of thing happening at other stores, but it was still troubling to hear.
Thefts like this are going to happen, and retailers should take every precaution to reduce the chances of it happening in their stores; including ensuring that they have some form of bottle security measures in place. This should happen with any alcoholic products that are accessible to minors or underage patrons.
For more information contact us: (bottle security) or call 1.770.426.0547
I once worked in a store that had a problem with a group of shoplifters coming into the store and stealing wine, beer, and cough medicine. The group would come into the store and fill their backpacks with wine and beer, putting as much in the bags as they could possibly fit, while others from the group kept watch at the end of the aisles. We also started finding cases of beer with the boxes ripped open and some of the beer missing from the package. This made it easy to see that a theft had been committed. At the time, the store didn’t have any amount of bottle security to speak of, only a camera that observed the area from a long distance away. It wasn’t even meant to look at this area, it was focused on other merchandise and the wine just happened to be seen in the background on video.
After finding open beer cases and reviewing video, we found that we were losing the items during the weekends. You may have guessed it already, but these were underage shoplifters. Most of them were considered adults, just not old enough to legally purchase alcoholic beverages. The store was located in a large shopping center, where young people would hang out and congregate on the weekends. The wine problem could have been easily solved by placing bottle locks on the wine bottles if they were available to us in the store at the time, though it would have taken a huge amount of locks to cover all of the bottles in the store. The beer issue was a little more difficult, so we decided to increase employee presence in this area and increase customer service as a deterrent.
In a perfect world, all stores would segregate all of the alcoholic products in a secured area, where anyone under the legal drinking age wouldn’t have access. If this were an option, it would have been great, but it was a large store with several different departments and this option was not realistic for the business. Instead, we did everything else we were able to at the store level. We started limiting the amount of product we put on the shelf for the cough medicine. We also began tagging some the boxes of product that were on the shelf, and placing other boxes in hard plastic keepers like those from Alpha Security, so they wouldn’t be as easily accessible.
Once we figured out when they were coming into the store, we made sure we were there at the times they would come in, and eventually caught some of the group. They said that they were using some of the products themselves, and selling the rest to other people that weren’t old enough to purchase it themselves. This information was not surprise because I had heard of this type of thing happening at other stores, but it was still troubling to hear.
Thefts like this are going to happen, and retailers should take every precaution to reduce the chances of it happening in their stores; including ensuring that they have some form of bottle security measures in place. This should happen with any alcoholic products that are accessible to minors or underage patrons.
For more information contact us: Bottle Security or call 1.770.426.0547
Whether you call it return fraud or refund fraud, it causes a huge amount of loss to the retail industry every year. Return fraud occurs when someone returns an item that they didn’t purchase, or makes money off of a return in some way. It’s been a tactic used by shoplifters for a very long time, and it’s still being used today because it works so well for them. Your retail theft prevention plan may be great in traditional shoplifting scenarios, but are you paying attention to other methods they will use to commit thefts? Think about it, do you think return fraud is as risky for the thief as standard shoplifting? There is much less risk involved with return fraud because the thieves are not leaving the store with any merchandise, just your money. Regardless of what your store sells, small refunds add up fast, and small businesses can be hit hard by this kind of activity.
Thieves know you are looking for the methods that shoplifters use when stealing, so they have to get creative. Refund fraud also relieves them of having to deal with all kinds of anti-shoplifting equipment. A couple of dead giveaways that identify someone that is in the process of return fraud are picking up or searching for receipts, and looking at a receipt while looking at merchandise on the shelf. When I see someone looking for receipts, I immediately know what they have in mind. On numerous occasions, I have seen customers digging through the trash can and walking through the parking lot looking for receipts. They usually look for receipts with merchandise that was purchased with cash, so they will get cash when they return the items, not store credit.
You wouldn’t think they would make it so obvious, but right after they pick up the receipt from the parking lot, they will come in the store and try to compare the item numbers on the receipt with the item numbers on the shelf labels. They do this because in order to receive a refund, the items need to match exactly what is on the receipt. When they find the items, they bring them right to the customer service desk to get a refund.
Most stores have a system in place that will limit the amount of no receipt returns per customer. The customer’s identification, such as a driver’s license is usually keyed into the computer. This allows the retailer to keep track of how many times that person has returned merchandise without a receipt, and if they exceed the store’s allowed amount, the return will be denied. The problem with this system, is that it doesn’t account for customers that are returning merchandise with a receipt.
This is where your retail theft prevention plan should come into play. The best defense for refund fraud is your team. One person can’t see everything that happens in the store all the time. It is everyone’s responsibility to take the initiative to stop shoplifting. Your employees should be trained to be on the lookout for behaviors like these, and offer customer service in order to deter any dishonest activities.
For more information contact us: (retail theft prevention) or call 1.770.426.0547
Whether you call it return fraud or refund fraud, it causes a huge amount of loss to the retail industry every year. Return fraud occurs when someone returns an item that they didn’t purchase, or makes money off of a return in some way. It’s been a tactic used by shoplifters for a very long time, and it’s still being used today because it works so well for them. Your retail theft prevention plan may be great in traditional shoplifting scenarios, but are you paying attention to other methods they will use to commit thefts? Think about it, do you think return fraud is as risky for the thief as standard shoplifting? There is much less risk involved with return fraud because the thieves are not leaving the store with any merchandise, just your money. Regardless of what your store sells, small refunds add up fast, and small businesses can be hit hard by this kind of activity.
Thieves know you are looking for the methods that shoplifters use when stealing, so they have to get creative. Refund fraud also relieves them of having to deal with all kinds of anti-shoplifting equipment. A couple of dead giveaways that identify someone that is in the process of return fraud are picking up or searching for receipts, and looking at a receipt while looking at merchandise on the shelf. When I see someone looking for receipts, I immediately know what they have in mind. On numerous occasions, I have seen customers digging through the trash can and walking through the parking lot looking for receipts. They usually look for receipts with merchandise that was purchased with cash, so they will get cash when they return the items, not store credit.
You wouldn’t think they would make it so obvious, but right after they pick up the receipt from the parking lot, they will come in the store and try to compare the item numbers on the receipt with the item numbers on the shelf labels. They do this because in order to receive a refund, the items need to match exactly what is on the receipt. When they find the items, they bring them right to the customer service desk to get a refund.
Most stores have a system in place that will limit the amount of no receipt returns per customer. The customer’s identification, such as a driver’s license is usually keyed into the computer. This allows the retailer to keep track of how many times that person has returned merchandise without a receipt, and if they exceed the store’s allowed amount, the return will be denied. The problem with this system, is that it doesn’t account for customers that are returning merchandise with a receipt.
This is where your retail theft prevention plan should come into play. The best defense for refund fraud is your team. One person can’t see everything that happens in the store all the time. It is everyone’s responsibility to take the initiative to stop shoplifting. Your employees should be trained to be on the lookout for behaviors like these, and offer customer service in order to deter any dishonest activities.
For more information contact us: Retail Theft Prevention or call 1.770.426.0547
Good people make bad choices. That is a basic story of life, and it can happen at home or work. In today’s world, people and their misuse of prescription drugs is a regular feature heard on the nightly news. As an owner or manager of a pharmacy, you can sit on your “wait and hope” perch, or you have the choice to do something about it and take away some of the temptation. RX Caps can provide you with added inventory security, as well as help stop a substance abuse issue from ever happening.
The unfortunate truth is, besides stealing controlled drugs to sell on the street for money, in this business, you face the very real threat of an employee with a drug problem.
In many cases that I have been a part of investigating, it starts out with self medicating. The employee has chronic pain, has an accident, or is having a lot of stress at home. They want to come to work, so to help get them through the day, they skim a couple pills from a stock bottle off the shelf or a patient’s bottle. They justify this by telling themselves they will be a better employee and give you a better day’s work if they are not in pain or suffering from major anxiety. When a few pills are no longer enough, they will take more and more, possibly partial or whole bottles at a time. Any technician in your pharmacy can just grab a bottle off the shelf, conceal it, and get out the door in some fashion. You can have bag checks, lab coat checks, and detail inspection of every lunch box, but if you have an employee with an addiction, they will find a way to get what they need. Pill bottles can go out in the trash, shipping containers, or any other creative vehicles they can come up with. RX Caps can be the solution to this issue because the bottles are locked shut and can only be opened with the provided magnet key. If the device is tampered with, it will alarm. If a bottle with an RX Cap attached is removed from the designated area, it will alarm.
You would likely begin to notice changes in the employee’s behavior before you ever notice the missing pills. Although no specific behavior can define the problem, you need to be aware and willing to admit there may be an issue if the employee is suddenly acting different. They may begin coming in earlier than scheduled for shifts, or hanging around after their shift ended. Be aware if the employee visits the pharmacy on their day off, especially if they come back into the work area. They may volunteer to put away certain sections when a delivery arrives. Watch out for repeated visits to the restroom, or to their car. Be aware of an employee having visitors on a regular basis. Watch for changes in their physical appearance, constantly tired and sleepy, dark circles under their eyes, or even wired up and “twitchy”.
RX Caps can be a great deterrent for this unfortunate problem that is pervasive in today’s world, at least for an actual pharmacy employee. If they know the bottles are locked up, they will be less likely to try to steal pills in the first place. And really, preventing the loss is what it is all about.
For more information contact us at: Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
Good people make bad choices. That is a basic story of life, and it can happen at home or work. In today’s world, people and their misuse of prescription drugs is a regular feature heard on the nightly news. As an owner or manager of a pharmacy, you can sit on your “wait and hope” perch, or you have the choice to do something about it and take away some of the temptation. Alpha Rx Caps can provide you with added inventory security, as well as help stop a substance abuse issue from ever happening. The unfortunate truth is, besides stealing controlled drugs to sell on the street for money, in this business, you face the very real threat of an employee with a drug problem.
In many cases that I have been a part of investigating, it starts out with self medicating. The employee has chronic pain, has an accident, or is having a lot of stress at home. They want to come to work, so to help get them through the day, they skim a couple pills from a stock bottle off the shelf or a patient’s bottle. They justify this by telling themselves they will be a better employee and give you a better day’s work if they are not in pain or suffering from major anxiety. When a few pills are no longer enough, they will take more and more, possibly partial or whole bottles at a time. Any technician in your pharmacy can just grab a bottle off the shelf, conceal it, and get out the door in some fashion. You can have bag checks, lab coat checks, and detail inspection of every lunch box, but if you have an employee with an addiction, they will find a way to get what they need. Pill bottles can go out in the trash, shipping containers, or any other creative vehicles they can come up with. Alpha Rx Caps can be the solution to this issue because the bottles are locked shut and can only be opened with the provided magnet key. If the device is tampered with, it will alarm. If a bottle with an Rx Cap attached is removed from the designated area, it will alarm.
You would likely begin to notice changes in the employee’s behavior before you ever notice the missing pills. Although no specific behavior can define the problem, you need to be aware and willing to admit there may be an issue if the employee is suddenly acting different. They may begin coming in earlier than scheduled for shifts, or hanging around after their shift ended. Be aware if the employee visits the pharmacy on their day off, especially if they come back into the work area. They may volunteer to put away certain sections when a delivery arrives. Watch out for repeated visits to the restroom, or to their car. Be aware of an employee having visitors on a regular basis. Watch for changes in their physical appearance, constantly tired and sleepy, dark circles under their eyes, or even wired up and “twitchy”.
Rx Caps can be a great deterrent for this unfortunate problem that is pervasive in today’s world, at least for an actual pharmacy employee. If they know the bottles are locked up, they will be less likely to try to steal pills in the first place. And really, preventing the loss is what it is all about.
For more information contact us at: Antishoplifting.net or call 1.770.426.0547
There’s nothing more relaxing that a Sunday afternoon tee time. I was never really a big golfer, but my boss pulled me into the sport a few years ago. Ever since, I’ve been hooked… and sliced, depending on the day. Not that long ago, I pulled up to the club a little early one Sunday morning and I noticed that there were some police cruisers at the front of the pro shop. I went over to see what was going on, since I was close friends with the manager. I let him finish up with the officers before I went over, but I could tell he was pretty distraught.
After everything settled down, I found out that he discovered his shop was missing almost ten thousand dollars in golf clubs. He was certain someone broke in overnight, but there was no evidence of a burglary. There was no broken glass, no alarm notifications, nothing. I was a district LP manager for a large company at the time, so I knew just how he felt. I offered my assistance in reviewing video footage. I’m a terrible golfer anyway.
A few hours went by and I had his culprit. About two days before he discovered the clubs missing, a person came into the pro shop. He strolled around the cheaper boxed sets for a little while, before removing the contents of one of those boxes. Over the next twenty minutes, all while being assisted my friend, the shoplifter filled that box with the high end clubs. After making the sale, the shoplifter exited the store with his $100 purchase… which also contained the $10k in missing clubs.
I offered some advice and told him about the O-Tag. His store was already set up with an EAS tower, so all he had to do was buy a few and see if they worked out for him. A few weeks later, he gave me a call to tell me a second shoplifter had attempted the same act. Only this time, when they walked out of the store, the tower alerted to the O-Tags inside the box. Instead of losing another $7k in product, he was able to have a thief arrested. As it would turn out, this thief was operating with the first guy who was ultimately arrested a few days later. Turns out, he ran a pawn shop on the other side of town and my friend was able to recover a great deal of his stolen property. Now, even though he caters to a very small group of people, there isn’t a single club in his store that isn’t protected with an O-Tag.
There’s nothing more relaxing that a Sunday afternoon tee time. I was never really a big golfer, but my boss pulled me into the sport a few years ago. Ever since, I’ve been hooked… and sliced, depending on the day. Not that long ago, I pulled up to the club a little early one Sunday morning and I noticed that there were some police cruisers at the front of the pro shop. I went over to see what was going on, since I was close friends with the manager. I let him finish up with the officers before I went over, but I could tell he was pretty distraught.
After everything settled down, I found out that he discovered his shop was missing almost ten thousand dollars in golf clubs. He was certain someone broke in overnight, but there was no evidence of a burglary. There was no broken glass, no alarm notifications, nothing. I was a district LP manager for a large company at the time, so I knew just how he felt. I offered my assistance in reviewing video footage. I’m a terrible golfer anyway.
A few hours went by and I had his culprit. About two days before he discovered the clubs missing, a person came into the pro shop. He strolled around the cheaper boxed sets for a little while, before removing the contents of one of those boxes. Over the next twenty minutes, all while being assisted by my friend, the shoplifter filled that box with the high end clubs. After making the sale, the shoplifter exited the store with his $100 purchase… which also contained the $10k in missing clubs.
I offered some advice and told him about the O-Tag. His store was already set up with an EAS tower, so all he had to do was buy a few and see if they worked out for him. A few weeks later, he gave me a call to tell me a second shoplifter had attempted the same act. Only this time, when they walked out of the store, the tower alerted to the O-Tags inside the box. Instead of losing another $7k in product, he was able to have a thief arrested. As it would turn out, this thief was operating with the first guy who was ultimately arrested a few days later. Turns out, he ran a pawn shop on the other side of town and my friend was able to recover a great deal of his stolen property. Now, even though he caters to a very small group of people, there isn’t a single club in his store that isn’t protected with an O-Tag.
For more information contact us at losspreventionsystems.com or call 1.770.426.0547
