Last week I was out at a local festival talking to folks and getting some photos for the website. One young lady had just gotten her face painted with a cool looking butterfly, so I asked her mother if I could take the little girl’s picture for the site. She said, “Sure.”, so I got the photo.

Then I realized that I knew this lady from somewhere, but I didn’t know where. So, I asked her, “Do I know you?”

She looked at me and said, “You look familiar, but I’m not sure.” So, I asked her, “Did you ever work for Kohl’s?” (My former employer in that particular area). She said, “No, but did you work in loss prevention there?”

And it hit me. Like a ton of bricks falling on my stupid head it hit me. I had stopped her for shoplifting several years ago. I could feel my face turning red from embarrassment. I said, “Did I catch you there?”

She proceeded to tell me that I had caught her shoplifting there, and that she had gone through a rough period in her life back then, but that now she was doing very well. She said she learned her lesson after going to jail several times for shoplifting, and that she remembered that I was very professional with her, and treated her like a human being.

We shook hands and I walked away. My wife smiled at me and said, “Wow, that was awkward.”

You think? But, that’s the risk you take when you live in a small town and you have worked in that small town catching shoplifters for several years. I caught well over 500 shoplifters in my 4 years in that area, and I have met some of those same people in different venues before. But, this was the first time I had the opportunity to have a long conversation with one of them like that.

Two things struck me about our conversation. First, that she went out of her way to let me know that she doesn’t steal anymore, and that she got her life straightened out. Secondly, that she remembered me as a professional, who treated her with courtesy. I felt like, somehow, I had a positive impact on her, at least I hope I did.

Have you ever had one of these encounters? How did it go for you?

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• Nine out of ten retailers (92%) report that their companies were victims of organized retail crime during the past year, up eight percent from 2008.
• Nearly three-fourths (73%) of retailers also reported the level of organized retail crime activity has increased over the past 12 months, an increase of 11 percent from 2008.
• 42% of retailers say their company is allocating additional resources to address organized retail crime.
• Nearly half (49%) of respondents believe senior management in their company understands the seriousness of the issue.

In addition, according to NRF’s Press Release, “Thanks to the new partnerships formed with Federal and local law enforcement officials, retailers have had some success identifying stolen merchandise or gift cards at physical fence locations such as pawn shops and temporary stores (60%) and through online e-fencing operations (60%), where stolen merchandise is sold through online auction sites.”

Organized retail crime can be devastating to a retailer because the losses caused by these groups to a market area can be huge. Does anyone have any great success (or failure) stories they’d like to share? Are you seeing the effects of ORC first hand? If so, is it as bad as it is being reported to be?

Check out the findings first hand by visiting the links above, then come back and let’s talk about it…

• Employee Involvement In Organized Retail Theft Ring
• Shoplifting Crimes Increasing At A Rate Of 20% Per Year
• House ORC Hearing Today At 4:00 PM
• North Carolina City Sees BIG Increase In Shoplifting
• Organized Retail Theft – “Boosting For Billions” Airs On MSNBC

I don’t make these up, folks.

In Sacramento, CA, 38-year-old grandma Felicia Renee Harris walked into a local Marshall’s and boosted over $100 in men’s clothing by concealing them under her baby granddaughter, who was in a stroller.

When  Harris was approached by loss prevention, she attacked, using the baby and stroller as a weapon, and then letting the stroller, with baby inside, roll across the parking lot. Police stated that she bit, scratched and kicked the loss prevention officer.

Here’s the good news about this whole mess. A Good Samaritan grabbed up the baby and kept her until police arrived. Harris was arrested and held on $1 million dollars bail. She is charged with robbery, probation violation, and child endangerment.

• Shoplifter Mom Abandons Her Child In Effort To Save Her Own Skin
• Grandmother Uses 4-Year-Old Grand Daughter To Shoplift, Gets Prison Sentence
• More Incidents Of Shoplifters Abandoning Their Kids To Escape Arrest
• Shoplifters Escape, Leaving Behind Their 10-Year-Old Daughter
• Couple Who Sold Stolen Merchandise On Craigslist And eBay Caught Using Doll And Stroller To Shoplift

Officials are stating that the baby will be okay, but there is no word right now about the extent of any injuries, etc. 

All of this just to escape a shoplifting charge? These people never cease to amaze me by their absolute lack of concern for anyone or anything other than their own greedy wants. Even their own family means nothing to them. They will sacrifice anyone just to get away. This says a lot about where we are today as a society, I’m afraid. 

Our job is anything but safe, and it has always been dangerous to some degree. But in today’s world, we never know what we are going to be faced with each time we go out there to do our jobs. 

The local news story on this is here.

Anybody want to weigh in on this one?

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• 21 Year Old “Mom” Uses Her Baby To Steal Wine
• Grandma Uses Baby As Weapon!
• Shoplifting Suspect Stabs 2 Loss Prevention Agents
• Catch And Release – An Example Of How This Works With Shoplifters

 photo credit: FABIOLA MEDEIROS- direção de arte

To me, time theft is unquestionably theft, and it absolutely causes a loss to the company when an employee sits around in the employee lounge while “clocked in”. Even worse, I consider it time theft when an employee is supposed to be servicing customers, but is instead nowhere to be found. 

Time theft can be hard to prove, but admissions go a long way, so a few instances on video plus a written statement after a good interview usually do the trick. It’s hard to deny the loss, and if the employee admits to intentionally getting paid for “not working”, then the case seems pretty solid to me. 

Simply put, the employee causes a loss to the company by getting paid for time when they were not working. So, read the article here, and then let’s talk about it. Should these be cases of dishonesty? Or, are they behavioral issues that should be dealt with from a corrective action standpoint?

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• Keeping It REAL

That will teach her to keep up! Hey, if auntie can run through a store and make an escape with several layers of stolen clothing on, surely the little girl could keep up with just one layer of clothing on, right?

Pathetic. Read more here

• More Incidents Of Shoplifters Abandoning Their Kids To Escape Arrest
• Shoplifters Escape, Leaving Behind Their 10-Year-Old Daughter
• Fleeing Shoplifter THROWS 2-Month-Old Baby At Loss Prevention
• Tampa Bay Shoplifter Charged With Child Neglect
• Hey Grandma! Let’s Go Shoplifting!

• Woman Abandons Infant Child With LP While Escaping
• Shoplifting One Of The Most Prevalent Crimes In The US Today
• Illegal Aliens Welcomed Into The US, Again.
• House ORC Hearing Today At 4:00 PM
• Is Shoplifting Addictive?

This new bill (SB 1548) would reduce that current penalty down to 1 year and $1000 for any theft up to $600.

Here is my opinion: By reducing the penalties for shoplifting, Florida lawmakers are sending the message that the increase in theft is not that important. Instead of doing something to fund already stretched courts and prosecutors, they have opted to reduce the workload by making the criminal offense less serious.

Oh yeah, and next year, they will undoubtedly claim credit for a reduction in serious theft-related crime.

Anybody from Florida want to comment and start a dialogue on this? How about anybody else?

• Organized Retail Theft – A National Problem Gets National Attention
• Keys To Consistent Low Shrink – Part 7 – Set A Goal, Then Stick To It
• Shoplifting One Of The Most Prevalent Crimes In The US Today
• North Carolina City Sees BIG Increase In Shoplifting
• Organized Retail Theft – “Boosting For Billions” Airs On MSNBC

• Tampa Bay Shoplifter Charged With Child Neglect
• False Shoplifting Accusation Leads To Retail Manager’s Arrest
• Update On Cheryl Greene – Correction
• Regional LP Director Charged With Running A Theft Ring
• Fleeing shoplifter suspect’s car hit a store clerk

LPJobs.com – No doubt the most well known resource for loss prevention jobs is LPJobs.com. Here you can search by keyword, region, state, or even city.  If there is an opening in LP, it is probably listed here.

GetLossPreventionJobs.com –  Newer site, but they have some great tools on the site, including some advanced searches, jobs posting email updates, a resume template for quick application to jobs, etc. The site also is free for job seekers, and free for employers to post jobs.

The Usual Suspects – Career Builder, Monster, and Hot Jobs all post loss prevention jobs, too. Each has different pros and cons. None of them, however specialize in loss prevention, so search results may be less than with sites specifically designed for loss prevention.

There are also some other resources that can help you find a new job in loss prevention:

LinkedIn – Sign up, get recommended by a colleague, and start networking. Join a Loss Prevention group and take part in the discussions there. You can also use your Facebook or Myspace pages to advertise your job search.

Forums and Groups – Join loss prevention forums and groups and take part in the discussions there. Don’t be afraid to ask if anyone knows of any jobs in your area.  Here is a LP Group on Yahoo! to get you started, and there are several more out there. Just google “loss prevention group” or “loss prevention forum”.

Good luck with your job search. Hope this info helps.

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