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pete black

Well-known Member
Was in TSC checking out when the doors merchandise alarm went off, guy in door just continued outside. When I asked what she was going to do, she replied "nothing". Management told them once they were outside, do not do anything. She didn't even notify management of the incident. They can either afford that kind of loss or as we all know, just pass it on to the customer. Seriously considering not shopping there anymore, at least make some kind of attempt.
 
I don't know how many times I have set off the alarm after I purchased something. I don't think those things work all that well.
 
The store probably has security cameras on all exits and looking down most isles. The store's security officer will likely file a police report and send a video of the incident with several other videos of the person to your local police.
 
My friends own a store (not a TSC) and that is the opposite from what they say. You cannot accuse them of stealing UNTIL they are outside. While in the store they could have every intention of paying and if you accuse them in the store you can get into trouble. Sounds like a lazy employee to me. Not sticking up for TSC and I don't know the local laws where you are so maybe it's different.
 
Oh boy - I just SALIVATE at the thought of a retailer coming at me after their siren goes off when I walk out. Please, get your security guard to try to detain me! Please, one of your store clerks grab me and tackle me to the ground. Please, please, please I'm begging all you retailers to accuse me of theft after the alarm. C'mon! I - am - right - here. Do it - I will OWN you.
 
I've heard it both ways. Unfortunately, FAR more times I've heard store employees say that once outside the store there is nothing they can do. Personally, I think the store is more afraid of a lawsuit than worrying about a lesser amount of merchandise to leave unpaid for.

If someone leaves the store and sets off the alarm, then security (or ???) chases after, if there is ANY physical contact, regardless of how small, then the perp can claim injury. Just having someone out there faking being injured would be bad publicity enough for the store to want to overlook it.

Wife and I actually watched as someone walked out of a WalMart with a flat screen TV without going through a register or customer service. The alarm went off, yet nobody did anything. I asked our cashier about it (she was also a manager of some sort) and she explained the legal fears. And with this becoming more and more common knowledge, it's becoming an increasingly huge problem, especially around Christmas time.
 
My local Blain's Farm & Fleet normally has the alarm go off when I'm there, had it happen to me a couple times because the cash register clerk forgets to take the sensor out of something I bought like a pair of shoes, power tool, etc. I stop, manager comes up, I hand them my reciept showing I paid for it, they apologize, remove the sensor and I leave.
 
Exactly, I?ve had that stupid alarm go off dozens of times. Usually stop and look at the cashier who just rang my stuff through and she says it?s fine that thing goes off all the time.
 
Most places the law doesn't consider it shoplifting until they go out the door with it. You can put merchandise in your pockets while in the store and it's legal if you take it out of your pocket when at the checkout. The way things are today the store is likely to get sued though if they stop a suspected shoplifter. That is probably the reason they let them go.
 
Every few days it is in local paper somebody has been arested for shoplifting at our local Walmart. Lowes will not do anything.
 
This is the way it is in Ohio, cannot do anything untill outside the door, then is when they can be taken care of.
 
A friend of mine works at a Wall-Mart, it's unreal the amount of merchandise that goes out the door. He told me the figures a few times after they did the annual inventory. Hundreds of thousands worth and that is just one store.
 
My Daughter works in theft prevention at chain store. They can follow them out the door and to the end of the company property. They are to take pictures and video footage and she is on the phone to the local police as she follows them. One time it was slippery out and the perp. slipped and fell, she laughed or chuckled ? as we all would I guess. He was all in an uproar wanting to sue because she laughed. One time another person took some stuff and she followed him. He was on a rascal cart. His battery ran dry BEFORE he made it to the end of the parking lot. Police soon showed up.
Many times they see people ahead of time and have the cops called and waiting outside before they bolt. Many of them you recognize as they come in as they are repeat offenders.
The owner of all the stores came to personally meet her the other day as she is in the top 10 of all the stores in apprehensions.
 
Different stores have different policies. Depends on the crime rate of the area.

I was shopping at HD on south side of Ft Worth. I was in the check out line, these 3 big goons came through the door "escorting" a shoplifter toward the back of the store. One on each side, one behind, half carrying him, moving almost at a trot.

I asked the cashier (that I know fairly well as a customer) what was happening. She said they caught him stealing, followed him to the parking lot, brought him back in. Said it happens quite often, as that is a high crime area. They hold them for the police.

Then, at another HD, I overheard a conversation between employees about a lady charging the door with a shopping cart full of tools. They let her go, watched her load the car, took the license number, called police.

I asked then why they didn't go after her, and told them what I saw at the other store. Said that this store is in a low crime area, not feasible to keep security on the clock, don't want to risk injury or retaliation to an employee, so they just let them go.

Another time, I was walking into a Walmart, nearly got knocked down by a shoplifter coming out, with 3 employees chasing him! They chased him to a waiting car, he jumped in and was gone.

I can see where there is potential for so many things to go wrong with a foot chase through a parking lot. I would not want to be the employee told to go after them!
 
So, how much shoplifting loss is avoided by a retailer that goes for internet shopping over the actual store. Are we all learning something here?
 
They call it "Shrinkage". When I was a kid and if I would have taken
something I would have the tar pounded out of me. I think it is time
to be able to drop them in the parking lot.
 
I know I will get blasted for This but, laws need to be changed. If they go out the door with something not paid for. They should be asked if they forgot to pay for it. If so, no problem. If not, they should be stopped by any means of force including shooting and that should be legal. If this would start happening, I would bet shoplifting would slow down.
 
In CA (Crazy America) it is a misdemeanor to shop lift under $700 or a thousand, I can't remember. If the police show, which they usually don't, they issue a ticket. Some places shop lifting is rampant. A couple of places have begun apprehending but everyone is liability nuts.
 
Do they have any estimates of how much of the theft is being done by customers going out the front door and how much of the theft is done by employees going out the back door? Both can be substantial. Breakage and damaged merchandise are also factors.
 
That didn't really happen that much in the old west, only the movies. Something needs to be done but that is going too far. Probably the best solution is harder sentences for criminal behavior but the bleeding hearts are getting more and more abundant. At least put the criminals to work doing something so they are paying society for their keep rather than the other way around.
 
I believe the number one loss is employee theft in the retail industry. The probably have bigger fish to fry. By no means am I condoning shoplifting, but reality is there is only so much time and energy to devote and may as well plug the largest hole.
 
(quoted from post at 14:09:02 11/30/17) They call it "Shrinkage". When I was a kid and if I would have taken
something I would have the tar pounded out of me. I think it is time
to be able to drop them in the parking lot.
Click to expand...

I bet the guy in Mike M's post had a bit of 'shrinkage' going on when he hit that slippery parking lot, with an employee snickering nearby! *lol*
 
It's one thing to send police or armed professional security guards to confront a possibly dangerous shoplifter, it's another thing to require untrained minimum wage store employees to risk injury or death for the benefit the corporation's shareholders. Most stores work with police to have a solid case established and a plan worked out before sending any people into danger.
 
I've never seen a tag, its usually those items they rub on the pad at the cash. I'm assuming they are degausing something in the packaging when they do that?
 
The guy may have paid for everything and the electronic thingy that cancels the anti-theft tag is broken . I have that at Lowes where everybody set it off and nobody cares. May not be shoplifters at all.
 
I am not sure that I can follow your logic here.
You want to punish the store for not apprehending a shoplifter by depriving them of a paying customer? Because a cashier did not try to apprehend the shoplifter?
As others have said, for cashier wages, I would not go after a shoplifter either. But, it is not the store's fault that they are getting ripped off. Figure daily losses against the cost of full time security for the day. May be less expensive to just let the shoplifters go. Either way, I would not shun a store for not catching a shoplifter.
 
In my book almost as bad as shoplifters are the cockroaches who go through the store loading up on impulse items, only to realize that they can't afford them and then stash them in the most convenient place they can find. It's sickening to see a package of steak, a chicken, or a carton of ice cream hidden in the dog food aisle thawing. It's bad enough when it's canned goods, but perishables....? If you're ever in a WalMart after midnight you can see dozens of grocery carts loaded up with all sorts of merchandise that has been picked up around the store. The perishables are discarded, but even the non-perishables have to be sorted and returned to the shelf.
 
One local contractor just got prison time for his role running a ring of thieves. People would steal merchandise from Lowes stores across the Midwest, then bring it here and be paid cash. The contractor and several associates would then return the stolen goods to Lowes, for which they received store credit. They then used the store credit for supplies for their construction jobs, which paid them back more than retail. Estimates are of hundreds of thousands of dollars approaching a million, just from this outfit.
 
I see that happen at Home Depot fairly often. Someone forgets to cancel the anti theft device in the package so it sets off the alarm at the door.
Funny to see someone just Stop in their tracks when it happens.
I usually holler RUN!
Always get a laugh.
 
Kinda like the idiots that bought a car off the dealership I worked for. The idiots left the dealership name plates on the car while they were stealing stuff from different stores. Cops came to me with a warrent requesting information on the car. Heck I even had to give them the perps home address. 2 days later the cops called me and wanted me send someone to come pick up the car. That was fun.
 
my niece used to work at a kmart a rather large woman was putting clothes on under and over her own clothes
she got caught she ran out the door with a kmart person behind her.
by the time she got to her car she was almost naked and the police were waiting for her
 
You are exactly right. Years ago, I worked in loss prevention in a major clothing store chain. What the store pays for a piece of clothing is nothing compared to the potential of a employee getting hurt attempting to get it back. One officer I worked with chased a shoplifter into the parking lot where he tackled him. The shoplifter later sued the store chain for being injured. We were later told that we could no longer follow a shoplifter after they exited the store.
 
The town our local Wally is in has a large population of, um, immigrants. The Walmart has store security who do detain shoplifters if they can catch them. Otherwise, the police are given photos of the thief. The police usually do track them down. Sometimes there are four or five arrests per week, sometimes no arrests.
 
Shoplifters are plentiful in this town. I see the state police blotter with many arrests per week or so. Latest one has a guy getting caught at the grocery store, they let him go on his own recognizance and immediately he goes to walmart and gets busted again, this time they locked him up. It seems they catch most if not all of them, including their own employees. There is a TSC across the road from here, not many thefts. Employees of these retailers are likely to be fired if they pursue a shoplifter.
 
Yepper. Don't pick the first item hanging on the shelf. I was in ww one day and a package of Band-Aids had been opened. Men's "smell pretty" usually have several you can tell have had tampering.

HD around here has a big problem. High dollar items like chain saws and upper cut hand tools just get walked out the door like there was nothing wrong with it.

I guess if you grew up where stealing was a way of life it would be the norm.....as would be going to church on Sunday and asking for forgiveness......to go out and do the same thing the following week and the week after and etc.
 
I got a billfold at Kohl's several years ago and, as it was a gift, never gave it another thought. Then, I started setting off the alarms at Wal*Mart, TSC, Farm Fleet and likely other places. It was never an issue, as every store knew me and what I'd bought. So, one day while cleaning out my billfold, now a couple years old, I discovered a piece of paper about an inch and a half square with a printed circuit on it, stuck to the inside. Seriously, that was what was setting off those alarms; something I never noticed. By the way, that alarm is deliberately inside the store, so if you have forgotten to pay for something, you still have a chance to 'make it right'. An item isn't stolen until it's outside the store.
 
boy, you sound like a fine citizen, just waiting for your "lawsuit Lotto" payout. :roll: Taking a retailer's attempt to catch shoplifters as a personal affront to you makes me suspect that you might be one of those who are doing the shoplifting.

Like others I have had the alarm go off many times because the items was not degaussed. I've always stopped and turned around and the clerk or someone else usually nods or waves me on. If I DID make it to the parking lot and someone came out after me, I'd just stop and show them the receipt. No need to "tackle" anyone. The only need to try and restrain someone is if they refuse to show a receipt or obviously didn't go through the checkout line. Sounds like you would be in that group.

Behaving responsibly and civilly is part of living in our society. Sounds like you need to learn that.
 
First off, the little gal at the TSC checkout isn't going to be able to physically stop a shoplifter. Most shoplifters would even take on one or two big goons. That's why there were three goons in that one incident.

These days you never know what that shoplifter is going to do. They may pull a knife. They may pull a gun. They may use it. Heck they could even be crazy enough to beat someone to death with their bare fists. Do you really think a cashier should put their life on the line for a $10 shirt, or a $150 TV set?
 
Could be they had previous film footage of them stealing a lot of other items ? They can use all that in court to build a case.
My Daughter nabbed a girl stealing a pack of gum ! But she knew this person from film footage but no one could ever catch her.
The cop that came when she called them chewed my Daughter out that he was called over a pack of gum. He was too lazy to do the paperwork. She was really upset ,but was doing her job properly. Ended up the cop had to apologize to her.
 
Well, i certainaly did not expect her to go after the male shoplifter, however I do expect more than just turn a blind eye to it.
 
few month ago I dove 10 miles back to store because I forgot to pay for donut I consumed while shopping. Later I called store because I did same thing a few weeks later. The manager laughed and said you did that before. Just pay next time, or if you want a job here you can have one.
 
Your comment reminded me of a recent experience. We had just finished spending about $300 on groceries, small town chain grocer,
shop frequently, know the folks running it, normal checkout, bagger guy rolls them out to the truck and we load them.

Getting in I remember I forget the fried catfish which is one of their delicacy's. Go back in and get such and go to the checkout counter,
show my discount card, chat some more with the cashiers, joking and all and just walk out with the little bag of fish dangling from my
fingers.

Manager-assistant comes running out after me, and comes up alongside, sorta startling me. Points to the fish and said I didn't pay for it. I
stopped, looked her while she was speaking, and then looked down and sure nuf, there in my hand was a bag of fish. Never did that
before, but there it was, I had just walked out------a "shoplifter", by definition.

So yeah there are exceptions. I had already set my mind on what else was on the agenda for the rest of the day and had totally forgotten
to pay for that item. Maybe next time I need to pay attention to what I'm doing and quit the foolishness with the employees. But that is not
to be confused with the person with criminal intent.
 
On the news this morning, three brazen shoplifters try to kill the mall guard who was trying to stop them:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-Jersey-Mall-Shoplifters-Wayne-Lord-and-Taylor-462441763.html

This wasn't no little gal at the TSC counter, either. This was a full on "man's man" mall cop, wouldn't doubt but he's off duty police.

By the video the poor guy probably has serious road rash.

Would you put your life on the line like that for some mall goods, if you were being paid to be a "guard."
 
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