employee background checks

Shoplifting Prevention

June 21, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

When dealing with a shoplifter, your employees are at risk of violence. Knowing the company’s policies on how to approach and deal with a shoplifter must be known by every employee in your company. A loss prevention training seminar that will help your employees or your loss prevention team deal with such situations is imperative for your business. Safety is always the most important issue when dealing with a shoplifter, and your employees should know this fact. A law suit that can cost your business millions of dollars is not something you can afford to have. Call us, we will walk you though our programs and find the one that meets your need.

For more about shoplifting news, follow the links below.

$20 million lawsuit filed against Arundel Mills security

The family of a suspected shoplifter who drowned in 2014 near Arundel Mills mall has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the shopping center’s security staff for allegedly chasing him to his death.

The family of Tavon Talley filed the lawsuit against Valor Security Services and Mydatt Services in Baltimore City Circuit Court in February. A judge has denied a motion by the defendants to transfer the case to Anne Arundel Circuit Court and allowed the dispute to move forward to trial.

As of Friday, a trial date had yet to be scheduled, according to online court records.

Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Thomas P. Bernier, the Baltimore attorney representing Valor Security and Mydatt Services, declined to comment citing the ongoing litigation.

A spokesman for Mydatt Services, Valor Security’s parent company, did not immediately return a call for comment.

According to the complaint, on July 7, 2014, Talley was at the Zumiez store, which sells skate and snowboarding equipment, when a manager came to suspect the 26-year-old of shoplifting.

Connecticut’s Facial Recognition Bill: A Model for States?

State legislators step back from a bill that would limit such technology and instead take a reasonable approach — that should serve as a model for state legislators considering regulation for other emerging technologies.

Earlier this year, the Connecticut General Assembly was considering a bill that would prohibit the use of facial recognition technology for commercial applications unless companies got prior consent from consumers to gather that information — a move that would have severely curtailed the deployment of the technology. Fortunately, state lawmakers listened to reason and revised the bill so that it now simply requires retailers to display signs indicating that their establishments use facial recognition. This type of reasonable approach to regulating new technology should serve as a model for state legislators considering regulation for other emerging technologies.

Facial recognition is a form of automated image recognition that uses computer algorithms to uniquely identify an individual in a database based on a photo. Concerned with the growing accuracy of the technology, some privacy advocates have argued that facial recognition is a threat to privacy and public anonymity and have recommended the government impose restrictions on both public– andprivate-sector uses of it.

Police: Long Island Macy’s Loss Prevention Employee Steals $69,000 In Perfume

MANHASSET, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Police said a trusted security guard in charge of theft prevention at a Long Island Macy’s used his position to steal.

As CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, Juan Adriano Infante, 21 allegedly got away with $69,000 worth of Chanel perfume.

The Morrow family, who are loyal customers at Macy’s of Manhasset, were disappointed to learn of the heist of products from Chanel – their favorite fragrance.

“He was security and he was stealing?” Ms. Morrow said.

Police and prosecutors said Infante, the loss prevention associate for Macy’s, entered the stockroom where the high-end perfume is kept in storage. Police alleged that Infante carried box after box out of a side exit – making off with 1,000 expensive bottles of perfume.

It happened after he mysteriously disabled the alarm, police said.

“He would actually call the fire alarm company; have them disengage the fire alarm. At that point, he would walk out of the store – the side exit; put these fragrances in his car,” said Nassau County police Detective Lt. Richard Lebrun.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, POS ROI, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Shoplifting Prevention, surveillance

Is Technology The Answer To Shoplifting And Employee Theft?

June 15, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

What is the solution to shoplifting and employee theft? Are harsher punishment by law the solution to this devastating social problem? Technology aimed to help retail stores prevent this problem do not seem to be helping yet. As the technology advances, so does the professional shoplifter. Meanwhile the losses due to shoplifting and employee theft are becoming retailers greatest problems to date.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

Shoplifting: Retail’s $45 Billion Problem

Retailers are struggling to keep tabs on shoplifters who are increasingly becoming their top source of loss, averaging $377 per incidence, up $60 from the year before.

At 39 percent, shoplifting was found to be the biggest contributor among factors that led to overall inventory shrinkage in 2015 causing a $45.2 billion loss across the United States, according to NRF’s 2016 National Retail Security survey. The new numbers reflect a $1.2 billion increase in losses from 2014.

The inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales and saw 47 percent of retailers reporting losses in 2015.

“With a constantly evolving retail landscape, loss prevention becomes more complex every day,” said NRF Vice President of Loss Prevention Bob Moraca. “LP professionals have been working diligently to find advancements in technology aimed at deterring crime in our industry, sometimes even before it happens – but as our techniques get more sophisticated, so too do the criminals.”

Another factor adding to inventory shrinkage was a rise in robberies that exclusively targeted jewelry stores. The average loss reported by robbed stores increased from $2,465 per incidence in 2014 to $8,180.17 last year.

RETAIL INVENTORY SHRINKAGE INCREASED TO $45.2 BILLION IN 2015

The 2016 National Retail Security Survey, conducted in collaboration by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida, reveals that retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by $1.2 billion from 2014.

According to the report, 47 percent of retailers surveyed reported increases in overall inventory shrink in 2015, with shoplifting accounting for the greatest cause with an average loss of $377 per incident (39 percent), up nearly $60 from 2014.

Robberies continue to be a growing expense for retailers, costing an average of $8,180.17, up from $2,465. The rise in robberies in 2015 was driven by an increase in jewelry stores reporting extremely high average losses.

Gieves & Hawkes Installs RFID to Prevent Shrinkage, Track Inventory

The U.K. men’s wear retailer is using a solution from Catalyst to invisibly secure the doorway at its two newest stores, and to make sure its products are always in stock.

Apr 05, 2016—

To improve inventory visibility and prevent loss, men’s clothing retailerGieves & Hawkes has deployed a radio frequency identification system at its store in Birmingham, England. The solution tracks goods as they are received and stored in the back room or store front, then prevents unpurchased merchandise from being taken out the front door by sounding an alert, as well as storing data regarding which item is being removed. The company is expanding its RFID deployment to its newest store, located in of Hackney, an East London borough. The technology is provided by RFID solutions companyCatalyst. Both Gieves & Hawkes and Catalyst are owned by Li & Fung.

Gieves & Hawkes is a high-end men’s custom and ready-to-wear clothing retailer based in London, with more than 200 stores in China alone, as well as eight stores in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1771, making it one of the world’s oldest tailors. Britain’s royal family and royal military have worn its custom suits and clothing for several centuries. (Gieves & Hawkes did not respond to requests for comment.)

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Increase Your Margins Without Spending Anything

June 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Do you REALLY know how to stop shoplifters? I mean, really know? Your Checkpoint System is only half of the strategy. You spent the money, put the labor/time into using labels and tags but after the newness wears off, are you still having more losses than you want?

As a customer of Loss Prevention Systems you have more. Because you bought your system from us and purchase tags/labels from us, we will train you and your staff in any or all of our awesome FREE, LIVE webinars:

Yes, we will conduct these webinars privately for you. As reasonably often as you need. Change in staff, new hires, new supervisor, new manager, refresher training, one person or fifty…. Just call and schedule it.

You see, I believe that the Checkpoint System and Alpha High Theft Solutions equipment is as good as the staff that is handling it. So these webinars are not about how to use the equipment but about how to deter the shoplifters in the first place and what to do when you do catch one. I cover your stores policy (or help you design one), how to approach a suspected shoplifter and deter them, how to handle an alarm from the Checkpoint System, your State’s laws and much more.

My 30 years as an LP professional starting as a Police Officer, Store Investigator, District LP Manager, Regional LP Manager and the Director of LP for two major retailers, give me a vast amount of experience to draw on to help you solve your problems. Think of Loss Prevention Systems as your LP Department. All of that because you are our good customer!

My goal is to reduce YOUR losses. If LPSI can do that, then we are all happy.

So call or email us, get one scheduled before you lose any more merchandise to thieves.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Periodic inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

DID CALIFORNIA JUST DECLARE OPEN SEASON FOR SHOPLIFTERS?

June 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

There’s been some news swirling around the LP world for a few weeks now about California and some new laws that the state has passed. Basically, the state raised the threshold for a felony theft to $950. The article hinted that shoplifting has increased in the major retail stores and calls for shoplifting cases have increased by 25% to the LAPD. The article blamed the new legislation for this. Here’s a link to that article if you’d like to read it. (http://losspreventionmedia.com/insider/shoplifting-organized-retail-crime/welcome-to-california-a-shoplifters-paradise/?mqsc=E3836406).

I know I’ll catch some flak from my colleagues, but I’m going to openly disagree. Honestly, I don’t think your average shoplifter is paying much attention to the state laws governing shoplifting. In my home state of Louisiana, felony theft, when I started my LP career was $350. Over time, the state legislators have increased that to $500, and more recently to $750. So where that shoplifter was being charged with a felony 10 years ago, they are now being charged with a misdemeanor. In most cases, they are still booked into parish jail and have to bond out. Very rarely do officers issue a citation. Our jails are just as over-crowded as California and our budget situation is arguably worse. If California is seeing an increase in shoplifting, let’s also consider that the state has no laws regarding organized retail crime.

In Louisiana, there are organized retail crime laws on the books. In addition, shoplifting has a habitual offender clause. These two pieces of legislation are what makes an impact, not the dollar threshold for a felony. Your organized criminal enterprises are what’s causing you problems. These are the boosters who target stores up and down the interstate. The groups that make a living conducing refund fraud and those individuals who just will continue to steal because they see it as “victim-less”. These are the people that impact retailers and these are the ones that deserve the harsher penalties. I don’t believe a high school kid, or college freshman should be subject to a felony if their first offense is stealing a $300 pair of headphones. They need consequences, but a felony record is not one of them.

Why organized crime laws work for the state

If you are stealing for the sole purpose of re-selling for profit, you are a problem. Chances are, if you’re involved with a group like this, you’re also involved in other, more serious crimes. Just this past year, I was able to help local detectives make a case against a ring of car thieves. While detectives didn’t have enough evidence at the time to book anyone on the car thefts, the same people were involved in organized retail crimes. They were stealing large quantities of ammunition and then selling the merchandise at local flea markets and gun shows to fund their car theft operation. Police were able to use the organized crime laws to bring felony charges against them, which led them to the evidence they needed to bust the car theft case wide open. Had it not been for those laws being on the books, these violent criminals may still be out on the streets.

Additionally, Louisiana has a habitual offender clause in the shoplifting law. Anyone convicted of shoplifting 3 times shall be charged with a felony on each subsequent arrest. Basically, if you are convicted 3 times of shoplifting, whether those convictions are misdemeanors or felonies, any subsequent arrest is upgraded to felony charges from the DA’s office. I’ve seen this work in action a dozen or so times throughout my time here. Just last year, we busted a guy for stealing about $200 worth of apparel. He was out on parole for aggravated battery. He had 4 other shoplifting convictions. The DA prosecuted him as a habitual offender, which revoked his parole and he went back to prison to serve the remainder of his 5 year sentence. That’s what has an impact. If a person knows that they can face actual time, you have a deterrence to shoplifting.

So maybe, retail leaders in California should shift their focus from complaining about the felony threshold, to lobbying their elected leaders to pass meaningful legislation that will actually have an impact on shoplifting. While some professional criminals will take advantage of this new law, the retail community and lawmakers should work together to pass laws that target those that are the true problem. That starts with an organized retail crime law, California.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, Periodic inventory, Perpetual Inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention

EMPLOYEE THEFT – A LESSON IN HUMAN NATURE

June 7, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It’s no big secret that I can’t stand a thief; I did make a career out of catching them. Shoplifters really get under my skin, but employee theft really fires me up. You put people to work, give them opportunity to grow and instead of putting in the long hours, hard work and dedication needed to move forward, they steal from you. They betray your trust, slap you in the face and take money out of your pocket and food off your family’s table. Will you ever stop employee theft completely? Probably not. You can, however, minimize the risk.

If you employ people, there’s a good chance one of them will eventually steal from you. Through my Loss Prevention career, the excuse I’ve heard the most from dishonest employees was that they did it because it was “easy”. So why are we, business owners and managers making it so easy for our employees to steal from us? The first problem I see constantly is that, over time, complacency sets in. The next is a failure to follow established controls and finally, my personal favorite, is a lack of oversight.

A key to being a good manager is to not be over-bearing. I’ve learned a long time ago to “trust, but verify”. What that means is that you trust that your employees are doing what they are supposed to do when you’re not around, but you verify, and not simply assume they are. For example, you tell your warehouse team that the back door should never be open without a manager present. This is a basic control measure to prevent product from walking out of the back door. You obviously can’t be in your warehouse all hours of the day and night, so you have to verify. CCTV makes this easy. Managers often fall victim to complacency. If the warehouse crew knows that that the manager never checks to see if the doors are open, or that manager never addresses the violation, an environment for a dishonest associate to thrive is created.

Failing to adhere to established controls is yet another way we, as managers, often let our employees steal from us. (It also goes hand-in-hand with complacency.) I’ll give you a great example. I worked for a company that had a carry-out policy with respect to large, bulk items. If an employee was assisting a customer with a large item, the employee had to have the door greeter sign off on the receipt before it was carried outside. This was of course to discourage employee theft. I remember walking near the front doors as an employee rolled out a TV set. The door greeter asked to sign the receipt, and the employee said, “I’ll sign it outside”. There was a manager at the door as well. Both the greeter and the manager did not react to this. I immediately went back to the cameras and discovered this employee had just stolen this TV. A subsequent investigation showed he had rolled out thousands of dollars in this same manner. If the store would’ve followed their established controls and not fell into complacency, this employee would never had the opportunity to steal.

Manager. The word manage is actually in the name! The working world needs managers because most people need oversight. Some may need more than others, and you’ll find that some people need very little. You have to adapt your style of management to suit each of your employees. Managers that sit in the office all day long and are never give a sales floor presence are more likely to be the manager that employees feel comfortable stealing around. This isn’t to say that the manager is “in on it,” but the dishonest employee knows their chance of being caught is greatly reduced when “that manager” is working. Presence on the floor and constant follow up are traits of a good retail manager. Knowing that at any moment you can round the corner to see what the team is working on will keep those dishonest employees on their toes. Chances are, they won’t risk being caught, or better yet, they won’t ever see an opportunity to steal from you!

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Workshop, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Is Low Income A Reason To Shoplift?

May 20, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Lawmakers across the nation have been asking for harsher theft penalties for shoplifting. California and other states have passed laws that anything below $950 dollars worth of stolen merchandise is a misdemeanor. The punishment for shoplifters is negligent, and small business owners wonder whether the laws are there to protect the small business or the shoplifter. Many government officials believe that an increase in wages will help the fight against shoplifting, but many small business owners are skeptical.

For more about this and other stories follow the links below.

N.J. Senate committee to take up $15 minimum wage

A New Jersey Senate committee is expected to act Monday on a plan that would phase in the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years.

The National Federation of Independent Business says raising the cost of labor will be a blow for small businesses. It predicts the move will cost 70,000 jobs in New Jersey over the next decade.

Senate President Steve Sweeney disputes that. He says giving low-income workers more money to spend will make the economy stronger.

“We raised the minimum wage last time. They predicted thousands of layoffs. Guess what? There were thousands of jobs added,” said Sweeney, a Democrat from Gloucester County.

William Rodgers, public policy professor at Rutgers, says the number of job openings has increased but companies are not filling many of those positions because the salaries are low.

“So by raising the minimum wage you’re going to help some of these employers fill those vacancies that they’ve been having for a long period of time,” he said. “You’re also going to see improvement in morale. Productivity is going to improve.”

Change in law results in big jump in California shoplifting

ROCKLIN, Calif. (AP) — Perry Lutz says his struggle to survive as a small businessman became a lot harder after California voters reduced theft penalties 1½ years ago.

About a half-dozen times this year, shoplifters have stolen expensive drones or another of the remote-controlled toys he sells in HobbyTown USA, a small shop in Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento. “It’s just pretty much open season,” Lutz said. “They’ll pick the $800 unit and just grab it and run out the door.”

Anything below $950 keeps the crime a misdemeanor – and likely means the thieves face no pursuit and no punishment, say retailers and law enforcement officials. Large retailers including Safeway, Target, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies say shoplifting increased at least 15 percent, and in some cases, doubled since voters approved Proposition 47 and ended the possibility of charging shoplifting as a felony with the potential for a prison sentence.

Shoplifting reports to the Los Angeles Police Department jumped by a quarter in the first year, according to statistics the department compiled for The Associated Press. The ballot measure also lowered penalties for forgery, fraud, petty theft and drug possession.

$37,000 in goods shoplifted, couple arrested

The couple allegedly stole from Safeway, Target and Fred Meyer.

SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) — Salem police, with the assistance of a region retail theft prevention coalition, arrested 2 people for unlawful racketeering.

Salem Police Lt. Steve Birr said Michael Rascon and his wife, Maria Rojas, were arrested on Thursday morning after detectives executed a search warrant in the 100 block of Connecticut Street Southeast.

A large amount of new retail items still in their original packaging was located at the residence, police said.

Rascon and Rojas will be charged with unlawful racketeering, money laundering, organized retail theft, and first-degree theft by deception.

Investigators with Safeway/Albertsons, Fred Meyer and Target collaborated as part of the Northwest Organized Retail Crime Alliance to build the case against them.

KOIN 6 News has learned the two were selling stolen items online, buying stolen merchandise and even had “shopping lists” of things that they wanted stolen so they could turn around and sell.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Preventing Shoplifting Today

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The reasons associated with shoplifting and employee theft are many. Shoplifting is now considered one of the most widespread crimes in the United States, and according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) there are about 550,000 shoplifting incidents daily. The billions of dollars lost to shoplifting and employee theft robs not only the store, but the consumer and the communities where they are located. Security measures to prevent shoplifting still seem to fall short, and retailers across the nation invest heavily in the most up to date security systems for their store. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Loss Prevention Strategies in a New Age of Natural Selection

There are times when each of us must challenge our convictions and embrace change.

We live in a time of great change. We work in an industry where our ability to adjust to the needs of the customer and the dynamics of a global market sculpt the landscape of retail. We serve in a profession that demands that our loss prevention strategies adapt and adjust to business strategies, our retail partners, and the many elements that can impact company profitability. This isn’t exactly breaking news. We know this. We preach this. We embrace these principles as a critical aspect of what we do. Why then, are there those that are so resistant to certain types of change?

Why do some applaud advancements in technology, but fail to take advantage of the technology that’s available right at their fingertips? Why do some advocate the value of training and education, but fail to support an industry certification program? Why do some lecture their teams on the power of information, and then not take simple steps to stay informed? How is it that we can see the train coming and stand on the tracks rather than jumping on board?

The First Line of Defense

Retailers look to make exterior customer spaces safer

The combination of shootings — by terrorists or otherwise — and other workplace violence has put the retail industry on edge. Stores, restaurants and shopping centers struggle with strategies to protect employees and customers inside their locations, as well as in the parking area outside.

There are few patterns as to how and why the violence takes place where it does, and scant data to support any particular hypothesis. Such violence doesn’t occur on a daily basis, and is just infrequent enough that occurrences generate news alerts on social media and local radio, video lead-ins for the nightly news and headlines in daily newspapers.

Already in the first three months of this year, the industry has seen such incidents as a fast-food employee accused of killing his manager in the restaurant’s parking lot in a Kansas City suburb; a discount store manager in Mobile, Ala., who police say was shot to death by a man he lived with; a 23-year-old clerk at a Norfolk, Va., convenience store shot in the chest during a robbery; and an attempted robbery at a cash loan store in Irving, Tex., that turned into a hostage situation when the armed robber grabbed a female employee to use as a shield as he attempted to get to his car for a getaway. The robber/kidnapper was shot and killed by a responding police officer.

Ten Cheap and Easy Shoplifting Prevention Tips

We’ve put together ten tips that you can use as a business owner to reduce theft and shoplifting at your business. Most thieves shoplift on an average of 1.5 times a week; with nearly $25 million worth of merchandise stolen every day. The following is a list of proactive steps you can take to reduce your losses due to shoplifting.

1. Prevention is your best protection. A business that announces they don’t tolerate theft will often be passed over in favor of a more “friendly” store. Signage and cameras (real or realistic-looking fakes) discourage many would-be shoplifters. Postacrime (www.postacrime.com) has a variety of effective signage and prevention tools. Decals on windows, fitting room mirrors and display fixtures will let the criminals know you’re watching them closely. Many police departments post advice and precautions on preventing retail theft; the Salem, Oregon police department (http://www.cityofsalem.net./export/departments/police/tips_for_preventing_shoplifting.htm) offers very practical information on protecting your business.

2. Trained employees are your best weapon against shoplifting. Just the act of greeting a patron or offering help lets a shoplifter know that he/she is being watched and the employees are attentive. Employees should watch for inappropriately baggy clothing, lingering in corners and unusual attention to traffic and employees. Occasionally a shoplifter will have a partner to create a distraction such as an argument or fainting; employees should designate one or more to react in such a situation while the others continue to work.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Training, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, shoplifting, surveillance

Get More Out Of Your Burglar Alarm System

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Is your burglar alarm giving you all it’s got? Technology keeps updating but there is one area you may not be thinking about getting more from your dollar: your burglar alarm system.

Alarm systems can now do so much more for the retailer. First, if you are still transmitting alarm signals via your phone line, then you are very vulnerable. Phone lines are really terrible for transmitting signals. They are slow and unreliable. Your phone line goes down and your alarm is not going to communicate with anyone. Change to cellular communications and you will get the signal out. You see, alarm systems communicate on a different cellular channel than your voice “can you hear me now” channel. That channel is very strong. You may not have good voice service in your store but chances are your alarm system cellular service is great. Cellular signals are MUCH faster also. Cost? Should only add a few dollars a month to your monitoring invoice.

Heard about or been a victim of copper theft. You know, copper, the metal that your roof top or side of building air conditioner units tubing is made of. Thieves will tear up your a/c just to steal that copper to sell it. This leaves your business down until replacement and repair can be completed. Your alarm company can put a sensor on your outside a/c unit that will trip your alarm, if they try to tamper with it. Cost of the part is about $70 +/-.

Do you have valuable property at your business such as equipment, artwork….. that is never to be moved or removed from the premises? Honeywell makes a wireless sensor that is about half the size of a pack of cigarettes. This sensor attaches to that item. It can be programed different ways to notify you if the item is moved or removed. This sensor is monitored by your burglar alarm system.

Your alarm company can guide you. If they don’t have a solution or don’t understand, then you should look for another vendor who can think outside the box.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, retail security and monitoring, shoplifting violence

HARDENING YOUR PERIMETER – PREVENTING A BURGLARY

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

My grandparents owned a small hardware store back in the late 1950s. Back then, when my grandpa left at 5pm, he simply locked the back door, gathered his belongings and left, locking the double glass front door behind him with nothing more than a standard lock that you’d find on any home at the time. The front of the store was nothing but glass. He had cash and at least $100k worth of merchandise on the shelves. Wouldn’t it be nice if things could go back to the way they were back then? Could you imagine if you left your store this soft nowadays? Burglaries happen, and they happen often. Over the past ten years as a Regional LP manager for my company, I’ve had it happen a total of 12 times. About once a year, or so, someone, somewhere across my region, breaks into one of my stores; or at least tries to do so. We have a lot of things that we implement to prevent this from happening, so when someone is able to breach our perimeter, it’s usually caused by human error.

Hiding in a rack

Out of the 12, six never actually tried to “break in”. They simply just stayed in the store. Closing manager task #1 is to WALK THE SALES FLOOR thoroughly before dismissing the team. Always check the hiding spots, restrooms and fitting room stalls, in addition the warehouse areas. What always struck me about these cases, is the suspect has literally nowhere to go. He’s locked into the store; and during every single case, the suspect was a trapped mouse. This of course, is due to the fire exit bars that are installed and locked once the building is no longer occupied. Most criminals think they can just grab what they want and push out of a fire exit…

Smash and grab

I’ve had two of these during my tenure. Suspect drives a vehicle through the front entrance. It never really works out in the long run though. Of these two, one made it in, but the truck was so heavily damaged, it wouldn’t move. The other didn’t get past the cement bollards in the front. I highly recommend the installation of bollards if you don’t have them. Smash and grabs are a more and more common way to burglarize small businesses. Bollards are a way to quite literally, fight back.

Walk right in

My personal 3 favorite burglaries of all times; which also led to the terminations of three separate managers. I know that closing a store has its own set of challenges and there are plenty of things that need to get done before you go home… setting the alarm and locking the door shouldn’t be the two things that you forget though. Either one, or both has happened and they have usually resulted from a scattered brained manager getting very distracted, or not doing something right on the alarm panel. One just got distracted with a personal phone call that he left the store so quickly that the front doors weren’t locked. There are criminals that check these things often. We see thieves check car door handles to see if the car is locked; well there are some that do the same to businesses.

Rappel down

If you have a skylight(s) it is important to make sure access to your roof is restricted at all times. If not, someone can get up there and steal the copper out of your AC units, or go special forces and rappel down into your store; two very funny stories that you’ll have to read in the next article.

While burglaries are a more common problem that we might think, there are several measures that you can implement to make your store less of a target for these crooks. Whether it’s installing an alarm panel, putting in a roll-down shutter down, or making sure the roof ladder isn’t left accessible and your front doors are actually locked at night. Following some pretty basic steps and using some good old fashioned common sense can help you to avoid the headache and lost money that comes from a burglary.

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NON-TRADITIONAL USES FOR EAS DEVICES

April 12, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

EAS is great isn’t it? For the most part, if someone is stealing product “X,” you slap on a quick tag or label and you see a pretty substantial reduction in shrink (for the most part.… Live in the real world). As my LP career has progressed over the years, I’ve seen EAS change drastically. I’ve also seen what retailers apply EAS tags to change as well. Often times, I scratch my head in disbelief at the ideas that come out sometimes and others, I pull my hair out because we could have been more proactive with tag placement. I’ve also seen some fantastic ideas from my store teams on some not so standard tagging procedures.

I had a store a few years ago that were consistently losing their register keys. We later learned that an employee was stealing them and was coming into the store during busy times and just helping themselves to cash in the unattended registers. It took a few months and over $7,500 to put the pieces together before we had an idea of what was happening. That’s a very expensive lesson to learn; especially when there is quite literally, a $0.5 solution.

All of our register keys have a small hole in the top, so they can be hooked to a lanyard for the cashier supervisor to carry around. After our theft incident, we used a pencil tag through that hole to make it less appealing to try and steal the key. Granted, the thief could take it to the service desk and remove the EAS device, but that requires a few more steps that most are not willing to take. As a matter of fact, since taking this one proactive measure, we’ve never had to replace a “lost” register key. For us, it seems to be a great way to maintain a solid key control procedure.

After using some EAS tags on these keys, it really got me thinking about what else is a potential risk in our stores that we don’t secure, but should. The list is virtually endless if you think about it. The next big item that we began securing with EAS hard tags was our handheld units (Symbols/Telxons). A few of our stores fell victim to an eBay thief a few years back, in part due to the ease of removing them from ours store. Since running an Alpha tag with a lanyard through them, we hadn’t lost a single one to theft.

We also have a lot of in-store use only type items (think step-ladders, folding carts, dollies…). As part of our risk mitigation efforts, we utilize EAS tags on all of these items. While they often have to be used outside of the store; the idea that when they do go out, our greeter becomes aware that they are going outside and can better keep track of our in store equipment. You wouldn’t believe how many times someone has stolen a hand truck, or pallet jack from me…

The bottom line is that EAS can be used to protect much more than just your inventory. There are dozens of items inside your four walls that cost you money that dishonest people would just love to take. Why go out and spend any more money that you have to in order to protect your supplies when the answer is already in your store? I’m all about leveraging available resources to accomplish your goals and this is just another item in a skilled LP manager’s tool belt.

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