Shoplifting Prevention

Social Media and Shoplifting

July 25, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Social media has brought many changes to businesses around the world. One of the biggest changes that many businesses take advantage of with social media platforms, is the ability to market their business without spending thousands of dollars doing so. Marketing is not only for the big 500 companies, now the small mom and pop shop can and does market their business using social media as well.

It is no wonder then, that business owners are using social media to protect themselves, and warn other businesses of potential shoplifters. By posting video and written posts using Facebook and other mediums, businesses are taking security in their own hands.

Home Depot responds after firing Pearland employee who chased shoplifters

A former Pearland Home Depot employee who tried to stop three shoplifters was fired because his actions could have endangered employees or the general public, a Home Depot spokesman said Monday.

According to an interview given by former employee Jim Tinney to KTRK, Tinney saw three men attempting to leave the store in June, with tool sets they had not paid for. Tinney attempted to stop them by throwing an object at their feet.

Tinney did not immediately return calls to the Chronicle for information.

Home Depot’s policy prevents employees from attempting to stop shoplifters, said Stephen Holmes, director of corporate communications

Washington’s New Biometric Privacy Law: What Businesses Need to Know

With the rise in hackings and data breaches, companies and government agencies are looking for ways to protect their data that offer more security than passwords. Because passwords are easily lost, stolen, guessed, and cracked by hackers, companies are shifting to the use of biological characteristics that uniquely identify you, called biometric identifiers. For example, financial institutions and online retailers are developing ways to authenticate a purchase by requiring a user to take a selfie and smile, wink, or make another gesture. A stolen password could be easily reused, but faking a user’s arbitrary facial expression is more complicated.

But along with the strength of biometric identifiers comes new risks. When hackers steal your password, you change it. But when hackers acquire your fingerprint or facial scan, you can’t change either. Indeed, biometric identifiers are often selected for their permanence. For example, many companies are investing in scanners that identify a person based on the pattern of veins in their fingertip, rather than their fingerprint. A person’s vascular identity is harder to forge than a fingerprint and it changes less over time.

Recent rash of shoplifting infuriates business owners

Juneau store owners turn to social media to ID suspects

A recent rash of shoplifters has caused local business owners to take to social media, posting surveillance video screenshots in the hopes of identifying the perpetrators and warning other storekeepers.

In one suspect’s case, she was quickly identified as having hit two different businesses in one week — and the same woman has been charged in a shoplifting at downtown store Shoefly a little more than a month ago.

With the exception of the woman charged in connection with the shoplifting incident at Shoefly, the Empire is not printing the names of the suspects as identified on social media, because they have not been arrested or charged.

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Policies and Procedures: Do You Have Them in Place?

July 18, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

In the United States alone, there are over half a million shoplifting incidents everyday. The losses are in the billions and the deaths associated to shoplifting incidents are numerous. Whether you have a store policy where every shoplifter is prosecuted, or whether your store prosecutes only if the amount stolen is over a hundred dollars, the policies and procedures have to be crystal clear for every employee that works in your store.

A store employee has to be knowledgeable about the store policy concerning a shoplifting incident. Can any employee stop a shoplifter using any means necessary? Can they follow them even outside the store? Can they forcefully attempt to stop them before they leave the premises? Do they even know what to do and how to respond if they are witness to a shoplifting incident?

Training and informing your employees of the policies they must follow when working for you and your store can save lives and lawsuits. Safety should be your primary concern when dealing with shoplifters, and should be voiced to all your employees.

Training can be reinforced as a reminder of the policies the store follows regarding shoplifters during a brief hustle in the morning before customers arrive.The capital you invest in the training of your loss prevention team and other management employees can save you expensive lawsuits later on.

Employees at stores like Walmart have been involved in incidents where a shoplifter has lost his life because the employees did not follow the procedures set by the store. An employee at Home Depot has been terminated because he did not follow the strict policy set forth by the store concerning shoplifters. Who is at fault? The lawsuits because of these incidents can come to the stores from the shoplifter and the employee that was terminated. Could training have prevented these incidents? It couldn’t have hurt.

A customers cannot be afraid to come of your store because of what they might have seen when a shoplifter was detained. They have to believe that you will do the best to protect them from being harassed or from getting hurt in case a shoplifting incident occurs when they are at your store.

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Safety And Shoplifting

July 11, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

As a retail business, shoplifting, employee theft and lawsuits come hand in hand. Preventing shoplifting and employee theft are somewhat under control by you or the management of the store, while lawsuits are-although preventable-not under strict control.

A shoplifting incident can become something of a life or death situation very quickly. Here, the rules and regulations set by the owner or management of the store and that employees must abide by become too important to ignore.

As an owner or manager of a store, safety must be your number one priority. Safety not only for your employees, but for your customers as well. An employee chasing after a shoplifter when they have left the premises is dangerous and should never be encouraged. Lawsuits and deaths lost due to chasing after a shoplifter have been numerous. The resulting death of a shoplifter have landed people in jail and in the courthouse. Safety should be your number one priority at all times.

Family of slain Chicago area Uber driver sues Walmart

CHICAGO — Relatives of a suburban Chicago Uber driver who was fatally attacked while on the job has sued Walmart, where authorities say the driver’s teenage attacker stole weapons just before the killing.

The family of Grant Nelson filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday in Cook County against the retailer and two other companies overseeing its security.

Authorities have charged 16-year-old Eliza Wasni in Nelson’s death, saying she stole a machete and knife from Walmart early on May 30 and then got into Nelson’s car and brutally attacked him.

The lawsuit claims two Walmart employees or contractors stood near the door as Wasni exited. The lawsuit alleges they were negligent because they failed to stop the teen and ask her any questions.

Guard at CVS Pharmacy chases down, kills shoplifter in Dallas, police say

A loss-prevention staffer at a CVS Pharmacy store shot and killed a suspected shoplifter after chasing down his getaway car Sunday afternoon in southeast Dallas, police say.

Police arrested 36-year-old Julio Ruvalcaba Monday on a murder charge.

Officers were dispatched to the shooting about 3 p.m. Sunday and found 31-year-old Christopher Geddes lying on the curb on the eastbound C.F. Hawn Freeway service road and Elam Road, police said.

He was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Surveillance video showed Geddes shoplifting from the CVS on South Buckner Boulevard and running to a Toyota Camry in the parking lot, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Footage from several minutes later shows another person leaving the store and getting into a Chevy Camaro parked outside. CVS employees identified that person as Ruvalcaba, a loss-prevention staffer tasked with reducing shoplifting.

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How To Hire Talented People For Your Business

July 5, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Hiring talented people for your business is going to cost you, and it should. Hiring good employees takes time and money. It is not only the salary you are going to offer when you hire an employee that is going to cost you, but the perks you offer them as well. Hiring a good employee should be a tried process that you or your company have developed. The cost associated with hiring a new employee is not something to take lightly. And for the retail industry, the difference between hiring a good employee or a bad one can have bad financial consequences from the start. Follow the links below for more about this topic.

Want To Hire Great Employees? Fix Your Broken Recruiting Process

It is sad that business leaders still complain about “talent shortages” when anyone who has applied for a job lately knows that the standard corporate or institutional recruiting process is badly broken.

It isn’t talent shortages that keep employers and willing and capable job-seekers apart. It’s the broken-down state of the recruiting process!

Leaders who are serious about hiring great people need to examine their own internal practices and fix whatever is broken.

Here is a simple checklist of common breakdowns to get them started:

Ten Broken Recruiting Practices To Fix

1. Job ads are too often written in an opaque, insulting way that doesn’t even try to sell a job-seeker on the opportunity — but instead lists endless Essential Requirements that few if any working people possess.

Can A Change In Retail Hiring Practices Help Save America’s Department Stores?

In their early days, department stores were the epitome of innovation. Towards the end of the 19th century, Marshall Field was challenging the old-fashioned notion that shopping should be conducted purely out of necessity. By emphasizing customer service (his famous motto: “give the lady what she wants”), offering luxury amenities for his clientele and turning shopping into a full-blown experience, he truly revolutionized the retail industry. At the turn of the century, his protégé Harry Selfridge brought the mentality of “the customer is always right” from Chicago to London, further revolutionizing the industry through ingenious marketing stunts and a customer-first approach at Selfridges & Co.

Just one century later, the advent of the internet has once again revolutionized the retail experience – unfortunately, not to the benefit of most brick-and-mortar retailers. These days, shoppers don’t need to visit their local department store to purchase a new pair of shoes – thanks to the internet, they’re now spoiled with options in all kinds of colors, styles and sizes. Nowadays, we can purchase virtually any style of shoe from anywhere in the world at a competitive price point, and, for the most part, still receive fairly decent customer service.

A key portion of the retail apocalypse has been going on for decades

A significant consequence of the downturn in brick-and-mortar retailing is that thousands of people are losing their jobs.

In May, there were nearly 19,000 fewer people working in department stores compared to January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, amid a record pace of store closures. This is happening because the US has built too many stores since the 1990s, and online shopping is booming.

A look back shows that retail jobs have been declining as a share of overall employment since the late 1980s.

“Employment in grocery stores, department stores, electronics stores, furniture stores, etc. has been declining as a share of total employment since 1989,” wrote Torsten Slok, the chief international economist at Deutsche Bank, in a note on Wednesday.

“Another way of saying this is that we have seen less growth in the retail sector relative to other sectors in the economy. Put differently, it is nothing new that the retail sector is underperforming, and looking at the absolute level of employment in retail it is currently close to the highest level in twenty years.”

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Shoplifting, Employee and Vendor Theft: Is There A Solution?

June 28, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft, shoplifting, and vendor theft are problems that the retail industry faces every single day without a clear solution. The billions of dollars lost to these crimes is a constant problem for retailers, and the losses have to be accounted for someplace else, and they need to make them up somehow to minimize their losses. The amount of sales retailers need to cover any losses is significant and not easy to do. Is preventing the loss the first step to stop the crime? Read more about this topic by clicking the links below.

Wage Theft and Shoplifting: Same Cost, Different Deterrents

A massive force is deployed against one, but not the other. (Guess which.)

ach year, shoplifters steal roughly $14.7 billion worth of goods from stores. (So says the Retail Theft Barometer.) Each year, employers steal roughly $15 billion from their workers by paying them less than the minimum wage, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

The treatment of these two kinds of crime, however, are completely different.

Many more resources go into trying to deter, detect, and punish the guy trying to pinch a video game system off the shelf at the local big-box store than into the grand theft the store itself may be perpetrating against its own employees—even if the retailer is taking millions of dollars from workers’ paychecks. It’s one more way that the economic crimes of the powerful are treated far less seriously than the transgressions of those with less power.

Task force teaches businesses how to thwart fraud, theft

The enormous number of ways criminals can defraud shoppers and business owners requires increasing awareness about how to combat their efforts, Greenwich police detective and state financial crimes task force member Mark Solomon told attendees of a Monday panel on how to combat identity theft and retail fraud.

“It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game — there’s always a vulnerability criminals will learn to exploit,” Solomon said during his presentation. “It’s not if (criminals) do have our information, but how many times over they have it.”

Due to its wealth and slowness to adopt more secure credit card technology, the United States has become a prime target for cybercrime and fraud, according to Solomon and his co-presenter Christopher Riley, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Connecticut financial crimes task force.

Employee retail theft soars says new report

When it comes to insider theft and employee dishonesty, the news is not good for the nation’s retailers. At least that is what Mark Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International, one of the leading loss prevention and inventory shrink control consulting firms in the world, confides as the group announced the results from their 29^th Annual Retail Theft Survey this week.

The 23 large retailers who were surveyed comprise 16,038 stores across the country with over $370 billion in sales in 2016 and they reported 438,000 incidents of shoplifting and employee theft where suspects were apprehended. A staggering $120 million was recovered by retailers from these thieves.

“The five-year trend shows a continued increase in employee theft in both apprehensions and recovery dollars. This past year is the first decline, which was very minimal, in both shoplifting apprehensions and recovery dollars. In four of the past five years both shoplifting and employee theft apprehensions and recovery dollars have increased, and in many cases, this is with a reduced loss prevention/asset protection staff. The losses are real and the theft problem is only getting worst,” says Doyle.

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Employee Theft and Shrinking

June 21, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It is not surprising that employee theft and shoplifting increases every year. With online “chat rooms” where shoplifters share their “methods” and the many ways they can get away with shoplifting, it is not surprising the losses across the globe are reaching staggering amounts.

In 2013, the losses due to shoplifting amounted close to $16 billion globally, a 34% increased over the previous year. The National Retail Security Survey revealed that in 2015 retail lost an approximate $45 billion due to shrinking, up by more than a billion from the previous year.

What are the expectations for 2016, and 2017? What will the losses amount to this year?

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

Employee Theft on the Rise According to Latest Retail Survey

Major retailers lost over $44 billion in thefts by customers and employees according to Jack L. Hayes International’s annual Retail Theft Survey.

Wesley Chapel, Fla. — Jack L. Hayes International, a leading loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm, has released its 29th Annual Retail Theft Survey.

According to the survey, 438,000 shoplifters and dishonest employees were apprehended in 2016 by 23 large retailers who were able to recover over $120 million from the thieves.

“In 2016, dishonest employee apprehensions increased almost 10%, with the dollars recovered from these dishonest employees up nearly the same amount (9.3%). While shoplifting apprehensions and the dollars recovered from these shoplifters decreased ever so slightly, 0.2% and 0.9% respectively”, says Mark R. Doyle, president of Jack L. Hayes International.

According to the survey, one out of every 27 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer in 2016. The total number, 53,786, is an almost 10% increase compared to last year.

Over $42 million was recovered from dishonest employees in 2016, up 9.3% from 2015.

Survey participants apprehended 384,296 shoplifters in 2016, a slight decrease of 0.2% from the prior year. The average shoplifting case value in 2016 was $203.18, a slight decrease from 2015 when the value was $204.57.

Exclusive Retailer Survey: Tackling Shrink 2017

C-stores may suffer from a bundle of cash-related issues, but tech-driven solutions are on the way.

One of the show-stopping numbers from the musical “Cabaret” includes the famous refrain, “Money makes the world go ’round.”

But money also makes the world of convenience retailing complicated. And problems such as cash miscounts, sticky-fingered employees and lack of data around dollars can stop the show for eager-to-perform operators who have to devote valuable time and resources to solving these snags.

To help shine a spotlight on the currency concerns c-store retailers face, CSP and Technomic conducted their seventh-annual cash-management report, commissioned by FireKing Security Group (complete results below). Finalized in March, the study surveyed 175 convenience operators who make or influence choices related to cash flow, banking and cash management in their stores. Thirty-seven percent of respondents operate one store, while 63% operate two or more locations.

Results from this year’s study reveal big concerns—and opportunities—for retailers’ cash-handling practices.

The Amazon Approach to Groceries Won’t Replace Stores

It’s a model that could thrive in dense, affluent areas. Most areas are neither dense nor affluent.

For a certain kind of urban professional, Amazon and Whole Foods are brands that define the consumption of staple goods: the weekly trip to pick up cheese, produce, maybe some pasture-raised organic beef; and the nice UPS man dropping off everything else, from toilet paper to truffle oil. On Friday, those folks learned that they are facing a future of truly one-stop shopping: Amazon.com Inc. plans to acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion.

But what about the rest of America? Well, if you happen to work for rival grocery chains, the news is not good. Competitors from Costco to Kroger to Dollar General saw significant chunks knocked off their market capitalization. Other casualties may include Walmart, the $15-an-hour minimum wage (Amazon is aggressively experimenting with cashierless stores), and the rather unique corporate culture that drives Whole Foods.

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Do You Know What a Shoplifter Looks Like?

June 16, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The retail industry is not the only one dealing with theft in the United States. The retail industry looses more than $35 million dollars to shoplifting every day in the United States. But, theft does not seem to restrict itself to retailers, theft occurs in every place where the opportunity arises. The shoplifter can be a member of a shoplifting ring, or a regular shopper who has a job, a family, or even financial stability.

There is not a profile of a typical shoplifter. The shoplifter can be a government representative or a store clerk, a policeman or a French Historian, a shoplifter can be a member of your family or a neighbor. Many of these people often times feel ashamed or are unable to talk about this issue with other people and are unable to seek help, but the problem does not go away, and everyone looses.

If you are in the retail industry and believe what a shoplifter looks like as they enter the store, then you have already lost against shoplifting. Training the management and employees of a store to combat shoplifting is an important aspect of any store that wants to be profitable.

Read more about this and other issues by clicking the links below.

Exactly What Is a Shoplifter and How Much Do You Know?

Industry veterans may find it odd to ask ‘What is a shoplifter?’ after years of experience. But it’s always good to revisit the fundamentals.

When asked “What is a shoplifter?”, most readers of the LPM Insider probably have a pretty good idea of how to respond. I do too, but it’s interesting what you learn (or re-learn) when you actually do some research on the subject. If you look up the definition of shoplifting, you will find different variations in wording. Some reference larceny, some concealment, and others talk about intent. But the basic definition boils down to this: shoplifting is the “theft of merchandise from a store or place of business.”

The terms “shoplifting” or “shoplifter” are not usually defined by law. The crime of shoplifting generally falls under the legal classification of larceny and can be a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the dollar amount stolen. State by state, larceny laws vary greatly.

For the average person, shoplifting is sometimes confused with burglary or robbery. However, all three are different. Burglary refers to unlawful entry into a building with the intent to commit a crime, especially theft. If a burglar is successful, they will not come in contact with another person.

Shoplifting girl sparks compassion from Atlanta police officer

Atlanta (CNN)In a rough part of this city’s northwest side, the call about a shoplifter at a discount store should have been straightforward.

For Officer Che Milton, it was the first call of his shift — on his fourth day on the job.

Inside the store, Milton met a sobbing 12-year-old named Heaven Staples.

“She’s crying, bawling. Tears everywhere,” Milton told CNN. “She was upset she was caught stealing.”

Heaven told him that she was stealing shoes because her 5-year-old sister needed them.

“I couldn’t put her in the system, being 12 years old, for stealing some $5 shoes,” Milton recalled. “I’d rather just take her home and see what’s going on.”

The ride was short. Heaven cried. Then, they walked in the door.

“That’s when I saw the conditions — how the conditions were in the house,” Milton said: five children and their big sister, Heaven, without much food or furniture.

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Can High -Tech Prevent Shoplifting?

June 14, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The causes for shoplifting are varied and the solution to these issues are not yet answered. Many people shoplift because of a mental issue, while other shoplift because it is easy and profitable for them.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention states that shoplifting has become one of the most prevalent crimes committed in the United States every year. Shoplifting though is viewed by many of the people committing the crime as an issue of no importance, or one that does not affect the communities or the people around them.

For a retailer, the issue of shoplifting is a big problem that cost them billions of dollars every year.

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

Police give tips to prevent shoplifting

Albany police said the number of shoplifting cases usually increases during the summer, so they’re working to keep local businesses safe.

Police held a meeting for their business watch group on Thursday and shared tips to prevent shoplifting. Some of those include using and testing alarms and video surveillance systems regularly and leaving lights on at night to discourage burglars.

They also encouraged having an employee check in with suspicious shoppers and have a greeter walking around the store.

Police said businesses should also communicate with their neighboring shops and with police to share information and surveillance video.

Store Security Turns High-Tech to Prevent Shoplifting

That five-finger discount will kill your bottom line. With $45.2 billion lost to retail theft in 2015, some stores — hoping to avoid the estimated tens of thousands it costs to employ a two-person security team — are turning to higher tech solutions that don’t need to be paid overtime. Technology like facial recognition software that keeps an electronic eye out for known shoplifters can be tough for small independent retailers to afford. But proponents say it doesn’t just catch shoplifters, it discourages them in the first place.

There is more to shoplifting than meets the eye

Last week The National reported that a 29-year-old Macedonian woman, a tourist visiting Dubai, was sentenced to two months in jail. She was arrested in January for attempting to steal lingerie, perfume and lipstick from the Victoria’s Secret store at Mall of the Emirates. She admitted the charges, but in her defence she claimed that she didn’t know why she shoplifted. “I have money, but I steal,” she told her prosecutors.

The UAE is home to some of the world’s largest shopping malls; it also has one of the highest per-capita retail shopping centre densities in the world. It makes sense, in this context, to understand why people shoplift. Globally, billions of dollars are lost each year to shoplifting. So understanding its causes and consequences and trying to find cures are good for business.

In the case of the tourist, we might never know, for sure, why she decided to stuff her handbag with goodies from Victoria’s Secret. More generally, however, psychology and those concerned with consumer misbehaviour have advanced many ideas about why some people shoplift.

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What Are You Doing To Prevent Shoplifting In Your Store?

June 1, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

In some regions, police departments warn retail stores and home owners of an increase in shoplifting and burglaries during the summer months. Many of the burglaries and shoplifting accidents committed during these months are from young adults that are out of school with nothing better to do.

The problem-although serious- is nothing compared to the thousands of dollars that are stolen by organized retail crime rings in some cities.

People in an organized retail crime ring can enter a store and leave it within minutes with thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise. They are professionals and their goals is simple: Steal as much as you can in the least amount of time.

Training to prevent this kind of shoplifting is paramount to the well being of your store.

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

Shoplifting plagues Portland retailers

SHOPLIFTING IS A CONSTANT PROBLEM FOR PORTLAND RETAILERS, BUT POLICE DON’T HAVE THE RESOURCES TO CRACK DOWN ON MANY OF THE THEFTS.

Rise in organized retail theft is costing you

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – They’re fast, they’re sneaky – and their crimes are impacting your wallet.

Organized retail thieves are costing retailers billions of dollars each year, which inevitably ends up costing you.

But it’s more than just shoplifting. Organized retail theft includes:

Receiving goods that are believed to be stolen, even if they’re not
Shoplifting goods ($200+ value) through an emergency exit door
Theft of infant formula more than $100
Credit card/gift card fraud

International Super-Heist Cost Retailers Billions Last Year

One woman in El Segundo stole $10,000 of clothes from a shop in about 20 minutes during the course of three visits.

Retailers ready to launch their new fashion lines can bet some of that apparel will be stolen the minute it hits their shelves, according to private investigators.

The products are being shoplifted, in some cases, thousands of dollars at a time, by thieves committing organized retail crime.

A private investigator, speaking to NBC4 on the condition of anonymity, helped detectives with the El Segundo police department, tie two Colombian nationals to an international theft ring.

The two were arrested after police discovered $67,000 worth of stolen merchandise in their Hawthorne apartment.

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Who Is Your Typical Shoplifter?

May 23, 2017 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Shoplifting is a crime. Stealing merchandise and walking out the door is a crime millions of people are doing every year.

It costs the retail industry billions of dollars yearly, as well as the communities where these incidents occur. Tax income that is not collected from the stolen merchandise leaves communities and many social programs unfunded and in some instances cut out altogether.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) states that there is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Women and men shoplift as equally and often.

The following news stories will give you a glance at the shoplifters for this month. Shoplifters come from all walks of life. Profiling a person because of preconceived notions of what a shoplifter is supposed to be, is not only illegal but wrong.

Click on the links below to read more about shoplifting.

Husky Caught on Surveillance Shoplifting a Loaf of Bread, Then Returning With an Accomplice

Get your paws off the merchandise!

A Siberian husky was caught on security footage shoplifting a loaf of bread from a Dollar General store in California.

Although a store worker tried to stop the furry bandit before she escaped out the automated doors, “the suspect was able to avoid apprehension and escaped on all fours,” according to the Shafter Police Department, which released surveillance on their Facebook page following the event last week.

Police officer resigns after allegedly shoplifting by stuffing meat in his pants

DES PERES, Mo. (KMOV.com) –

A St. John police sergeant is off of the force after police arrested him for shoplifting hamburger meat at a Des Peres grocery store.

On April 21, Des Peres police say Sgt. Matthew Barthelmass walked up to the meat counter at the Dierbergs on Manchester Road. The security guard followed him, and saw him walk to the cooking supply aisle and “conceal the product inside of his waistband. He had a larger Cardinals pullover on and could not see a bulge,” read the report.

The report goes on to say Barthelmass paid for items inside of his cart, but not the meat in his pants.

He was confronted by the security guard when he was leaving.

“I asked the subject to remove the meat from his pants. He explained to me that he was a police officer for St. John Police Department,” said the report.

St. John Police Chief J.R. Morris says Barthelmass has been with the department for 10 years.

LOCAL DOCTOR ARRESTED FOR SHOPLIFTING

CULLMAN – A local doctor was arrested for shoplifting recently, according to reports from the Cullman Police Department. Mir Kwon Wu Varquez, 59, was arrested on May 10 and charged with fourth-degree theft of property/shoplifting, a Class A misdemeanor.

Police Chief Kenny Culpepper says the incident occurred at the Wal-Mart store on Highway 157.

Varquez is a cardiologist at Cullman Heart & Urgent Care, P.C.

According to Alabama Code, Section 13A-8-5, theft of property in the fourth degree is applicable when the theft does not exceed $500.

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