I was alone at my first LP job when I started watching a woman on camera that entered with a crumpled, empty shopping bag. The previous day I finished training and was released to detain shoplifters. I hadn’t made a solo arrest yet; I was incredibly nervous and secretly hoped this was nothing. I wanted my first stop to be with another agent to assist with surveillance and back me up during the apprehension. Although I could feel myself shaking, I went to the sales floor to perform live observation; after all, it was my responsibility to maintain the store’s clothing security.

After locating the customer, I watched her check merchandise for Checkpoint tags and select a handful of tops without clothing alarms. She placed them on a rounder, held the shopping bag under the merchandise, and slipped each item off its hanger so it fell in. With this, I realized I must stop her when she exited. As she headed to the door, my nerves took over and I was hit with a wave of nausea. I was going to be sick and made a beeline for the restroom. I went to find the subject when my queasiness had passed, but of course she was gone. This wasn’t my proudest moment and while my boss was kind about it, I felt I had failed to preserve my store’s clothing security. Although I was trained and had good intentions, I’m still a human who is limited in my capacity to keep all merchandise from theft.

Employees can make mistakes; they call in sick, they take breaks, and no one can afford hiring enough people to watch all merchandise. Retailers that understand this utilize clothing security tags to fill in the gaps that naturally occur if a mission as significant as clothing security is left only to people. Clothing alarms are most effective when used uniformly and on merchandise that would hurt the store the most to lose. That way, if a rookie investigator has anxiety, it won’t break the business.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase a clothing alarm or clothing security tags and an Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system.

For more information on Checkpoint tags, clothing security, clothing alarm, or clothing security tags how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at security tags on clothes or call 1.770.426.0547