High Profile Cases

A high profile, professional athlete was arrested recently for shoplifting. Allegedly, he paid for a bottle of cologne and then proceeded to the menswear department. He placed a few packages of underwear in his shopping bag. At the point of his apprehension, he was also found to have a “tester” bottle of cologne in his bag (unpaid for) as well. He is not the first athlete/ celebrity to be caught shoplifting, and most certainly will not be the last.

A similar situation would include a shoplifter who is related to (or claims to be related to) a high profile personality. It is a frequently used tactic that a shoplifter will try to intimidate their accusers by name-dropping congressmen, chief or police, celebrity, etc. More often than not, these claims are unfounded, or play no significant role in an investigation. For the few times that the claims are true, your store will have more to contend with than the loss of merchandise.

These high profile shoplifters do not steal out of need. They clearly have the money to pay for such items. They are stealing out of boredom, entitlement, or simply because they are looking for a challenge- to see if they can get away with it. Their crimes are not necessarily expensive items; sometimes it can be simple items like underwear, health and beauty items, even food items. This means that it is not improbable that a celebrity can shoplift from a small, local store.

That being said, it is not a common occurrence for a store to experience a shoplifting incident by a high profile person. It is merely a fact to keep in mind while you are making shoplifting apprehensions. You never know whom you might be picking up, so it is best to make sure your policies, practices and actions are completely by the book for each incident.

After making an apprehension, the suspect might try to bully their way out of the situation by telling you who they are, or who their relations are. This is the time to be professional, avoid making sarcastic or snarky comments and stick to the facts. If they truly are a high profile personality, every little step may be dissected and criticized later on. The media outlets will inevitably catch wind of the apprehension and will try to make it a bigger story that what it needs to be.

You can be faced with news reporters, bloggers, fans, etc coming into your store. Some will just look around to see the now infamous store. Others will come in and try to make trouble- asking questions, making comments, even potentially making threats.

I worked loss prevention for a retailer, who many years ago made an apprehension of a very famous actress. Even though the case was air tight, national news sources hovered throughout the entire process. Statements had to be made to ensure the integrity of our company’s reputation remained in tact. At the same time, it was very important that our own legal team was involved to make sure we did not overstep the legal boundaries of an open court case. If for some reason the apprehending officer made statements to the media, and the case was lost in court, we could have had potentially disastrous civil liability cases brought against us by the actress. On the day the verdict from her criminal trial was to be released, every one of our stores across the country received numerous threatening phone calls. Some merely threatened to never shop with us again if “we” found the actress guilty of shoplifting. Others had more severe threats of violence.

With the increased chance of media scrutiny during a high profile shoplifting incident, retailers can often find themselves faced with more variables and consequences than what was anticipated for a seemingly routine shoplifting apprehension. Without black and white policies in place, the added liability from a case gone wrong can have devastating and lasting consequences both to a retailer’s image, and their financial bottom line.