Is Your Store Equipped To Handle Shoppers and Shoplifters?

Loss prevention personnel across the country are busy this holiday season.  Every year, shoplifters take advantage of this time of year to steal millions of dollars in stolen merchandise in the United States, making the retailer to lose profits and consumers like you and me to pay for the stolen goods by paying higher prices.  As a society, the loss of sales tax shoplifters take from communities are harmful to everyone. Read more by following the links below.

Tough penalties for shoplifting

Question: Is shoplifting a serious crime?

Answer: Yes. Every year, during the holiday season, shoplifting becomes a more common occurrence. In Louisiana, shoplifting is considered theft and does not require the item to be removed from the store, as explained by the statute itself.

According to LA R.S. 14:67.10, Theft of goods is the misappropriation or taking of anything of value which is held for sale by a merchant, either without the consent of the merchant to the misappropriation or taking, or by means of fraudulent conduct, practices, or representations. Intent to deprive the merchant permanently of whatever may be the subject of the misappropriation or taking is essential and may be inferred when a person:

•Intentionally conceals, on his person or otherwise, goods held for sale.

•Alters or transfers any price marking reflecting the actual retail price of the goods.

•Transfers goods from one container or package to another or places goods in any container, package, or wrapping in a manner to avoid detection.

•Willfully causes the cash register or other sales recording device to reflect less than the actual retail price of the goods.

•Removes any price marking with the intent to deceive the merchant as to the actual retail price of the goods.

How a Master Shoplifter Stole Thousands of Dollars’ Worth of Merchandise

As long as there have been shops, there have been shoplifters. Some are the grab-and-go types, others work in orchestrated teams, but few can compare to Michael Pollara.

Pollara is a Shakespeare of shoplifting, a maestro in the criminal art.

The 46-year-old has strolled out of hundreds of stores with at least $1 million dollars’ worth of merchandise over the course of his criminal career, according to Florida authorities. Easter Island, China, Africa—Pollara claims to have traveled around the world 25 times, but he says he paid for it all with travel points, not cash from stolen goods.

Pollara would hit toy stores, pharmaceutical stores, department stores, shopping mall specialty stores, just to name a few, according to police. He admitted to police that he worked with many “fences” — a name for criminals who traffic stolen goods, but he also sold some of what he stole on eBay, and he had shoplifting down to a science.

“There’s only five methods,” he said. “Either it’s on you, either, if you’re a female, it’s in the purse, either it’s in a bag or it’s in a shopping cart or it’s in a box.”

Pollara’s favorite shoplifting trick was to empty a box of its contents in a store and then refill the box with many expensive items. He would then purchase the box without the attendants realizing he was actually walking out with stolen merchandise inside the original box.

‘Shakespeare of Shoplifting’ Depicts His Many Retail Store Heists‘

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