Shoplifters are also getting smarter…

When one thinks of working towards retail theft prevention they don’t exactly envision a high-tech industry combating groups or individuals who have the resources of an organized crime syndicate, but in reality it is those types of people who are the greatest threat to our profession.  As things become more desperate in this economy, the professional thieves have upped their respective games in more ways than one.  Some have become more violent, resorting to outright threats of harming those who get in their way, while others have learned of more methods to cover their tracks such as changing the license plates on their vehicles or wearing realistic masks or prosthetics.  Then there are those who are ‘tech-savvy’.

The technically minded shoplifters have begun devising ways to circumvent anti-shoplifting safeguards with computers cell phones.  Last week, one of my stores suffered a complete failure of their camera system because an ingenious team of thieves used a series of laser pointers of a certain type to create a feedback error to the system.  It disabled the cameras throughout several parts of the store and gave them time to grab what they wanted and make for the doors.  Unfortunately for them they miscalculated when they tried to beat the Checkpoint security system.  Nearly everything they had grabbed was large and had some sort of Checkpoint security tag on it.  Despite their best efforts, the Checkpoint security system went off as they passed the threshold and allowed us on the floor to figure out which way they had exited.  When we caught them, the police found a device that they claimed was supposed to jam the frequencies used by the Checkpoint security system for setting off the alarm.

It looked like they miscalculated.

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For more information on Anti Shoplifting , Checkpoint Security System or Checkpoint Security Tags contact us at Retail theft prevention or call 1.770.426.0547