Shoplifting News

Some of the news about shoplifting that may give you an insight into the way some shoplifters view the act of stealing merchandise from your stores.  How can you prevent shrinkage at your business? Is the cost associated with a loss prevention system worth it?  Read the articles below to find more about how installing a loss prevention system in your store is the right move to increase your profitability.

Family Dollar rolls out Checkpoint Systems EAS across its chain

Family Dollar is rolling out Checkpoint Systems’ EAS loss prevention technology across its 8,000 stores in the US. It is claimed to be is one of the fastest roll-outs in the industry, with 3,500 installations already completed and 120 more occurring each week.

Both companies have also begun the planning process to implement source tagging as well as a hard tag @source program. By working with Family Dollar’s consumer packaged goods and apparel suppliers, this new program will ensure merchandise arrives at Family Dollar stores EAS tagged and shelf-ready, enhancing their customer’s shopping experience. With both tagging programs, Family Dollar aims to further reduce shrink and increase Team Members productivity by focusing their time on customer-facing activities.

After extensive field-testing, Family Dollar chose Checkpoint’s EVOLVE P10 ECO electronic article surveillance (EAS) solutions because it positively impacted their store profitability by reducing shrink, lowering energy costs and had a significant increase on merchandise availability of key high-velocity items.

Julie Giblin, Family Dollar’s VP of Loss Prevention, said: “This rollout has already positively impacted our profitability. We could not be more pleased with the results and the partnership with Checkpoint, especially with the implementation speed.”

Shoplifting suspect had a cart full of baby formula

ROCHESTER — Police on Thursday arrested a man they say tried to steal more than $1,000 worth of baby formula from Walmart in Rochester.
Dillon Johnson, 19, of 640 Poverty Pond Road, Hill, N.H., is being held in jail after being charged with felony willful concealment, after trying to run out of Walmart Thursday with a shopping cart full of baby formula, said Police Capt. Paul Toussaint.

He said Johnson’s charge is a felony because of the value of merchandise he attempted to steal from the store.

Baby formula, said Toussaint, is a frequent item shoplifters steal. He said that sometimes baby formula is used for cutting drugs. In most of the Rochester incidents, suspects steal baby formula because it’s so expensive, Toussaint said, with thieves reselling the stolen formula at lower prices.

Police got involved in the incident after a member of Walmart’s loss prevention department reported the theft, according to a police affidavit. The sworn affidavit states that Walmart employees tried to stop Johnson as he was running out of the store with the cart full of baby formula. Police reviewed the surveillance tape at the store before arresting Johnson.

‘Bling Ring’ Tumblr Shoplifting Community Gets Rocked By Outsiders

They go by names like Lift Witch, Klepto Princess and Lifting for Survival. They offer up weirdly worded disclaimers about how what they’re doing is “fake” or that their stories are “fiction” or “roleplay.” They repost and celebrate each other’s victories. They are the young women who spend their time on Tumblr talking about things that they’ve stolen.

On Wednesday, Tumblr user We Unhallowed posted a list of the sites she called “Tumblr’s Bling Ring,” throwing a delicate community of shoplifters into disarray. Earlier that day she’d written, “Have stumbled upon a circle of teenage shoplifters on Tumblr. It’s hilarious. They post pictures of everything they steal and call them ‘hauls.'”

Since posting her list, a few Tumblrs on it have been disabled, but not before their comments were endlessly reblogged by fellow members of the community. Like New Lifterr, who wrote, “i just realized that the post called us tumblrs bling ring and i’m even more flattered. i’m famous. for free.”