Stop Shoplifting In The Future-Get All The Details

I just love the days we catch a thief at our store. There is the rush of adrenaline right before making the stop, the return of valuable merchandise, and the satisfaction of seeing them taken away in handcuffs. That’s what does it for me anyway. Your business gets the reputation that you stop shoplifting, and word will start spreading in the community that your store takes action.

Then you have those days and weeks where it seems none of your anti-shoplifting measures are working. You find empty packages or, even worse, empty shelves. There seems to be a fresh new way thieves have come up with to get away with large amounts of high end items, and so far it has been pretty lucrative for them. The thieves are working together, but not in the traditional manner where one is a lookout while the other is the bag stuffer. Now thief #1 comes in and just goes through the store grabbing anything they want, stuffing it all into a bag, and absolutely not caring who is watching.  hen they go to the bathroom with the bag. At this point, thief #2, whose presence you were not even aware of, takes the bag and runs out the door. In some instances they are making this exchange at the front door right near the Checkpoint System. When the alarm sounds, it is thief #1 that gets stopped, empty handed, while it is actually thief #2 that is getting away.

Unless you have that moment of pure luck where the police arrive at the exact right time and catch thief #2 with the stolen merchandise, this is going to be a tough one to defeat. In this case, you may only have a reactive option, at least for the first instance. There are steps you need to take if this does happen though, because it is still imperative that we all do our part to stop shoplifting.

1. Report the theft. Even if you didn’t recover any merchandise, you need to make an official police report. You can’t just wait and hope it doesn’t happen to your store again. If these start occurring on a regular basis, a pattern may be seen. They are more likely to be caught, and the police will have an easier time putting all the charges together.

2. Get every detail about the shoplifters. Try to recall everything you can, whether from direct sight or through reviewing the video. Did they have any visible tattoos or piercings? Did they move or walk in an unusual way? The day of the incident you obviously need to know what they were wearing, but don’t concentrate too much on things that can be changed. Sometimes you do have that one thief that always wears the same ball cap or hoodie for every incident, so definitely try to identify any specific logos on their clothing.  

This includes their getaway car. The color, make, and model are obvious things to look at. However, look for body damage, dents and paint color differences. Is there a pin stripe down the side or not? White wall or black wall tires? Are all the tires the same? They may not stop that vehicle the day of the theft, but the police will still have put out a BOLO, so you need all these specifications noted.

3. Call your other store locations within driving range. Call your competition that sells similar items. They want to stop shoplifting as much as you do, and if the thieves go there later that day, you have a better chance of recovering your merchandise before it is resold or incurs any possible damage. Have this call chain set up and ready to put into action.  

Even when you and your team are doing everything you can to monitor your inventory, and using every anti-shoplifting tool at your disposal, you will still occasionally have the ones that get away. And frankly, once the thieves get caught and see you have figured out this new method, they will come up with something else. Get every detail you can about the people involved, the car they used, and get the word to their next potential target. This will help stop shoplifting, and the better days will come more often where you get to go home and brag about the ones you did catch.

For more tools you can use to stop shoplifting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547