Georgia shoplifting systems

Organized Employee Theft

May 29, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I seriously try not to be surprised anymore. During any given day, there is no telling what will come across my desk. As an investigator for my company’s Asset Protection department, there are no two days the same. I have two main focuses. One being organized retail theft and the other is employee theft. Ten years in and I haven’t figured out which one I love more. The external cases keep me on my toes, but the employees really do come up with some very clever ways to steal from me. Sometimes the two worlds collide for a case that is truly amazing.

Take one of my stores for example. It was time for their inventory and two days later we get the final numbers. The appliance department shows that it’s in the negative almost $200K. This is impossible. Every piece of equipment delivered to the store gets checked in, so there’s no chance of shipping errors. It’s pretty hard for a customer to stuff a dryer down their pants, so external theft is out. The only other option out there is employee theft. Again though, you would think it would be obvious if an employee was stealing a large bulk item. Unless of course, half the store is in on the theft.

It didn’t take much research after that inventory to find out what was happening. The basic fraud scheme was this. A customer. A legitimate customer would come into the store looking to purchase a new home appliance. After speaking with one of the sales consultants (dishonest employee), the customer would be duped into thinking there is a special clearance item that meets their needs that just happens to be heavily reduced in price. The sales person would then tell the customer that the system was down and that his register was only accepting cash, and that the store was also short on change, so it had to be the exact dollar amount. In all, several steps, but all believable to an honest customer who just thinks they are getting a deal.

Once the sales person would collect the cash (normally about ½ the retail value of the item), they would call an accomplice in the warehouse. A phony pick label would be generated in order for it to be pulled from the warehouse. An AP associate is required to sign off whenever bulk merchandise is loaded, however the majority of this store’s AP staff was unfortunately, in on the scheme. At the end of the night, the cash would be split. For a busy store such as this one, the associates were splitting thousands of dollars a week. This organized employee theft scheme went on, unchecked, for nearly a year.

During our investigation, we found the ring leader of the bunch, who happened to be an AP supervisor for the location. He stated that it happened once for a friend and he saw just how easy it was to make some extra cash on the side. Before he knew it, things had snowballed into a very elaborate, sophisticated and organized scheme. Never before had I prosecuted an employee theft case so large and organized. So organized that the District Attorney charged all involved with Organized Retail Theft, a statute that I had never seen used with employee theft. In total, these 10 or so employees had cost the store nearly $200K in losses. Each one of the employees were found guilty of their charge and due to the dollar values, some of them actually did a few weeks in a state prison.

Warning Signals Of Employee Theft

May 29, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

As Business Owners we are “hit” with something that we did not or could not see coming. A piece of equipment breaks, a key employee is in an accident and gone for an extended period of time, etc. Many times this also applies to employee theft: We simply did not see it coming.

However, there is a difference with employee theft and the first two examples. Employee theft is usually preceded by warning signals. Many Business Owners and Managers simply do not know what they are or do not see the forest for the trees.

When you look at this list, keep something in mind. One of these things, all by themselves probably mean nothing but in my 35 years of dealing personally with 2300+ employee theft investigations, I have found that most of the time two or more of these factors are present in enough time that a responsible party should have seen the warning signals.

Personal behavior is the key area to watch:

1.Double talk or inconsistencies by an employee who is explaining discrepancies or “errors”.

2.Borrowing, particularly from loan sharks, but also habitual borrowing of any kind.

3.Symptoms of a drug user.

4.Admission of theft from prior employer.

5.Violent temper or other unpleasant behavior, which tends to discourage people from asking questions.

6.Expensive habits such as heavy drinking, drugs, extra-marital affairs.

7.Having more money or spending more than earnings could support:

– Flashes big roll of money

– Buys expensive items–jewelry, car, house, boat

– Has expensive hobby

– Always picks up check at restaurant

– Dresses expensively

8.Disgruntled, dislikes boss or company and complains about being underpaid or overworked.

9.Heavy gambling on horses, cards, numbers, sports, etc.

10.Abnormal fear of, or antagonism toward, security or management personnel.

11.Possession of knife, gun or other weapon.

12.Terrorization of one employee by another.

13.Advocating violence as a way to resolve routine problems.

14.Never takes time off or vacation, comes in during vacation or day off.

15.Concealed family relationships among associates.

16.Chronic employee conversations that cease when management approaches.

17.Employees who never make purchases.

18.Employees who are “wary” of members of management.

19.Constant complainers.

Too often, signals pointing to internal theft, even when noticed, are mistakenly ascribed to chance, error, coincidence, or some other benign circumstance…and the signals are ignored.

Remember, a thief, like a magician, depends on you misinterpreting the obvious…or on his or her ability to confuse you. Don’t be deceived, distracted or misled.

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Take a Bite out of Shoplifting – Literally

May 29, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Shoplifters are great. Well, not great for business, but great for laughs sometimes. Most of the times, shoplifting incidents are pretty serious business. You’re confronting someone who has just committed a crime. You don’t know their state of mind and you definitely don’t know what they are capable of. I’ve personally been pepper sprayed by a shoplifter as they tried to escape, along with seeing countless managers suffer the same fate. Often suspects immediately want to become physical and more simply will flee the store. Every now and then karma and a little luck is on your side.

I was training a new LP agent last summer in a very active market. It was day four of our training and she had already thrown a half dozen folks in jail. So far, no problems, this particular agent was an attractive young female who didn’t take lip from ANYONE! It was amazing how many shoplifters hit on her… but we’ll save those stories for another time. The clock was ticking away and it was just about time to call it a night when one of our frequent flyers entered the store. I had busted this guy on no less than three previous thefts and he was definitely a runner. I had my new agent begin observation while I contacted the police. At the very least, I was going to charge him with trespassing.

About 15 minutes goes by and like always, the shoplifter starts loading his pants up with electronics. About this time, the police were arriving, so I went outside to inform them of the situation and wait for the thief and my agent to exit the store. Well, she didn’t disappoint. Our thief exits, but completely ignores the agent and takes off running. The next thing I know he’s gone. He’s hiding around the vehicles in the parking lot, but we can’t seem to find him. The officer gets on his loudspeaker and announces that he’s going to let the K-9 unit loose if he doesn’t turn himself in. No answer.

Standing a full 3.5 feet tall and weighing in at about 120 pounds, K-9 Officer Scout is ready for action. This is a game for the pooch and I can tell he’s ready to play. Within seconds of jumping out of the patrol car, he and his handler are on the scent. Like a scene from a movie, out of nowhere, the shoplifter emerges. Only… he doesn’t surrender. In true idiot fashion, he starts sprinting across the parking lot. I don’t care how fast you think you are; you will never outrun a German shepherd whose sole purpose in life is to take you down. And take him down he did. When the handler finally reached the scene the shoplifter had a knife he was trying to stab the K-9 officer with. Not only did this shoplifter go to jail with some pretty serious bite wounds, he also got to feel what 100,000 volts of electricity from a Taser felt like.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, internal Audit, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Training, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Shoplifting and the Law

May 18, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Some have called shoplifting the silent crime that is plaguing the US. Shoplifting for some people is considered their full time job, and retail organized crime is abundant in this country. Shoplifting affects small business owners tremendously and the retail industry as a whole lose millions of dollars yearly passing the loss to the consumer and therefore affecting you financially.

Shoplifting is a serious crime ,and some states are taking strong measures to make sure the penalties applied to the shoplifter are harsh. To read more follow the links below.

Retail merchants fear theft bill will increase crime

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –

Retail Merchants of Hawaii president Sheri Sakamoto said a bill to raise the threshold for felony theft from $300 to $750 will encourage shoplifters to steal more.

“It will really affect retailers specifically. They now can steal up to $749.99 and have less consequences to their crime,” she said

Rep. Karl Rhoads is chairman of the House Judiciary committee. He said the bill targets agricultural theft, and shoplifting is considered separate but prosecutors do have leeway. “Even if the Governor signs this bill it’s still a crime to steal amounts between $300 and $750, it’s just the penalty is not as high,” he said.

Theft is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Advocates for raising the dollar threshold say $300 is way too low, and it costs taxpayers about $49,000 a year to incarcerate an offender. “So when we’re talking about property crime that’s under $1,000 and we’re paying $134 a day, you’ve got to start looking at that and saying, That really doesn’t pencil out,” Community Alliance on Prisons advocate Kat Brady said.

Shoplifting gangs operating on ‘industrial scale’

PROSECUTORS have vowed to smash serious organised crime groups who are using “steal to order” shoplifting to fund their illegal activities.

The Crown Office said shoplifting was happening on an “industrial scale”, with some groups travelling from overseas to target Scottish retailers.

More than 200 people have now been identified as being involved in what prosecutors called “professional shoplifting”.

The details emerged as the Crown Office published figures showing £8.6 million has been seized in 2014/15 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca).

The money includes assets seized from the gangs, as well as from brothel keepers, money launderers, and drug dealers.

Solicitor General Lesley Thomson said specialist prosecutors had worked closely with a dedicated police inquiry team during the past year to dismantle shoplifting groups, who specialise in targeting expensive clothing and designer handbags.

Battling The $36 Billion U.S. Problem Of Retail Shrinkage Losses

The financial cost of retail shrinkage is huge. The latest Annual Shrink Report issued by Dr. Richard Hollinger and Dr. Read Hayes at the University of Florida puts the total at $36 billion annually.

Shrinkage has several causes: customers shoplifting , employee theft, supplier fraud and administrative errors.

Frequent inventories and accounting audits counts can catch administrative errors and supplier fraud. But stopping shrinkage caused by theft is a larger undertaking.

“There are two kinds of thieves,”says Keith Aubele, CPP, president and CEO of the Bentonville, Ark.-based Retail Loss Prevention Group. “First, there is the opportunistic non-pro. Second, there are professionals working in Organized Retail Crime Syndicates (ORCS) — vast organizations that buy stolen goods from professional thieves for pennies on the dollar and then repackage and resell the goods to mom-and-pop stores, back into the retail pipeline, internationally — through any of a number of markets for stolen goods.

“Employees are the front line of defense — as well as the most economical defense — against shrinkage losses.”

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Motive, Means and Opportunity = Occupational Fraud

May 15, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Building a successful small business is a part of the American Dream for many people. Every year millions of dollars, untold hours of sweat equity and unlimited hope are poured into starting and maintaining them. Unfortunately, also every year, occupational fraud is responsible for closing about 30% of these businesses (U.S. Department of Commerce).

Fraud negatively affects smaller companies more than larger ones; they’re simply unable to absorb the loss. Participants in the 2014 Global Fraud Study “Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse” estimated the average small business loses approximately 5% of revenue each year to fraud (The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners).

5% in a small business can mean the difference between a profit or a loss. Therefore, controlling employee theft can be the difference between staying open or closing the doors. It can also influence whether the owner is able to pay himself a living wage or not. Given its potential for harmful impact it’s unfortunate that many owners are unprepared to fight fraud.

Most think it’ll never happen to them, not understanding that probably it’s already happened, is currently happening and/or will happen in the future. Depending on the study 75% — 85% of employees admit that given the “right” circumstances they would or have committed fraud. The right circumstances are usually a combination of motive, means and opportunity.

Motive is the rationalization the employee uses to steal time, money and property from the company. Rationalizations are the reasons people create to justify their behavior and are as varied as the people who make them. These self-deceptions provide the employee with an excuse to steal, even from an employer who they like.

But, motive is not enough for fraud. A person also has to have the means — the ability, knowledge and access — to manipulate the system. A bookkeeper can embezzle money because she knows how to “cook the books”. Stock starts to go out the back door when the warehouse foreman creates an inventory method that only he understands or uses.

Finally, an employee can be willing to steal and know how to do it, but the opportunity must be present. An employee has her shoplifting friends come to the store when the easily distracted manager is working, not when the attentive one is. A clerk learns the cash register camera is unreliable and pockets cash transactions on the days its offline.

Occupational fraud is a broad and all encompassing term, whether it involves petty theft or a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme. Its cornerstones are motive, means and opportunity. A smart and success business owner will learn its dynamics and use this knowledge to take steps to combat it.

Nicole Abbott is a writer and psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in the fields of mental health and addiction. She’s an educator, consultant, lecturer, trainer and facilitator, who has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, college classes and seminars.

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Mystery Shoppers Can Help Your Bottom Line

May 13, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Brooke wanted to buy a special keepsake to commemorate the birth of a grandchild. She went to a jewelry store in the mall and was planning on spending about $200. There were 2 saleswomen in the store and no other customers. Both of them were having personal conversations on their phones, with one talking about the lack of sales and her concern that she was going to lose her job.

One clerk didn’t acknowledge Brooke, while the other put her finger up in the “just a minute” signal and then turned her back. After looking around for some minutes, and not being waited on, she went to the store next door. Brooke was greeted immediately, helped and spent $250. She repeatedly told the poor service story for months, right up until the store closed.

Everyone has experienced poor customer service in person, on the phone or via a web site, but they probably didn’t complain to the business. When most people are unhappy they show it with their feet and eyes, they’ll leave a store or web site and not return. A customer is 4 times more likely to go to a competitor when the problem is service rather than price or product (Bain & Company).

Obviously, good customer service has a significant impact on the bottom line. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10% (Emmett Murphy & Mark Murphy). Also, it costs about 6 times more to acquire a new customer rather than retaining an existing one. It’s just smart business to try to hang on to them.

One of the ways to evaluate your business’s customer service is to use mystery shoppers. A mystery shopper is an outside person who shops your business (in person, on the phone or via web site), usually purchases a product and evaluates the experience. You set the parameters of the information you want collected — including identifying loss prevention issues.

Mystery shoppers help you determine your problems before they turn into lost revenue. They give you the consumer’s perception of and experience with your customer service, as well as other concerns. It’s an effective way to get real-time feedback. Then, based on the identified problems, you can develop and implement the appropriate corrective procedures and policies.

Smart business owners know the adage that the product gets the customer in the door, but service is what gets her to return. People who contact your business have a need, providing you the opportunity to make a sale. The method of the sale gives you the chance to build positive word of mouth and strong consumer loyalty, which contributes to higher profit margins and a healthy bottom line.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring

Employee Theft and How to Prevent it

May 7, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Now, research has shown the retail loses more from employee theft every year without knowing how to stop it, than at any other time. Employee theft, shoplifting, credit card fraud, and many other fraudulent practices are plaguing the retail industry without a clear solution to the problem. Local police in many communities across the US are implementing programs to help reduce criminal activities around their communities. To read more about this topic follow the links below.

4 Ways to Protect Your Business Against Employee Fraud and Theft

Q: Which internal accounting controls can help prevent fraud?

A: This is a vast topic covered by countless books and consultants, so let’s narrow it down to employee fraud and theft. Aside from the obvious—conducting regular inventory checks and book audits, reconciling cash daily, and personally reviewing financial statements each month—there are several actions you can take to protect yourself and your business.

1. Establish a code of conduct.

Did you know that Walmart employees are not allowed to accept a bottle of water or cup of coffee from a vendor at a meeting without paying for it? That’s what I mean by a code of conduct. It’s a statement that you will not tolerate unethical or illegal behavior toward anyone—customers, suppliers, employees or the company itself.

While you may not be as strict as Walmart, you should write and post a code of conduct that clearly spells out the rules for employees and the repercussions for not following them. Give the code to everyone upon hire, and periodically thereafter, and require written acknowledgement that they have read, understand and agree to comply with it.

Police: Employee admits to stealing $14,500 from Kohl’s

A Sun Prairie woman admitted to stealing $14,500 from the Madison department store at which she worked, according to a release from Madison police.

Police said Rebecca A. Onstad, 27, said she stole merchandise and faked returns for store credit to support her family during some tough times in the past year.

Onstad worked at Kohl’s at 2602 East Springs Drive.

She was arrested Monday on suspicion of felony theft.

What Smaller Retailers can Learn About Loss Prevention

One of the biggest challenges the UK retail industry currently has to face is shrinkage. While sales are steadily growing – they increased by 3.9 per cent year-on-year in January, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) – stores are still facing losses from the old enemy of theft.

A recent infographic commissioned by SECOM Plc shows shoplifting and more serious retail theft is becoming more and more of a problem. While the number of incidents is falling, their cost to businesses is rising as more valuable items are targeted. In 2014, the cost of crime to the UK retail sector was £603 million, a rise of 18 per cent compared to the year before.

However, this figure does not take into account a number of other factors that have a much greater impact on smaller retailers. Each theft is not equal; stealing an item from one store can cause significant issues, while another might be able to absorb the loss easily.

Many small retailers only employ a handful of people and operate relatively informally, meaning they don’t have many policies in place regarding things like pricing, inventory and employee conduct. It may seem like these things are fairly low priority, but in actual fact having policies like these in place can significantly reduce shrinkage.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices, security devices

Background checks and What to Look for

May 4, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

When hiring a new employee and you need to do a background check, Do you know what you need to look for to make sure you have the right candidate? First of all, you need to be knowledgeable about the laws regarding background checks in your state. What Washington seems reasonable, may not quite cut it for California and vice versa. Due you due diligence before attempting to do a background check without knowing the Ins and outs of the law. Make sure that your process about hiring and doing background checks are consistent throughout the company, you do not want to be the target of an employee discrimination lawsuit because of different treatment to different possible candidates.

What Do You Really Know About Employment Background Checks?

April 29, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

You probably know what employment background checks are… you might have even had them run on you in the past. But do you really know what an employment background check includes? And if you are responsible for or are assisting with your company’s hiring… do you know what you should be asking for when you ask for “background checks”?

When Loss Prevention Systems runs employment background checks for Retailers, most are interested in a potential employee’s previous criminal record. In many States we can look at their record “State wide”. This means that we access the Crime Information Center for that State. That database is maintained by each State. For example, in Georgia, it is the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) and it is run by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. All State, City and County arrest and conviction records in the state of Georgia are fed into this system. It is the same database used when a Police Officer stops someone in a traffic stop and “checks their record”.

There is no such thing as a “Federal Records Check”. It does exist but civilians do not have any access to it under any circumstances. If a company tells you they do, they are outright lying. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is restricted only to Law Enforcement. It is a serious felony for someone to access it. Many years ago I asked a Congressman why we could not have legitimate access to NCIC. His response is that it will never happen as unemployment would rise sharply. Wow, they do not care if we hire criminals, have thefts and crimes caused by them, they just do not want unemployment to rise?!?!?

Not all States have State wide records checks available. In that case we run them by county. The trick is to figure out which counties. We can make an educated guess based on where the applicant indicates they have lived. However, we frequently find that applicants will lie or omit a location where they have lived that is associated with criminal records. So what is the solution?

How about “social trace”? Ever heard of that? No, it’s not a new thing on Facebook or Twitter. It’s a check that we run on an individual’s social security number that allows you to know what states and addresses the person has lived in and what other names they could have used. Sometimes, we get a red flag because a female’s maiden name wasn’t listed and pops up as an alias, which is pretty common and obviously nothing to worry about… but other times, we get a red flag on a social trace because the individual has used entirely different aliases—not misspellings, completely different names!

When we run an employment background check for a customer, we like to run a Social Trace first. This tells us then where to search the criminal records. That keeps you in control, not the applicant. By the way, Social Traces are really inexpensive.

We see it all around here. To date “the record” is held by an applicant that had over 50 pages of arrests and convictions. Many of those were VERY serious crimes that were recent. This is the kind of person that you would never want near your family, friends or employees. There’s no telling what a new day will bring. But for you, and your company, trust us when we say that it’s better for you to find out first.

If you’re not running a social security trace on your potential new hires, you could be missing out on crucial information that will keep your workplace environment safe and hold down on employee theft.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security devices, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, surveillance