Loss Prevention Seminar

Dishonest Employees And The Traits They Share

March 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

At the height of the United States recession back in 2008, employee theft and crimes committed by dishonest employees were at the highest. Although the US and global economy seem to have been recuperating for a while, the theft committed by employees does not seem to abate. Billions of dollars are lost to employee theft and shoplifting every single year, and many small businesses cannot cope with the financial loss, and close their doors for good. Hiring the right kind of employee can be an asset to your company, or a detriment to your business. Look for more info. about this topic by following the links below.

The Employee Investigation: Does It Pass the Smell Test? Part 2

The Traits of the Dishonest Employee Will Often Help Us to Identify Them.

In our last column we looked at the red flags indicating a large scale fraud or embezzlement was likely being committed by employees. Further exploring the elements of the employee investigation, we will now look at the behavioral indicators of the simple thief at work within the organization. Birds of a feather stick together—their behaviors and pasts are indicators of how they will act, and serve as predictors of future behavior.

While today’s analytics and data mining can quickly focus on anomalies in the numbers indicating probable theft problems, there was a time when investigators did not have this advantage. Some companies do not yet have these systems so it might be useful to go “old school” with our employee investigation and look for thieves by their behaviors.

Let’s take a look at the red flags we have found to be most useful in ferreting out the dishonest associate during the employee investigation. As we noted in our last column, there are great differences between an employee who is a thief and one who is a fraudster or embezzler. While at the end of the day both types are stealing from the organization, their methods are different as are the red flags indicating dishonesty.

Is Amazon Shaming Warehouse Workers Into Not Stealing?

Amazon allegedly uses silhouettes to get its point across.

Amazon could be shaming workers into not stealing products from its vast warehouses, according to a new report.

Amazon AMZN 0.79% uses flat-panel televisions, or in some cases, bulletin boards, to highlight each morning the workers it needed to fire or have arrested for stealing products at its warehouses, Bloomberg isreporting, citing interviews with nearly a dozen current and former Amazon employees. Those employees toldBloomberg that Amazon posts silhouettes containing the word “terminated.” Amazon then details what those people stole and how they did it, according to the report. Amazon will even provide details on its value.

The e-commerce giant did not respond to a request for comment on the Amazon report.

Warehouse workers have long used anonymous services, such as Glassdoor.com, as well as protests, to fight Amazon’s treatment. Indeed, the company has been the subject of a slew of protests outside its warehousing facilities over the years, most notably in Germany, where workers tend to strike during peak holiday seasons in hopes of increasing wages. Each time, Amazon has said that its shipments would not be affected and that its workers are paid fairly for their jobs.

OBPD attempts to help local businesses prevent shoplifting

Osage Beach
Retail loss is one of the most challenging aspects of doing business.According to the National Retail Federation, shoplifting accounts for 38 percent of an estimated $44 billion in retail losses each year. Inventory shrinkage includes shoplifting, employee/internal theft, administrative errors and vendor fraud or error.The Osage Beach Police Department wants to help area merchants slow that retail loss, a loss that ultimately is passed along to consumers.
The OBPD hosted a Meet and Greet Partnership Meeting recently with nine retailers to discuss retail theft issues, to give pointers and allow retailers to share tips and trends. Several area businesses, law enforcement, financial institutions and prosecuting attorneys were invited.
Sgt. Arlyne Page, communications officer with OBPD, said the department began a crime prevention program in 1981, and more recently has held meetings with Osage Beach Premium Outlet managers to coordinate prevention efforts among retailers. Target store management encouraged meetings last spring, and a month ago asked the OBPD to host a meeting on shoplifting and retail and digital fraud.

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Phones and the Theft of Time

March 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

In the past when managers discussed employee theft they mostly talked about the tangibles. They talked about their problems with staff stealing product, supplies and money – the physical things which can be touched and seen.

They would also discuss the problem of employees “standing around” and not doing their work. However, this conversation was separate from the one about theft, it was about productivity. But, with the arrival of smart phones the issue of productivity can’t be separated from the one of theft. The theft of time, via lack of productivity, is increasing at a rapid rate.

It’s seldom looked at that way because time is an intangible, it lacks physical substance. Its boundaries are blurrier – an employee who would never think of stealing a shirt from the store has no qualms about using company time to buy, on her phone, a shirt from her favorite website.

The idea of who “owns” an employee’s time is an old argument. There have been countless lawsuits and court decisions made over the years, trying to define it. In the last few years there have been several landmark ones in the tech field. On paper it can seem cut and dried, in practice it’s not.

Especially now, when managers are encountering issues they’ve never had to deal with before. The debate of where, how and when people on the job should have access to their phones is a new one, one with strong opinions and feelings on both sides. Companies are struggling with it and most have yet to agree on, develop and enforce clear guidelines.

At this time the issue is simple. A company pays an employee for a block of time, and during that time they have the right to expect (within the labor laws) the worker to give his attention to the duties of the job, not his phone. The business can enact and enforce policies that support this right.

Soon however, it’s going to become much more complicated. Most of us know someone who’s too attached to their phone – a person who is losing or has lost the ability function without it. Individuals who may need professional help to address their obsession (there’s a fierce argument in the medical community as to whether it’s an addiction or not).

In the next few years companies will have to link their phone/workplace access policies with their ADA and Mental Health policies. Therefore, it’s vital that companies develop and enforce basic phone/workplace access policies and procedures now, because it’s only going to get more complicated. Don’t let employees steal your company’s time; after all you paid for it.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 150 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

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Shoplifting And Organized Shoplifting Rings

February 3, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

For a long time now police departments across the United States have been working closely with retailers in their areas to protect their stores, the safety of customers and residents alike. The cost associated with shoplifting goes beyond the loses it causes to the retail store and consumers, and violent crimes associated with shoplifting keeps police departments busy and the crime rate increase is bad for business.

For more about shoplifting follow the links below.

Shoplifting putting the pinch on police, businesses

Shoplifting is a significant problem that costs retailers as well as consumers, and may lead to other crimes, according to Martinsville’s Police Chief.

Shoplifting accounted for a fifth of Martinsville’s total Part I crimes in 2014 – crimes that are the best indicator of the safety of citizens, including violent and property crimes, Police Chief Sean Dunn said. Shoplifting accounted for 92 of the city’s 441 total Part 1 crimes (nearly 21 percent) in 2014.

“This is a significant cost to our local retailers, which certainly translates to a higher cost for all of us. As a result of the large percentage of shoplifting incidents, we decided to tackle this from a department-wide approach and enhance our partnership with the business community,” Dunn said.

The Martinsville Police Department’s initial response included patrol officers making periodic stops at local businesses “to deter unlawful activity and to reinforce with the business community their importance to us,” Dunn said.

Observation skills, quick thinking help prevent shoplifting

About 27 million shoplifters live in the United States today, with offenders spanning generations.

According to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP), that means 1 in 11 people have shoplifted. There is no “typical” offender.

“It could be anybody,” said Nathan Hershley, the security supervisor at East Hills Shopping Center. “I’ve personally dealt with (shoplifters) from 14 years old, clear up into their 50s.”

Shoplifters target all types of stores, according to NASP — from drug stores to supermarkets, convenience stores and even thrift shops.

Store employees and customers who shop there play an important role in helping catch anyone suspected of stealing. Staying alert for suspicious behavior and catching the suspect(s) on photo or video can help authorities make an arrest.

Along with holiday thefts, stores see increase in organized shoplifting rings

Experts say organized crime rings are on the rise. A September survey by the National Retail Federation showed 97 percent of retailers contacted believed they were victims of organized retail crime within the last year. Almost half reported a “significant” increase in such crimes.

Jan. 02–Supermarkets across Central Florida were puzzled after more than $50,000 worth of merchandise vanished from shelves.

It wasn’t the result of closeout deals or the green-haired Christmas villain known as the Grinch making off with cartloads of products from Publix and Winn-Dixie stores. Rather, a posse of Central Floridians pilfered pricey grocery stock such as Crest White Strips and Gillette razors from almost 100 stores.

Security camera footage eventually revealed the coordinated thievery, which led to the arrests of five suspects. The organized shoplifting ring busted in August is part of a growing trend that has stores on their toes, especially with the increases of retail theft around the holiday season.

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Employee Theft

December 16, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Shoplifting costs the retail industry million of dollars daily. The harm done to the businesses and the economy in general is socially and economically harmful, but employee theft hurts the company’s culture, damages trust between owners and employees, and financially are responsible for billions of dollars that companies lose due to this horrible crime. For more about this topic follow the links below.

A New Employee Theft Study

An Analysis of Employee Theft at a Specialty Retailer.

When I was a doctoral graduate student at the University of Minnesota during the late 1970s, I began conducting research on employee theft. At the time this was an area of criminology that was virtually unexplored. I found that it was very hard to study this subject then, since few retailers were willing to let a social scientist have full access to the records on this subject. Over forty years later, the scholarly literature on dishonesty in the workplace is still understudied and poorly understood despite the best efforts of a handful of researchers.

As such, I am always on the lookout for new and cutting-edge research on this topic. This month I wish to share the results of a quality employee theft study that was recently published as a doctoral dissertation. The author is Dana N. Baxter. She completed her research while studying under Dr. Dennis Giever at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She finished her dissertation this past spring and graduated in May. She is presently an assistant professor at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia.

A Snapshot of Employee Theft in the US

The majority of employee thefts are occurring in organizations with 500 employees or less. The sizes and types of thefts vary by industry, but smaller organizations across the spectrum exhibited high incidences of embezzlement overall.

The unfortunate reality of employee theft is every organization is at risk.

When we looked at the totality of federal actions involving employee theft over the calendar year, nearly 72% involved organizations with fewer than 500 employees. Within that data set, we found that four of every five victim organizations had fewer than 100 employees; more than half had fewer than 25 employees. Is there a connection between the size of an organization and the size of the loss? Our research suggests that there may be. While some of the largest losses occurred in organizations with fewer than 50 employees, in the aggregate, we note the following:

U.S. retail workers are No. 1…in employee theft

Light-fingered employees cost American stores (and consumers) more than shoplifters do.

It’s almost Groundhog Day, but for retailers, the holiday season is finally winding down.

“The four months from October through January are when stores see not just their biggest sales volume of the year, but also the most returns and exchanges,” says Ernie Deyle, a 30-year veteran of the retail loss-prevention wars who leads the business consulting practice at London-based data analytics firm Sysrepublic. “Unfortunately, the same four months account for about half of all annual shrinkage.”

That shrinkage, made up of missing goods from shoplifting and other causes, costs U.S. retailers about $42 billion a year, according to the latest Global Retail Theft Barometer, an annual industry study led by Deyle and inventory management firm Checkpoint Systems.

Shoppers pay the price for such theft. The cost of mysteriously vanishing merchandise comes to $403 annually per U.S. household.

Of course, retailers everywhere deal with shrinkage, but there is one big difference between the U.S. and the rest of the world: Globally, dishonest employees are behind about 28% of inventory losses, while shoplifters account for a markedly higher 39%. Not so stateside, the study says, where employee theft accounts for 43% of lost revenue. That’s about $18 billion, or $2.3 billion more than the cost of five-finger discounts taken by customers.

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HOW SECURE IS YOUR BACKDOOR

December 11, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Where are you losing the most to employee theft? Is it cash through the point of sale, bogus invoices, or fraudulent discounts? If you’re like most retailer stores, it’s more than likely a little bit of each. One area that is so often overlooked is our back doors. If not properly controlled, you can lose tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise before it even hits your sales floor.

Just this past year, I worked a case in one of my high shrink stores. The managers were reported huge losses in electronics items and hunting accessories. After an investigation was conducted, we were able to determine that the product had never made it to the shelves. After a few days of surveillance, it was clear that a handful of receiving associates were operating their own small business. Product was simply taken off the truck and taken right out the back doors.

Just a few months ago another store was missing approximately 10,000 units of ammunition. We tracked this shipment from our warehouse, where we had video of it leaving the dock, as well as video of the merchandise being unloaded at the store. Video also showed a receiving employee wheel it out the back door on a pallet and load it into his personal vehicle.

I could sit here for hours recalling case after case, where employees exploited physical security failures around our back doors. In just about every single case, there was a violation of our company’s policy that led to the associate being able to steal the product. As managers, you have to take ownership of this area, or else it will bleed you dry.

First, ensure that only managers have a key to the back door and that a manager is the only one using those keys! All too often, I’ve seen managers give their keys to a “trusted” associate, in an attempt to delegate tasks, only to have that associate rob them blind. Your managers are key holders for a reason; and that trust should only stay with them.

When manager does open the back door, they should stay at the doors. I’ve had cases where a manager would step out of the warehouse for a minute with the door open, and an employee would run product out. If the door is open, the manager stays posted until the doors can be locked. This is a non-negotiable item for my company. Unsecured and unattended back doors can get a manager a coaching in their file. It’s that serious.

Plenty of stores don’t have the luxury of a compactor and have to take the trash out to an open-top dumpster several times a day. This is a great time for employees to stage product inside of trash bags. To prevent this, you should mandate that all boxes be broken down prior to the door being opened. In addition, use clear garbage bags instead of solid black. This lets you see what each bag contains before it goes outside.

Securing the back door, to me, is just as important as any other physical security measure used in the store. I can use all the EAS devices and anti-theft tools in the world, but they won’t be effective if the product is flowing out of the back door. This is one of the biggest areas of potential loss for any store and I can guarantee that if you have any weaknesses, or lapses in policy, a dishonest employee will find them and they will exploit them. Do yourself a favor and make sure your back door policy is locked down this holiday season.

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Using Technology To Prevent Shoplifting

December 1, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The busiest shopping season has begun. Along the many customers you expect this holiday season, you can expect the shoplifters as well. Taking advantage of the many customers entering a store, the shoplifter sees this season as an opportunity to walk into a store and leaving with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise without paying, and sometimes without getting stopped by security. It is difficult for a loss prevention officer to keep track of all the customers entering and leaving the store, that’s why the technology you use to protect your store from shoplifters is as important as hiring loss prevention officers in the first place. To read more about this and other topics follow the links below.

Using facial recognition to prevent shoplifting, workplace violence

Some retail stores in Kirkwood, Missouri are using facial recognition software supplied by Blue Line Technology to prevent shoplifting, according to a report by Fox2Now.

“If we recognize them as a suspicious character, we follow them around and we sort of hound them out of the store,” said Christopher Thau, the owner of a store called Christopher’s. “I hate to put it that way but that’s what we do.”

Since shoplifters often move from one store to the next, many store owners and managers help each other by distributing pictures of potential suspects.

Blue Line Technology provides facial recognition software to help police and businesses track potential threats of shoplifting.

The First Line Facial Recognition system alerts store managers regarding the presence of known shoplifters, providing advance warning for protection against shoplifting and fraud in checks and credit cards.

Blenheim businesses prepare for the shoplifting season

The festive season boom sees a surge shoplifters, shopkeepers and police say.

Shopkeepers and police are preparing for an expected surge in shoplifting during the busy festive season.

Farmers Blenheim store manager Karen Stevenson said the months of November and December were the worst time of the year for theft in department stores.

“Christmas is a bad time for it … It’s a huge problem in Blenheim.”

Police had received 23 reports of shoplifting in Marlborough since August 20.

Blenheim community constable Russ Smith said an increase in shoplifting was expected ahead of the holidays.

“Part of the reason is that stores are advertising flat out and have more stock. They’re a lot busier, the store staff are busier, and shoplifters take advantage of those factors.”

Police would patrol the Blenheim shopping district closer to Christmas in an attempt to deter shoplifters.

“That’s only part of what we do preventatively, and it’s as much to make sure people are behaving in the late nights,” Smith said.

Postie Plus Blenheim ex-employee Barbara Drummond said the size of department stores made it extremely difficult to keep an eye on customers, especially during busy times like the festive season.

Firm that teaches ‘life skills’ to suspected shoplifters extorts them, suit alleges

Debra Black insists she is “not a thief.”

She says she rolled her electric wheelchair out of the Goodwill Industries store in Tustin after inadvertently neglecting to pay for a few items. The pack of purple napkins, headband and small purse came to $6.97.

But once a security guard stopped her that day in March 2013, things got heated. Black, 64, said she was frightened into signing a confession and agreeing to complete a six-hour “life skills” course and pay a Utah company $500.

When Black did not pay, she received multiple calls and letters from Corrective Education Co., including this final warning: “Contact us immediately to prevent the filing of a criminal complaint.”

Black unsuccessfully sued the firm, which refers to itself as CEC, along with Monument Security Inc., contending they were debt collectors that had violated laws governing that industry.

On Monday, the San Francisco city attorney weighed in, filing a new lawsuit that alleges CEC’s practices violate the California business and professions code and amount to extortion and false imprisonment.

The suit seeks civil penalties as well as restitution for every Californian who has paid into the program. About 20,000 accused shoplifters are believed to have participated nationwide.

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Should You Apprehend The Shoplifter?

November 24, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

According to the statistics by the National Association for Shoplifting prevention the habitual shoplifter steals 1.6 times a week. And although that is an alarming amount, the fact is that theft by employees surpasses theft by the outside shoplifter. The amount they steal is alarmingly higher compared to what the outside shoplifter takes from the store. So how do you prepare your business to mitigate the loses it will suffer from employees and shoplifters alike? Is having up to date inventory data readily available one of the solutions? Is prosecuting the employee no matter the amount the way to go? For more about this and other stories follow the links below.

To Stop Or Not to Stop the Shoplifter: Is This Still a Question?

A male shoplifting suspect has been coming into store 153 three times a week for as long as anybody can remember. Store management has even attributed this guy as a major cause of the store’s shrink woes that have put them on the corporation’s “target store” list for the last two inventory cycles. As the store’s loss prevention agent, you have tried to stop him in the past, but it seems like you have always been just one step behind him and unable to make the shoplifter apprehension.

“Today is going to be different,” you say to yourself.

You can feel it. Today he is finally going to get what’s coming to him, and, more importantly, your apprehension dry spell is going to end. No more excuses needed for the boss. Today you are going to be stopping the shoplifter that nobody else has been able to get.

You have spent the last ten minutes following the suspect through the store, tracking him carefully from the moment he entered. You know and understand the steps of the apprehension process. You have observed him approach, select, and conceal multiple computer accessories that you estimate to be worth over $200.

Seven things retail can teach us all about data security

TalkTalk’s Dido Harding isn’t the first CEO to receive advice from cyber experts safely installed on the This Morning sofa and she won’t be the last. The boardrooms of British Gas, Vodafone and Morrisons have all recently played data-breach bingo and we all now accept it’s ‘when’ not ‘if’.

But retailers have been dealing with theft for a very long time. They call it ‘shrinkage’ – when stock leaves a store by any non-legitimate route and surprisingly, shoplifting comes a distant second to theft by staff. Since retailers need staff they’ve had to concentrate on mitigation rather than eradication.

The information security community would do well to take heed here. The biggest tool most companies have against the insider threat – data theft by staff – is a strongly worded statement. Even then, access to information is so poor that management can’t deliver on any threats. Too much attention still goes on preventing the external attack – the shoplifter.

RETAIL SECURITY

Retail security is a term with two very different and distinct meanings in the retail environment. In one aspect, retail security is an outdated and understated term for a critical sales support function. In the early years of the profession, most companies called this aspect of the workforce the “Security” or “Protection” department. Security teams served as a real and visible force to combat losses in the stores. Uniformed guards would stand at the doors or walk the selling floors. Undercover security agents were eventually brought on to catch shoplifters. Security managers coordinated these efforts, and also handled internal theft issues. Programs typically assumed a reactive and one-dimensional approach; responding to issues as they occurred and working to keep the stores safe and secure. Unfortunately, while this reactionary approach was often expected and requested by retail leadership, it was not conducive to true retail success.

Over the years, responsibilities continued to increase, and these departments were looked at in a different way. It became increasingly apparent that in order to benefit the overall organization the industry would have to evolve, embracing the concepts of retail shrink reduction and incorporating concepts critical to the retail culture.

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Do you have a Business “Go Kit”?

November 11, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Many folks have go kits set up so that in the event of a storm, natural disaster or civil disturbance, they can grab their family and the Go Kit and be covered. Personal Go Kits tend to have copies of documents such as drivers licenses, birth certificates, passports, deeds…. But Go Kits can also include items to survive such as water, food, medicines, flashlights, a weapon…. These concepts used to be confined to those among us that are expecting a doom’s day interruption or ending to our society.

However, with the complexity of our society come other issues. How would you easily prove that a house belongs to you, if the area was damaged beyond recognition? Say a hurricane, flood, wild fire or earthquake? What happens if the official records are also lost? Are you going to depend on others to put your life back together again?

The same applies to your business. How will you prove to your insurance company that your inventory is valued at $XXXX if your records all disappear in a fire? The same applies to payroll records and the like. You need to have a BUSINESS Go Kit!

Thankfully this is simpler than you may think. Consider keeping your data files in a cloud environment that has multiple backups on servers that are located in multiple locations around the US. If they are on one server located in New Orleans or Miami, I would re-think that strategy. We use Google’s cloud. It costs us $5/month per employee and the redundant backups are on five separate servers in five different geographical locations in the United States.

Scan in important documents such as business licenses, insurance documents, titles, vendor documents, etc. Put them in your cloud. That way you have access wherever you are. It might be a good idea to put photos of your business, inventory, equipment and more on there, every six months or annually. Have your backups of accounting data such as Quick Books reside their also. All of this plus payroll records, taxes and more could be rebuilt but why would you want to take the time to do this when it is simply a matter of changing your habits?

Oh but “it will never happen to me” or “I will get to that tomorrow” are favorite phrases we all like to use to put something off that we know should be done. It will happen to you and it will happen “tomorrow”. An earthquake may never threaten your business but then again a data loss, PC crash probably will.

Unless you are wealthy beyond belief, then like the rest of us that are not, we depend on our business to provide for our families and life style. We will need to restore that cash flow in the quickest manner possible and with the least amount of effort to get there. Your business Go Kit will help make that happen.

It is also a good idea to keep a few extra cases of water, blankets, candles and canned soup on hand. I may be miserable but being warm, having a full stomach and a little light to read by will make it a little less miserable.

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EMPLOYEE THEFT IN THE 4TH QUARTER

November 11, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It always seems that as we get into the 4^th quarter, cases of internal theft seem to rise. Every year for the past 8, I’ve dreaded the case load that I know will be coming in the next three months. While it is impossible for me to predict, with any certainty, internal theft cases at any point in the year, I can always guarantee that each one of my 29 stores will have at least one case in the next three months. Good thing I’ve got my bags packed.

I would almost bet that I’m not alone here. Those of you reading this right now have experienced the same thing. Yeah, sure, we see employee theft cases all year long, but why do they seem to increase during the end of the year? Are more people just desperate to satisfy those wish-lists? Is it driven by greed for the season’s hot new electronics? Is it our temporary associates, who may not receive a background check? Probably a little bit of all of those.

Holidays bring pressure, especially if you have a family. Even more so if you are struggling financially. Those children surely need a new tablet, even though rent may take up an entire 2 weeks’ salary. Let’s not forget about utilities and groceries, clothes and other essentials. If someone is desperate enough, Santa will pass, but it will be on your dime. I grew up in poverty. My father worked long hours for minimum wage, and my mother raised 3 kids. When the holidays came around, I can remember my mother taking on temp work and my dad taking on another job. Nowadays, it seems as that type of work ethic is completely unheard of. Why work yourself to death, when you could just steal what you want.

Our employees also have greater access to product. Even before that new tablet hits the display, an employee has to take it off the delivery truck. Chances are, these receiving employees are grossly unsupervised, and can simply cart it out the back door. Just last week, I had a case where two guys were doing just that. They had bilked the store for nearly $10k in product that never made it to the sales floor. The managers learned a very hard lesson about supervision, as well as back door procedures. Employees also learn our system and understand where our weaknesses are. Last year (same store as the first example), the hard-goods employees (all 10 of them) were taking cash payments from customers and loading up bulk items like treadmills, ride-on toys, and basketball goals. The store has a procedure in place for a supervisor to verify all receipts prior to bulk items being taken out. The store was not following this program and it costs them well over $75k.

Temporary workers are another pain in my side. Obviously, we need the additional support in the 4^th quarter. Hiring is essential, but hiring the right person is even more so. My company waives the background check process for temporary hires. It’s the reason I’m bald at 28. There are better alternatives out there. I know a ton of other retailers also have this practice. It’s not good for business. Yes, these people are only working for you for a limited amount of time, but they can do serious damage in that time. Just last year, two temporary cashiers embezzled nearly $30k in one of my stores by processing fraudulent return transactions. Upon their arrest, we saw on their criminal records that each had multiple arrests for embezzlement and shoplifting. They would have never been offered employment outside of the temp hire period.

There is no quick fix, or simple solution to employee theft. As managers and business owners, you have to take proactive steps to minimize your losses. Employees will always find ways to steal from you; it’s your job to make it increasingly difficult for them to do so. The key to a strong 4^th quarter is clearing your store of product, just not through the backdoors.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Nano Gate, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft tags, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Training, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Protecting Your Employees From Shoplifters

October 20, 2015 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Protecting your business and employees from shoplifters seem to be getting harder. Knowing when and what to do when a shoplifting incident occurs in your store can help prevent employees and customers from getting hurt. Do your employees know who to call? What to do when a shoplifter is taking goods from your store and walking out? Making sure your employees know what do, and how to respond when an incident occurs can help prevent accidents.

Follow the links below for more information about this topic.

Spike in shoplifting drives property crime wave in Taos

TAOS — Taos Municipal Court may seem quaint, decorated as it is with landscapes painted by the judge himself, but it’s not sleepy. The court’s docket of shoplifting cases nearly doubled during the last fiscal year to just under 90.

Judge Dickie Chávez says approximately 3 out of 4 shoplifting cases in his court concern the purported theft of alcohol.

And it’s not usually teens stocking up for parties.

The spike in shoplifting cases comes despite the Taos Police Department’s tough approach, arresting rather than citing virtually every suspect apprehended regardless of how small the alleged theft. But it also raises questions about whether law enforcement and courts are the right institutions to address a problem officials say is driven by substance abuse.

‘Operation GroupMe’ was meant to fight shoplifting, enables racial profiling instead

Georgetown has had a shoplifting problem lately, so local citizens turned to group-messaging app GroupMe for help. The Georgetown Business Improvement District partnered with local police to launch “Operation GroupMe” early last year to connect small businesses, police officers, and community leaders in a concerted fight against shoplifting. Instead, it’s become an exercise in racial profiling.

Local police in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood recorded more than 120 thefts in just the last 60 days, according to CBS News. The group-messaging chat room, which comprises 380 members, was meant to help shopkeepers, police, and others alert each other about shoplifters or people who seem suspicious.

In the more than 3,000 messages exchanged about suspicious people in the Operation GroupMe group since January, nearly 70 percent were black, according to a review by the Business Improvement District. This is a particularly startling finding, given that nearly 80 percent of Georgetown’s residents are white.

Police: Helena man bites Capital Sports employee in shoplifting attempt

A 38-year-old Helena man faces a felony robbery charge on accusations he bit a store employee’s hand during an attempted shoplifting.

Dwight Edward Pierson is jailed on $20,000 bond.

Police responded to Capital Sports, 1092 Helena Ave., on Friday after receiving a report that a store employee had detained a suspected shoplifter. Officers noted the employee had two open, bleeding wounds on his right index finger, charging documents say.

The employee told police another worker saw a fishing reel sticking out of Pierson’s pocket while in the store. Pierson, who is on probation, ran from the store, court documents say. An employee grabbed Pierson by his hood and pinned him to the ground.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, anti-theft tags, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Training, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting violence, surveillance