1 Anybody that’s worked in retail knows the joys of dealing with shoplifters. It’s a shitty and inevitable problem that comes with any...
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Anybody that’s worked in retail knows the joys of dealing with shoplifters. It’s a shitty and inevitable problem that comes with any retail job, but security guards get the worst of it. A man that used to work for Target decided it was time to share his shoplifting tales.
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Since today is five years since I resigned from Target Assets Protection (Loss Prevention/Security) I thought I would share a few funny or interesting stories.
Preface: I worked at a smaller store and they often only employ one full time AP worker, sometimes you get a part timer if it’s in the budget but I never had one in six years. Also at least at my time there, floor workers and managers are not allowed to intervene with shoplifters. Not sure what they can do now.
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Story 1: (While I’m off duty) Four women come into our store and walk to electronics. Two of them block off each side of an isle containing iPads in a locked case. Woman 3 pulls out a crowbar and breaks into the case while woman four brings the electronics worker further away to distract him by Bose displays (which she is pressing the test button to make a lot of noise). It takes them less than a minute to withdraw about 11 iPads and boogie.
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End Result: The iPads were insured in some way by the manufacturer of the case. I forward the footage to local police. These women hit several stores successfully before being caught.
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Sidebar: All cameras in the store are functional and usually omnidirectional. I could zoom in on someone’s class ring and write down the engravings on it for identifiable evidence. I know because I did it a few times. Many stores deploy 4K cameras and the corporate AP labs are very sophisticated.
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Story 2: Observe a man cutting prepaid phones out of their boxes and pocketing them. He also pocketed a lot of headphones and a snickers bar on an end cap. Prepared to confront him. When we met face to face I couldn’t even finish the word “sir” before he produced a revolver at his belt and asked me to make a smart decision. Per protocol I calmly step out of his way and make sure shoppers didn’t exit the building until he was gone.
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Outcome: Police were contacted and footage was transferred. Unknown if he was ever caught.
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Story 3: Young girl in a group of friends was observed pocketing a fair amount of shampoo and makeup supplies. She was successfully confronted. Friends were not held. With minors procedures are different and I never wanted to ruin a kids life for stupid mistakes. Contacted the police to have them discuss whatever youth programs for deterring crime they had. Turns out the officer that responded was her stepdad.
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Outcome: I distracted myself by staring at the monitor to avoid the awkwardness of the bitching out taking place. She was trespassed for 12 months. According to Officer Dad she was grounded for the same time.
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Story 4: Internals are fairly common. Seasonal worker was suspected of ringing up promotional gift cards and keeping them. (It was true). The front end people scheduled her off of registers to avoid guest complaints. When she was rescheduled for floor duty I was scheduled specifically to monitor her for about a week. The first day and first action she did was walk to electronics and ask for a Wii. She carried it to the front and walked side by side with an older shopper to make it appear like she was helping her carry it. Walked it to her car and returned to the building. Repeated the process with a guitar hero set. Contacted the store leader to review footage. I was scheduled to observe her for a week and it only took an hour.
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Outcome: She left the store in handcuffs. I had to do some court work for this one. Unknown what time she served.
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Story 5: I’m working a different store at this time since they had no coverage. We had a large Coca Cola sale going on. I get a call from the store leader saying that a woman had stolen over 100 cases of 12 packs. Camera footage showed her calmly filling up several carts and walking them to her truck. She made seven trips and just left. Store workers observed it but (at that time) they were not allowed to intervene, including contacting the police, for many policy reasons.
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Outcome: I laughed at the footage of the zero-fucks-given attitude of this woman. Held a workshop for store team members at the next team meeting about guest servicing aggressively; annoying the person sometimes deters them.
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Stay classy, Target shoplifters.