This is a true story of an incident that I dealt with just the other night in my job at a college library. I was talking with my fellow supervisor who was leaving for the night as his shift had just ended. While we were recapping the day’s events the alarm pedestal at one of the entry/exit doors activated. I approached the couple who had been exiting the building and asked if they had any materials they had forgotten to check out. The gentleman had a few things in his hand and I had him re-enter and he did not activate the alarm. The young woman with him had a backpack on and I asked her to step back inside. She did so and the alarm sounded. My Loss Prevention background kicked in (this isn’t much different than when I would prevent shoplifting in a store). I asked her again if she had anything that may have set off our towers. She was insistent she did not and began rummaging through her book bag while telling me she only had her laptop and some personal items. I watched her dig around, all the while looking over her shoulder into the bag but, calling on my LP Manager skills, not handling the bag myself. As in my prior life in L.P. when I would respond to electronic article surveillance (EAS) tower alarms set off by Alpha Security devices, I asked the patron to walk through again without the bag. No alarm sounded. I then asked her to pick up the backpack and try it again. You guessed it, the pedestal alarm came to life, beeping and LED lights flashing. I then pointed out a zipper pouch the student had not looked in during her frustrated digging. Low and behold, she pulled out a book and her friend sheepishly said he thought they had put the book down before leaving. I took the book and thanked them for their time and wished them a good night. In the old days I could have counted this for my recovery stats! Now, I have to handle alarms a little differently. However, what is the same between my current job and my L.P. job is that I find retail anti-theft devices and EAS work!
Whether it is an EAS label or an Alpha Security hard tag, retail anti-theft devices can and do prevent shoplifting, theft or accidental losses due to unintentional walk-outs. Having had experience using Alpha Security products while I worked in Loss Prevention, I can attest to their ability to deter theft and detect it when a thief attempts to steal protected merchandise. Alpha’s products are designed to be visible to shoplifters so when criminals see the tags and their flashing red LED light, they choose not to attempt to steal. The devices all have EAS radio frequency technology built in that activates pedestals if merchandise is carried too close to the doors and someone attempts to walk out with protected items. Merchandise is also protected when a shoplifter attempts to tamper with Alpha’s devices. Most have tamper resistant protections that sound a sharp, piercing 95 decibel screech if thieves try to forcibly remove them. This leads to merchandise being abandoned and bad guys scurrying out of the store.
Aside from the deterrence value of Alpha’s retail anti-theft devices my LP teams and I made merchandise recoveries due to alarm activations from Alpha Security products, similar to the book recovery I mentioned at the beginning of the article. I can think of multiple situations when we recovered Spider wrapped vacuum cleaners and DVD players (when they were the hot commodity) being rolled out through EAS pedestals. We responded to the alarms and prevented thefts. On the occasion when we were not available, front end supervisors responded to alarms and conducted receipt checks and prevented shoplifting attempts.
As someone who works in a library I won’t be silent about this, Alpha Security products along with a reliable EAS tower can keep your shelves full and shortage low. Learn more about the ABC’s of EAS and retail anti-theft devices and how you can improve profitability.
Get more information on Alpha Security, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
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