anti-theft devices

Get More Out Of Your Burglar Alarm System

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Is your burglar alarm giving you all it’s got? Technology keeps updating but there is one area you may not be thinking about getting more from your dollar: your burglar alarm system.

Alarm systems can now do so much more for the retailer. First, if you are still transmitting alarm signals via your phone line, then you are very vulnerable. Phone lines are really terrible for transmitting signals. They are slow and unreliable. Your phone line goes down and your alarm is not going to communicate with anyone. Change to cellular communications and you will get the signal out. You see, alarm systems communicate on a different cellular channel than your voice “can you hear me now” channel. That channel is very strong. You may not have good voice service in your store but chances are your alarm system cellular service is great. Cellular signals are MUCH faster also. Cost? Should only add a few dollars a month to your monitoring invoice.

Heard about or been a victim of copper theft. You know, copper, the metal that your roof top or side of building air conditioner units tubing is made of. Thieves will tear up your a/c just to steal that copper to sell it. This leaves your business down until replacement and repair can be completed. Your alarm company can put a sensor on your outside a/c unit that will trip your alarm, if they try to tamper with it. Cost of the part is about $70 +/-.

Do you have valuable property at your business such as equipment, artwork….. that is never to be moved or removed from the premises? Honeywell makes a wireless sensor that is about half the size of a pack of cigarettes. This sensor attaches to that item. It can be programed different ways to notify you if the item is moved or removed. This sensor is monitored by your burglar alarm system.

Your alarm company can guide you. If they don’t have a solution or don’t understand, then you should look for another vendor who can think outside the box.

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, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, retail security and monitoring, shoplifting violence

HARDENING YOUR PERIMETER – PREVENTING A BURGLARY

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

My grandparents owned a small hardware store back in the late 1950s. Back then, when my grandpa left at 5pm, he simply locked the back door, gathered his belongings and left, locking the double glass front door behind him with nothing more than a standard lock that you’d find on any home at the time. The front of the store was nothing but glass. He had cash and at least $100k worth of merchandise on the shelves. Wouldn’t it be nice if things could go back to the way they were back then? Could you imagine if you left your store this soft nowadays? Burglaries happen, and they happen often. Over the past ten years as a Regional LP manager for my company, I’ve had it happen a total of 12 times. About once a year, or so, someone, somewhere across my region, breaks into one of my stores; or at least tries to do so. We have a lot of things that we implement to prevent this from happening, so when someone is able to breach our perimeter, it’s usually caused by human error.

Hiding in a rack

Out of the 12, six never actually tried to “break in”. They simply just stayed in the store. Closing manager task #1 is to WALK THE SALES FLOOR thoroughly before dismissing the team. Always check the hiding spots, restrooms and fitting room stalls, in addition the warehouse areas. What always struck me about these cases, is the suspect has literally nowhere to go. He’s locked into the store; and during every single case, the suspect was a trapped mouse. This of course, is due to the fire exit bars that are installed and locked once the building is no longer occupied. Most criminals think they can just grab what they want and push out of a fire exit…

Smash and grab

I’ve had two of these during my tenure. Suspect drives a vehicle through the front entrance. It never really works out in the long run though. Of these two, one made it in, but the truck was so heavily damaged, it wouldn’t move. The other didn’t get past the cement bollards in the front. I highly recommend the installation of bollards if you don’t have them. Smash and grabs are a more and more common way to burglarize small businesses. Bollards are a way to quite literally, fight back.

Walk right in

My personal 3 favorite burglaries of all times; which also led to the terminations of three separate managers. I know that closing a store has its own set of challenges and there are plenty of things that need to get done before you go home… setting the alarm and locking the door shouldn’t be the two things that you forget though. Either one, or both has happened and they have usually resulted from a scattered brained manager getting very distracted, or not doing something right on the alarm panel. One just got distracted with a personal phone call that he left the store so quickly that the front doors weren’t locked. There are criminals that check these things often. We see thieves check car door handles to see if the car is locked; well there are some that do the same to businesses.

Rappel down

If you have a skylight(s) it is important to make sure access to your roof is restricted at all times. If not, someone can get up there and steal the copper out of your AC units, or go special forces and rappel down into your store; two very funny stories that you’ll have to read in the next article.

While burglaries are a more common problem that we might think, there are several measures that you can implement to make your store less of a target for these crooks. Whether it’s installing an alarm panel, putting in a roll-down shutter down, or making sure the roof ladder isn’t left accessible and your front doors are actually locked at night. Following some pretty basic steps and using some good old fashioned common sense can help you to avoid the headache and lost money that comes from a burglary.

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, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting systems, internal Audit, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Shoplifting Prevention, surveillance

FOUR STORY FALL FROM GRACE

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It’s not too many industries where I can share two separate stories of a crook falling four stories after trying to steal. This is why I chose Loss Prevention as my career. It’s not the thrill of the chase, or the feeling I get when I close a big case; no, it’s the funny stories I get to tell!

I’m a Regional LP Manager for a medium sized company. I have about 30 stores across a few states. That also means I’m on the alarm call list for all 30 stores. Basically, if there’s an alarm activation, the monitoring company contacts the store managers, in order of proximity to the store. If they go down the list twice, with no answer, they try the district manager. If the DM doesn’t answer, the call goes to the regional manager (who of course never answers). If none of those folks answer the phone, I get the call. ( I always answer). You would think that it wouldn’t be too common for me to get this call. In fact, as I’m typing this I had to take a break to answer one. Most of the time, it’s false alarms and a manager needs to respond in order to reset the alarm. Sometimes, however, it’s an actual burglary.

About 4 years ago, it was a little after 1am on a Saturday night. I wasn’t quite asleep yet when I heard the company cell ringing from the next room. It’s the alarm company. I greet the caller, who knows I’m the last person on his list and he very hesitantly tells me that there’s been an incident at a store and police are requesting a key holder respond immediately. The store, luckily for me, is right down the road from my home (it’s where I office). I tell the alarm company I’ll respond, but to keep calling managers until one wakes up.

When I get to the store, I see fire, police and EMS at the rear. I get out just as an ambulance pulls away. After a few minutes of searching, I locate the officer in charge of the scene. “You’re going to love this one!” he says with a smirk.

A Darwin award candidate was able to gain access to our roof. Turns out, there was some roof repairs made earlier in the week, and a manger never secured the ladder. This guy climbs up with the idea of stealing the copper wiring out of our HVAC units. Great idea on paper… What he didn’t consider was the near-life ending shock that would result from that attempt. A shock so powerful that it threw him out of his shoes and off the side of the building. He was lucky to survive.

Same scenario, but different store. Due to a manager’s failure to secure the roof ladder after some repairs, a genius had the bright idea to rappel down into the store from the skylight. I would assume that he watched some James Bond movies before trying this. Big difference here was that this young fellow lacked the upper body strength of Mr. Bond.

After scaling the roof, he smashed through the skylight with a hammer. Very crudely, he tied one end of a long rope to an AC unit and threw it down the skylight. He did so right in front of a camera dome as luck would have it… Our cat burglar then begins to scale down the rope by hand; only problem is that he isn’t quite strong enough to support his own weight. He falls. About 4 stories down and the camera captured everything. When he hit the ground, he literally bounces. There’s no movement for a good 5 minutes. Dazed and confused he eventually comes to his feet, only to realize that he has no way out. His plan was to steal several high end items and then climb back up the rope. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. He spent the next several months behind bars; and that was after spending a few weeks in the hospital for a fractured skull and broken femur.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Nano Gate, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Periodic inventory, Prevent Shoplifting, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

A RETAILER’S WORST FEAR-STORE ROBBERY

April 28, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

It was 4:30am on a Tuesday morning. My company cell phone pierced through the quiet halls of my house. At first, I didn’t get out of bed; perhaps it was a wrong number. Silence. As I doze back off, I hear the familiar tone once again. Who could be calling me and for what reason at this hour? I let it ring. I hear the chirp of the voicemail. Before I can muster the energy to get out of bed, I hear my personal phone ringing. This one is next to me on the night stand. Something is wrong, I immediately think to myself. When I reach for my phone in the middle of the dark room, eyes still blurry, I see the caller ID. It’s a sheriff’s deputy that I’m good friends with. My heart is in my throat as I answer. “You’re morning crew was just robbed at gunpoint. Get to the store now.”

I don’t think I even gave my friend a response before leaping out of bed. I quickly get dressed and race down stairs. Those two missed phones calls were from a panicked and frantic store manager. The other from the general manager. I jump in the car and speed across town; waking the VP of Loss Prevention, the regional VP and the media relations department. All with the news that no LP manager wants to say. “Our team was just robbed. I have no info on the wellbeing of our employees. I’ll update you as soon as I gather info.”

I get to the store and see close to a dozen police units. There’s crime scene tape and the local new stations are already setting up shop. I rush to the front door and see that it’s been shattered. Later, I find that the robber fired two shots from a .45… one round came within inches of a stocker, into the door, gaining entry into the store. At this point, I don’t care about the damage, I don’t care about the money. I head straight to the staging area and am suddenly taken into an embrace by the morning manager; someone I’ve worked alongside for 10 years. She’s shaken up, but OK. So is the rest of the team. I finally have good news. I send a quick text to my boss that all employees are safe; no injuries. We lost $9k and have a broken door. All replaceable.

It was no accident that our team made it out of this ordeal safely.

Every single week, our company’s robbery policy and procedure is covered with our teams. While a robbery can happen at any time of the day or night, they are most likely going to occur early in the morning, or late at night. Training your team to react to this scenario greatly increases your chance of getting out unharmed. So we train, constantly on three very important points.

Comply – there is no need to argue with a guy with a gun. Everything in the store can be replaced. The company brings in several billions of dollars each year; the amount of cash that can physically be taken is nothing compared to your safety.
Give them whatever they want — if they want cash, give them cash. If they want the entire electronics department, let em’ have it. If they want you to open each cash register for the change, then that’s what we’re going to do in order to get them out. Do not argue, do not deny. Your job is to get them out of the store as quickly as possible and without incident. Let our cameras and law enforcement partners’ worry about trying to identify them.
Never, under any circumstance, contact the police while there is an active robbery – We never want a robbery to turn into a hostage situation. If the police show up quickly, the robbers could panic and hold the team hostage. There is also the possibility of a shoot-out with police and the potential for injury to the team. This point cannot be stressed enough. Wait until you are positive that the robber has fled the scene before making that call; because once you do, you’re going to have every free unit across the city rushing to your doors.

While I hope to never have to see one of my teams go through an ordeal such as this again, I know that there will always exist the remote possibility of it happening again; whether it’s to one of my stores, or to one of yours. If you’ve never thought about implementing a robbery policy/procedure before, I would highly suggest doing so now. The better you plan for such an act, the better your chances of coming through without injury. Remember, money and merchandise can be replaced; a team member cannot.

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, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Periodic inventory, Perpetual Inventory, POS ROI, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Is Your Loss Prevention Team Ready?

April 20, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft, shoplifting, and administrative mistakes are the three major sources of retail shrinkage in the United States. Shoplifting according to the National Association for Shoplifting prevention, is done by millions of people and is costing the country billions of dollar’s worth of merchandise that is being stolen. The millions of dollars spent by these retail stores to prevent shoplifting, is minor considering the billions of dollars lost by employee theft and shoplifting. Among other preventive measures your retail store is taking, is a well trained prevention team included? For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Bar the Door

Anti-theft glass makes storefronts less vulnerable to break-ins

With all the talk about the very real need to protect the security of customer information and an enterprise’s data, it can be easy to forget the reality of in-person threats to a retail establishment. Theft and other forms of shrinkage are no small matter — in 2014, retailers reported average shrinkage of 1.4 percent, according to the most recent National Retail Federation/University of Florida National Retail Security Survey. That equates to $44 billion.

Shoplifting and organized retail crime represented 38 percent of inventory shrinkage for the 100 retailers that participated in the survey; in 2014 the average dollar loss was $318 per shoplifting incident. Criminals gain access in any number of ways; some brazenly walk in during operating hours while others break in while the store is closed.

A gas station/convenience store owner in Daytona Beach, Fla., experienced a number of storefront break-ins that involved criminals smashing the glass of the front door.

How to implement smarter employee theft detection

No retail business wants to believe that they might be subject to theft from their own employees. Unfortunately, it is a very real problem. It might be stealing items on their person, or exploiting employee discount privileges to significantly reduce the price – either way, employee theft can account for as much as 28 per cent of unexplained inventory loss globally, according to the recent Global Theft Barometer Report.

In order to prevent it, it is first important for employers to be aware why employees might feel the temptation to steal – from financial pressures in their personal lives, to general disgruntlement with their employers. But irrespective of the emotional reason that causes employees to consider stealing, it all boils down to something very simple: they think they can get away with it.

Deterring employee theft

A deterrence, of course, breaks the urge to do so. Whilst establishing predetermined consequences of theft will of course work to an extent, implementing a sophisticated detection system is arguably the most effective deterrent. Prevention is the best form of protection when it comes to retail shrinkage.

Coaching Lessons for Managing Your Loss Prevention Team

Loss prevention managers should know that the strength and quality of their teams can be directly proportional to the results achieved by team efforts.

Some of the most rewarding experiences in my work life have involved building teams. It has always been my opinion that the strength and quality of your team is directly proportional to the results.

With responsibility for loss prevention, new store development, and service operations, my primary function at work is leading teams of individuals to success. After 20+ years of retail experience, I thought I understood loss prevention team leadership. But in raising and coaching my son, I learned some things that have changed the way I view my teams at work.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: 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, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Seminar, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, surveillance

Are You Confused ?

April 12, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Are you confused about how to stop shoplifters? Many Retailers are. Often I hear something like “I have a CCTV camera system to stop shoplifters”. The reality is that shoplifters couldn’t care less. Cameras are a very tiny deterrent to a shoplifter. They know you do not have the time or payroll dollars to actively watch. And it is easy enough to create a diversion or simply take your merchandise and move to another location in your store that does not have camera coverage.

Keep in mind that Loss Prevention Systems also sells and installs cameras. So I have quite a bit of experience with this subject. Cameras are great tools but they have their limits. They are great for employee theft prevention and investigation, robbery prevention, burglary prevention and so on. But cameras are NOT proactive (passive)in the case of shoplifting. The shoplifter will be long gone by the time you figure out what is going on if at all.

However, a Checkpoint EAS system is PROACTIVE. It is working 24/7 even when you or your staff are not paying attention. Checkpoint Systems labels and hard tags are applied to your merchandise and if the thief tries to steal you products the Checkpoint System at the doors goes into alarm. We can even send an instant message to your cell phone or other mobile device at that time.

A Checkpoint System never takes a day off, is never sick, doesn’t want a pay raise, and doesn’t want a $15/hour minimum wage. Don’t you wish your staffing was that simple?

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, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, Periodic inventory, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

NON-TRADITIONAL USES FOR EAS DEVICES

April 12, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

EAS is great isn’t it? For the most part, if someone is stealing product “X,” you slap on a quick tag or label and you see a pretty substantial reduction in shrink (for the most part.… Live in the real world). As my LP career has progressed over the years, I’ve seen EAS change drastically. I’ve also seen what retailers apply EAS tags to change as well. Often times, I scratch my head in disbelief at the ideas that come out sometimes and others, I pull my hair out because we could have been more proactive with tag placement. I’ve also seen some fantastic ideas from my store teams on some not so standard tagging procedures.

I had a store a few years ago that were consistently losing their register keys. We later learned that an employee was stealing them and was coming into the store during busy times and just helping themselves to cash in the unattended registers. It took a few months and over $7,500 to put the pieces together before we had an idea of what was happening. That’s a very expensive lesson to learn; especially when there is quite literally, a $0.5 solution.

All of our register keys have a small hole in the top, so they can be hooked to a lanyard for the cashier supervisor to carry around. After our theft incident, we used a pencil tag through that hole to make it less appealing to try and steal the key. Granted, the thief could take it to the service desk and remove the EAS device, but that requires a few more steps that most are not willing to take. As a matter of fact, since taking this one proactive measure, we’ve never had to replace a “lost” register key. For us, it seems to be a great way to maintain a solid key control procedure.

After using some EAS tags on these keys, it really got me thinking about what else is a potential risk in our stores that we don’t secure, but should. The list is virtually endless if you think about it. The next big item that we began securing with EAS hard tags was our handheld units (Symbols/Telxons). A few of our stores fell victim to an eBay thief a few years back, in part due to the ease of removing them from ours store. Since running an Alpha tag with a lanyard through them, we hadn’t lost a single one to theft.

We also have a lot of in-store use only type items (think step-ladders, folding carts, dollies…). As part of our risk mitigation efforts, we utilize EAS tags on all of these items. While they often have to be used outside of the store; the idea that when they do go out, our greeter becomes aware that they are going outside and can better keep track of our in store equipment. You wouldn’t believe how many times someone has stolen a hand truck, or pallet jack from me…

The bottom line is that EAS can be used to protect much more than just your inventory. There are dozens of items inside your four walls that cost you money that dishonest people would just love to take. Why go out and spend any more money that you have to in order to protect your supplies when the answer is already in your store? I’m all about leveraging available resources to accomplish your goals and this is just another item in a skilled LP manager’s tool belt.

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, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, security, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

DO YOU NEED A BURGLAR ALARM?

April 12, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Often overlooked for small businesses is the dire need for a suitable burglar alarm system. I talk about EAS placement and CCTV all the time. Those are rendered absolutely useless is someone busts in through the back door. If your burglar system isn’t up to standards, you run the risk of losing everything.

I think (and hope) that all of you have at least a basic intruder alarm system set up with a reputable monitoring service. I want to go a little further than that and give you some insight on what I’ve seen that works and what really doesn’t. I’ve seen plenty systems over the course of my career and while I’m not an expert on alarm systems, I have common sense (something that seems to be lacking the higher you progress on the retail ladder).

Every store, no matter the size should at the minimum have motion detection and depending on your assortment, shock sensors. If you’re not familiar with the latter, they are generally designed for placement on solid walls (think a firearms cage in a sporting goods store, or the cement wall surrounding the vault at the local bank). These alarms trigger if there is a significant shockwave, i.e explosion, or perhaps a vehicle ramming through. Very important to consider depending on your particular assortment and layout. Motion sensors on the other hand are far more common and should definitely be part of your security system. As the name implies, they detect motion.

One thing my company struggled with for years was false alarms. We were actually paying thousands of dollars in false alarm fines to our local police department one year at this one particular store. Almost every night, the motion sensor would trip, police would be dispatched and we’d find no evidence of a breach. We eventually discovered that we had a cat that was taking up residence and wandering the aisle at night. We eventually changed the trigger to dispatch police from one motion activation to no less than 4 before we would dispatch police. This helped out tremendously and we’ve since implemented that practice to all of our stores.

One other thing we found that didn’t quite work with the motion sensors was our outdoor storage yards. If the wind blew a little too hard, or if animals would slip in, they would trigger a police dispatch. What we did was configure the dispatch to only trigger if there was an outside motion trigger coupled with a breach of gate. By a little trial and error, we found the best solution to keep our store protected, all while eliminating any false alarms to our local police department.

Usually attached to any burglary alarm system is the fire alarm system. I bring this up as I want to talk about a technology that we’ve just begun implementing in our stores over the past 6 months that I think is definitely worth the investment. That being delayed egress fire exits. We had stores in this one market that were being just absolutely hammered with fire exit run outs. We had groups of people that would load up shopping carts full of buggies and push out of the fire exits where an idling pickup truck is waiting. We struggled to stop this trend and were hit with a brick wall; until we tested out the delayed egress.

If you’ve never seen these in action before, they’re pretty awesome. What happens is pretty simple. If someone attempts to open a fire exit, the door has a 10 second delay; meaning the alarm sounds, but the door cannot be physically opened for that time period. The only way this is circumvented is if the fire alarm is activated; then the door opens immediately. The first time our fire exit bandits hit a store with the new doors was priceless. The look of sheer terror and panic on their face as they tried to get out the store, but couldn’t was pure awesomeness. This install, while an investment, has already shown to have not only great potential, but has already given us results.

As with any system, there isn’t a “one size fits all” plan. I encourage everyone to do their own homework when it comes to protecting your store when you’re not there. I guarantee that you can find a balance between your store needs and your budget. While with any new system, there is always an investment to be made, think of this as an investment that you can’t afford not to take.

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, EAS Devices, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, loss prevention, Loss Prevention Workshop, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Retail Stores Fighting Shoplifters

March 24, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

In the UK the number of women apprehended for shoplifting has increased, and has been linked to the fact that they do no longer get government benefits. In the United States shoplifting has increased with millions of dollars lost due to shoplifting every year, and the increase in prices has led many thieves to shoplift items that were unthinkable not too long ago. With the increase of beef prices for example, the number of thieves stealing package meat has reached an all time high. Stores across the country are even considering putting anti-theft packaging on their meat products to prevent thieves from shoplifting it.

For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Retailers Fight Theft at Every Turn

As workplace theft remains a constant issue for retail operations, c-stores continue to look for new means to complement tried-and-true theft prevention strategies, as 2016 progresses.

Theft by employees, of both stock and cash, is now among retailers’ top three areas of concern, according to the “US Retail Fraud Survey 2015” conducted by Retail Knowledge, a retail fraud and loss prevention firm. Cash theft, which grew 2% in 2015 is the second biggest concern followed by administrative loss (23%) and shoplifting (11%).

“We can see from consecutive surveys that the amount spent by companies on loss prevention offline has dropped over 30% in the last two years,” said Mark Emmott, director of Retail Knowledge. Meanwhile, money spent on online loss prevention has doubled. “It may be that cutting budgets on loss prevention in some areas have made it easier, in a tough economic environment, for good people to make bad choices,” he added.

NOVEL STRATEGY
This past January, Crime Stoppers and Canada-based Mac’s Convenience Stores joined popular Canadian comic book hero, Captain Canuck, as part of the comic’s 40th Anniversary edition. The issue is being distributed exclusively and free of charge at Mac’s, and through local Crime Stopper programs across Canada.

Retail Security: How Can Biometrics, Video Analytics and Other Innovation Cut Record Theft Losses and Boost Commercial Performance?

Retail crime hit a 10-year high in the 2013-14 financial year, with the £603m losses recorded by UK retailers 18% higher than those racked up in the previous 12 months.

Despite this, the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) annual crime survey also revealed that the volume of theft offences actually fell 4%. While conventional security technology – primarily CCTV and electronic product tags – has been effective at reducing petty shoplifting, a surge in gang-related bulk theft is soaring.

The average value of goods, money or services stolen now averages £241 per incident.

Clearly, the security industry must evolve its approach to tackle this growing threat.

As Retail week Live packs up for another year, we asked several security experts how the industry is harnessing – and could harness – the latest cutting-edge technology to improve not only retail security, but commercial performance too.

Operation Molten Iron targets retail theft

JEFFERSON COUNTY — The Jefferson County D.A.’s office says it’s spent several weeks working with Vestavia Hills and Birmingham police to investigate a retail crime ring. During the operation, about $55,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from stores. To stop thefts, the agencies worked with retail chains operating around the county. Those retailers donated merchandise, and offered help from their workers.

The efforts resulted in three arrests- and the D.A. says more are on the way. Law enforcement officers also recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicles and store merchandise. They also found 15 pounds of marijuana in one location.

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-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security and monitoring, Shoplifting Prevention, surveillance

Why EAS Makes Sense For Your Business

March 22, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Video surveillance is big business. From law enforcement using closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to protect the citizens of this country to retail stores protecting their merchandise, video surveillance has become the main choice for many big and small businesses to use in their businesses. For retail stores to prevent shoplifting the use of EAS systems have become the norm, and among other anti theft devices, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are a must for every retail business around the world.

Police: Nun caught on camera shoplifting

BRIAR CREEK, Pa. — A 78-year-old nun in Pennsylvania was arrested for shoplifting $23 worth of toiletries and snacks from a store.

Surveillance video taken Monday at 3:45 p.m. reportedly shows the woman, named Agnes Pennino, taking snacks from a Surplus Outlet supermarket in Briar Creek, Pennsylvania.

Store manager Zane Kishbach said a customer alerted him to the woman.

“Another customer came to me in aisle 5 and said, ‘I’m not sure what I’m seeing, but I think a woman is stealing,’ and she had already left the store by that time, and I went out to pursue her,” Kishbach said.

Salem finance director charged 2nd time for shoplifting

SALEM — The town’s finance director allegedly shoplifted an assortment of clothing at Macy’s a week before she was arrested at the store in a similar case, according to a newly filed court complaint.

Prosecutors have filed charges against Jane Savastano, 48, for allegedly taking numerous pieces of clothing on Feb. 12 and Feb. 19.
She waived arraignment in 10th Circuit Court, Salem Division, and entered a not guilty plea to all charges, according to court papers filed by her lawyer, Patrick Donovan.
Prosecutors recently notified a judge they are seeking a potential jail sentence for Savastano, who has served as the town of Salem’s finance director since March 2005.
Each of the three charges are punishable by up to a year in county jail.
Savastano is on administrative leave from her job and is expected to face a personnel review by the town.
The new charge against Savastano provided few details about the Feb. 12 incident that happened a week before her arrest. She allegedly entered the store on Friday, Feb. 12, around 3:30 p.m., took a number of clothing items “valued more than $1 and less than $1,000” and left without paying.

Police: Dollar General employee theft ring stole $56k worth of merchandise

ELLOREE, SC (WIS) –

An investigation by the Elloree Police Department uncovered an employee theft ring at the Dollar General store on Old Number 6 Highway.

Police say the store’s management reported a loss of merchandise costing more than $56,000 over eight months.

Seven employees have been arrested on charges of felony criminal conspiracy and breach of trust involving more than $10,000. They were booked into the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center where they have posted bail.

According to the arrest warrants, the employees, “while utilizing a scheme, did knowingly, with intent to permanently deprive the owner, remove, carry away or allowed to be carried away, retail merchandise without payment.”

“They would wait until the close of business at the end of the day and they would already pre-load buggies or shopping carts and right when it time to close the business, they would pull those buggies up, pretend to scan the items, and the buggies would be completely full,” Elloree Police Chief Joseph Avinger said. “Then we went back with the video and checked it along with the register tape to see how much money was spent at the register and it would be only a few dollars — $10 to $15 from buggies filled with merchandise.”

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