Yesterday, we posted the claims of a Best Buy employee who says that his store and others have been pulling loss prevention staffers (aka receipt checkers) from the front of the store, which he believes has resulted in an increase of shoplifting at these stores. We asked any other Best Buy employees to chime in on these claims — and y’all responded. [More]
Child Seized After Fainting Mother Forgot To Pay For Sandwich
By October 31, 2011
A Hawaii couple was tossed in jail and their child taken by protective services for 18 hours after the mother forgot to pay for her sandwich at Safeway. [More]
Witness: Target Worker Wrestled, Choked Female Customer
By September 15, 2010
Yesterday, Cherie was shopping at a Target in Cincinnati when she claims she witnessed a Target loss prevention associate “brutally detain, wrestle, strike and choke a shopper for more than three minutes.” [More]
Hobby Lobby To Couple: Only Women Can Carry Bags
By September 15, 2010
A Hobby Lobby employee asked Joe to leave his Maxpedition Versipack–I was going to call it a man purse, but it’s so aggressively utilitarian that I think it gets a pass–at the front counter before he shopped in the store. That’s unfriendly but not that weird, considering the loss-prevention strategies some stores use. However, they let his wife continue with the exact same bag attached to her hip, I guess because women can’t steal. [More]
Walgreens Launches Innovative Showroom Store, Where You Can Look But Not Buy
By June 9, 2010
The thing about locking up all of your merchandise behind glass is your customers can’t actually buy it. Well, they can if you have employees who give a damn about helping a customer. This Walgreens in Brooklyn does not have those kind of employees. [More]
Walmart Employee Fired After Trying To Stop A Shoplifter
By May 25, 2010
Here’s a sad story from Wichita, KS: A Walmart customer service manager noticed a man walking out of the store with a computer. She stopped him to ask for his receipt after the alarm went off and got punched and kicked for her trouble. After that, she got fired. [More]
Watch Out, The J.C. Penney Security Guard Has A Gun!
By March 30, 2010
If security guards start carrying guns at department stores, I’m going to stop referring to them as rent-a-cops. Not because they’ve suddenly jumped up on my respect-o-meter, but because they might open fire. At a mall in Virginia last Sunday, a J.C. Penney security guard pursued a shoplifter into the mall parking lot and fired a gun into the air. The shoplifter was arrested, and the police confiscated the guard’s gun. The store won’t say whether it was owned by the guard or issued by management. [More]
Maybe People Are Stealing From Your Drugstore Because You Only Have One Employee
By March 8, 2010
I’ve stopped shopping at the two large drugstores in my neighborhood because they’ve put all the antiperspirant behind plastic flaps, like bagels at a supermarket. When you lift the flap to grab a Right Guard or Speed Stick, an alarm goes off that makes it clear to everyone in the store that you’re a potential criminal with stinky pits. My guess has been that this embarrassing anti-theft deterrent is needed because there’s almost no staff at either store anymore, and a new retail survey and a couple of loss prevention experts seem to back that up. [More]
Receipt Checker Avoidance Tactic: Confuse Them With Extreme Politeness
By February 9, 2010
Reader Matt wants to share his technique for waltzing past the Walmart receipt checkers with a minimum of hassle. The secret? Be super nice, but don’t stop walking. [More]
Alleged Shoplifter Dies After Encounter With Walmart Security
By January 18, 2010
A South Carolina woman died shortly after a run-in with Walmart loss prevention. Was the asthma sufferer’s death a coincidence, caused by the stress of being caught by security, or something even more sinister than that? Test results and a review of surveillance footage should clarify the situation somewhat in a few months. [More]
Hey Stores! How About Offering Some Cash Back With That Receipt Check?
By January 12, 2010
In the comments to our most recent receipt check story, I noticed a reader argued that as long as the store wasn’t willing to reimburse him for his time, he wasn’t willing to give it to them. It makes sense; nothing in the marketplace is free, right? Why shouldn’t consumers be compensated for bag searches and receipt checks?
Another reader, Adam, suggested a similar idea in his email to us this morning. In fact, he thinks maybe the exiting-the-store moment could be a chance to make a little extra cash.
Stores Worried About Employees Using Gift Cards To Steal
By December 31, 2009
Gift cards may encourage spending, but they also make it easy for employees to steal, writes the New York Times.
Among the variations of such crimes, cashiers often do fake refunds of merchandise and then, with the amount refunded, use their registers to electronically fill gift cards, which they take. Or sometimes when shoppers buy gift cards, cashiers give them blank cards and then divert the shoppers’ money onto cards for themselves.
Walmart Accused Of Secretly Videotaping Public Restroom
By December 22, 2009
Seven current and former employees of a Pennsylvania Walmart Tire and Lube Center have filed suit against the company, reports the Morning Call. The employees say they discovered that they and the general public were being monitored via video camera in a public bathroom. [More]
Here's A Walmart Perp Walk In Action
By December 21, 2009
Maybe attacking, restraining, and physically marching off suspected shoplifters is the new “Stop, thief!” for Walmart employees. Here’s video footage of an actual event that happened in a New Jersey Walmart last Friday, shot by our own GitEmSteveDave. [More]
Alleged Walmart Shoplifter Dies After Being Tackled
By December 21, 2009
Walmart’s loss prevention tactics took a morbid turn over the weekend at an Atlanta location, when a suspected shoplifter was tackled by two security personnel and a customer, and then died for mysterious reasons. [More]
This Walmart Guard's Loss Prevention Strategy Includes Tackling
By November 14, 2008
Joseph Gregorie, a (former?) Walmart loss prevention officer, is going to make sure nobody steals on his watch, especially not in this economic climate. After seeing a 58-year-old woman stuff several items in her tote bag and head for the exit, he introduced himself. She dropped the bag but continued to leave the store, so he “grabbed [her] in a bear-hug and threw her to the ground,” giving the woman a pretty impressive looking black eye in the process. They’ve both been arrested.
RadioShack Won't Give Refund On Cash Purchase Unless You Show Your Papers
By May 8, 2008
RadioShack’s whole collecting-your-personal-data nonsense is old news, but it’s not just for purchases anymore. When Pete tried to take back some potentiometers he’d paid for the day before with cash, the clerk refused to give him any sort of refund—even a store credit—without Pete’s physical address.
Wal-Mart Employee Fired For Stopping Punch-Happy Shoplifter
By October 19, 2007
Up until last week, Victoria Smith was a Customer Service Manager with at a Wal-Mart in New York. Then she intercepted a shoplifter, released her to the wild (as is legally required), and then got punched in the face when the shoplifter snapped and ran back into the store. Three days later, she was fired for touching the customer.
