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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Crime rings become fashion in retail theft

    I remember posting an article about this last year that mentioned ms-13 was doing a lot of these types of crimes. However the article does mention a bunch of the stolen goods are getting sent across the border so it gives an idea of the type of people behind the crimes.

    http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=437024

    Crime rings become fashion in retail theft
    Stores shrug off secrecy, share information

    By DORIS HAJEWSKI
    dhajewski@journalsentinel.com
    Posted: June 17, 2006
    Minneapolis - An industry that guards its secrets carefully is making an exception when it comes to shoplifting. Retailers have been hit hard this year by organized rings of thieves, and they're fighting back by talking about it.

    "It's killing us," said Stan Berger, regional loss prevention manager for Stage Stores in Houston.

    During a lunch break at a National Retail Federation meeting this month, Berger was swapping phone numbers with loss prevention managers from other companies. By sharing information, people charged with nabbing retail crooks are hoping to stop the big operators who are costing the industry billions.

    "Organized retail crime is definitely the hot topic in retail crime prevention," Berger said.

    Last year, retailers in the United States lost about $37.4 billion worth of merchandise, with about 80% of that stolen by shoplifters or employees. That amounts to 1.6% of the $2.3 trillion worth of goods sold.

    Some of the merchandise that disappeared was taken by traditional shoplifters: thrill-seeking teenagers or people who just want a free sweater. But huge amounts were removed from stores by professional shoplifters, known as "boosters" in the industry, who make a career of stealing and turning over the goods to bosses who sell to someone else, known as "fences." The merchandise then goes to black market stores, flea markets or to online auction sites.

    Organized crime is a big topic for loss prevention managers at Green Bay-based ShopKo.

    "It has escalated in the past year, primarily in our larger markets," said John Vigeland, spokesman for the discount chain. A ring operating in Salt Lake City has been stealing baby formula and health and beauty products, such as shaving items, Vigeland said. The products are going over the border to Mexico for resale, he said.

    ShopKo has been sharing information with other retailers in Salt Lake City that have been hit by the theft ring, and it is planning to get involved in a national database, Vigeland said. ShopKo also has increased video camera surveillance in its stores.

    "In the past, ShopKo has been reluctant about sharing information," Vigeland said. "Now (organized crime) is picking up enough steam that we have to get involved."

    Widespread problem
    Bon-Ton Stores Inc., which operates the Boston Store and Younkers chains in Wisconsin, is represented on the National Retail Federation's advisory board for loss prevention and is participating in the intelligence network.

    "All of retail faces this," said Mary Kerr, spokeswoman for Bon-Ton.

    The federation honored a Portland, Ore., FBI agent, Christopher Frazier, at the Minneapolis loss prevention conference for his role in bringing down a retail crime ring that operated for years in the Pacific Northwest. The four-year undercover operation that Frazier oversaw resulted in indictments against 91 people and the recovery of $7 million in merchandise and $1 million in cash.

    After being approached by the loss prevention executive for Safeway Inc., Frazier agreed to take the case, despite enduring teasing from fellow agents who viewed it as shoplifting, which is not something that most law enforcement officers see as an important crime. Safeway and other retailers in Portland were targets for thieves who took health and beauty products, cigarettes, DVDs, over-the-counter drugs and other small items that were fenced to illegitimate wholesalers in the region.

    Retailers say the professional boosters are bold.

    Venus Finley-Akins, senior regional loss prevention manager for Gap Inc., based in San Francisco, said one of her most notable cases happened in an earlier job at Mervyns, a discount department store chain also based in San Francisco.

    Looting store at night
    Thieves had discovered that they could get into a store at night through an air conditioning duct on the roof by removing the vent. One man would crawl through and drop into the store, dragging a rope. He would fill bags with merchandise and send them up to an accomplice on the roof, then leave the same way.

    The store had been losing so much merchandise that the loss prevention team did a stakeout to catch the crooks, Finley-Akins recalled.

    "We had 30 bags of merchandise on the roof when we caught them," she said. The crime ring was fencing the stolen merchandise to South America and Asia, Finley-Akins said.

    During the day, the pros work in teams while stores are open, loss prevention managers say. A few of them will gather merchandise into "booster boxes" or "booster bags" that they carry, while a lookout watches for store security officers. Lookouts use cell phones these days, allowing them to hang out without drawing suspicion.

    "Nobody bothers someone who's talking on a cell phone," Berger, of Stage Stores, explained.

    Taking action
    Retailers are just starting to take action to stop the crime rings.

    Preliminary results released this month of the 2005 National Retail Security Survey from the University of Florida show that only 10% of the retailers who responded have an organized retail crime task force. One-third of companies are tracking organized retail crime data.

    Last year, the National Retail Federation started polling its members on organized crime. In its latest poll, conducted in April, the federation found that 81% of companies had been victimized by organized crime, but only 52% were allocating additional resources to stopping it.

    Catching the boosters in a store is one thing, but getting prosecutors to pursue a case can be even more challenging, retailers say.

    Frazier, the FBI agent from Portland, said the Sept. 11 attacks only made it more difficult.

    "We've had to decrease resources for bank robberies, drugs and property crimes," Frazier said, because the money is being diverted to fight terrorism.

    A big job to do
    That means retailers have to take responsibility for doing much of the detective work themselves, and for educating local law enforcement officers on the scope of the crime rings.

    The retail federation is supporting the establishment of a national network that will allow retailers and law enforcement agencies to share information that will help them to stop the crime rings.

    Congress recently authorized the FBI to set up a task force to fight organized retail theft and to set up a national database to track and identify where organized retail theft crimes are being committed. The database will allow federal, state and local law enforcement officials and retailers to submit information and to review what others have put into the system. Through 2009, Congress has authorized spending $5 million for training officers and investigating and prosecuting organized retail theft crimes.

    In addition to the database system, Richard Hollinger, the University of Florida professor who compiles the annual retail loss survey for the retail federation, urged retailers to screen prospective employees carefully. Hollinger said 27% of retailers who responded to the 2005 survey planned to do more checks for criminal convictions.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    This is a big problem. But having worked retail so many years I know another side of the story.

    They have cut many stores down to below a skeleton crew so you don't have people available in departments to keep an eye on things. These people are slick and you can't have 3 people on and a store full of customers and not expect some theft.

    I've had people back-up to a main door open the van door and in seconds crash and grab racks of clothes.....racks and all. They'll have a plain van...dirty license plates or none at all and be gone before you can say your name, let alone remember what they all had on....how many there were, which way did they go....etc.

    You have to see them put the articles in their bag or something. Even if you "know", you can't do anything as an employee. Maybe the security has a better view and can swoop down but they miss alot. Usually it's because they're spending their time watching the employees. They want to make sure they are working.....they have the camera zoned in to make sure you're scanning every item. I got in trouble because I would bring pennies with me and put them in my pocket. That way if the customer was short a penny etc. I'd cover it. You couldn't have your register off at all or YOU were charged with theft, and it was easier to do that than argue with a customer over a penny. But I was told I can't do that because they can't tell if I'm putting money in or taking it out of my pocket.

    If you approved a bad check....it came out of your pay. If you let a counterfit bill pass accidently, it came out of your pay. ( And then they didn't have the pen to check it.)

    Then they started "company policy" which made things theft even if you didn't steal anything. It was a result of not being able to get alot of these gangs and all their different methods of stealing.....so they wanted to be able to GET SOMEBODY, and it's easy to nab an employee and get the companies money back. That can be done by giving a refund to someone who gave you phony information. Had a fake drivers license etc. This was a huge issue when it was also "company policy" to grant a refund, without a receipt, as long as the item was less than 10 bucks.
    Or if you filled out the return card because a mom had a squirming infant or someone that said they can't read and write in english. Or had a cast on their arm. We even had to have another supervisor approve it so you couldn't do it alone. If we suspected a gang sort of thing on this issue all we could do is write it in a log and leave it for "security" to check. We couldn't refuse to do the transaction.

    Well.....this played out in a store I was at. We had ALOT of bold faced snatch and grab. At times the max of 2 people working and that included un-loading shipments and stocking etc. Security had a quota they were supposed to maintain and obviously didn't do well, through no fault of them. So they fired the security guy. Then they had a meeting with all us supervisors on the return policies and theft etc. We knew what our problem was. Not enough people on for the huge number of customers and we were being over-run by illegals that we KNEW were stealing from our store because we saw our stuff at the flea-market with our tags still on them!!! Plus the no receipt small returns with questionable ID's.

    But they couldn't get them. So they went back through all our receipts for YEARS. And they got us for what they could. They got me for $68.10. for giving small returns to phony ID's. All were documented. I don't know about the others for sure. But alot of us were "charged". Not arrested. Fired. Then had to report for court. The DA said atleast in my case the amount was so small that I should just plea "no contest" since the cost of an attorney would far out weigh this. Made it out like it was no big deal. Thought it was stupid they even did this to us. etc. I'm falling apart. Had no money. Had learned the manager had destroyed the log book of our questionable reports and didn't know what to do. So....I pled the "no contest". Was not convicted....but charged is on the record. Had to pay the 68.10 in retribution. 200.00 in court stuff. 50.00 for an anti-theft class. 15 hrs. community service. A nightmare for me especially since I didn't steal anything!!! I mean this really tore me up. When I went to anti-theft class what I learned is there wasn't a person in there that if they would have been able to afford an attorney wouldn't have had it all dismissed. It was more a class in how to protect yourself from the crooked business world. Everything in writing. Copies of everything. Don't let any issue ride. Never put yourself in the position to make a judgement call. Always be on the defensive no matter how much you like your job or the people you work for....etc. Now mind you.....this is for a 6.25 an hour job. Then the kicker.....they said if on an application they ask...have you ever been convicted of a crime you can say no. But now it doesn't say CONVICTED.....it says CHARGED.

    But they want to grant the very persons that used phony documents AMNESTY for all their crimes that now has me listed as a problem child, for their crime!! I have no pity at all for retail. I ask, when you're frustrated in line and a penny seems like no big deal, or the lady at the return counter won't fill out your card when your blind , or you don't have a receipt,or they have to have the asst. manager and manager to approve a 5.00 check.......this is why. It's not them trying to be mean. It's not you. It's because they can't get the people who ARE doing the crimes that makes your life so difficult in order to protect themselves from being charged with a crime they didn't commit.

    Sorry for blowing off......just a real ISSUE for me!
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  3. #3
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
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    Maybe Retail should go to Washington and Lobby to kick out illegals!

    Bite the bigger business lobbys.
    Do not vote for Party this year, vote for America and American workers!

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by crazybird
    This is a big problem. But having worked retail so many years I know another side of the story.


    Sorry for blowing off......just a real ISSUE for me!
    That is a very interesting story. I never realized there were these kind of problems in retail and was under the impression that modern technology had made retail theft more or less a thing of the past. Guess I was wrong.
    Just another example of how illegal immigration is changing our country for the worse.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    I never realized there were these kind of problems in retail and was under the impression that modern technology had made retail theft more or less a thing of the past
    No....it didn't fix it. I can't attest to everything just parts I know. They put those tags on the cardboard on make-up. They just take the make-up out of the package. Or, they can be peeled off. I think it's magnets that activate and de-activate the device. There's tools to cut the ink tags. Or some will slip the item in a bag and go to a young cashier and say they bought it earlier in the day and they forgot to remove the tag. It's easy to do so many don't question it. They aren't on every item....usually just the more expensive. They still do the old stuff in dressing rooms. Leave an old pair of shoes and walk out with new ones. Baby strollers are a big place to stash things and there's not too many that are going to wake a sleeping infant. That's just simple things.

    They check out the stores throughly before they hit. They know who's on. When the shipments come in. They know what car security drives and if they're on or not. They know where the security cameras are. They check out the bathrooms. They find out what payment methods are, what the return policies are, who the easiest people are to get around. They know how to switch tickets. How long does it take for police arrive? and on down the line....They go in groups to keep you and security going in 10 different directions. All the bambinos are a great distraction as well. They stay in groups at the jewlery counter and register and they'll be grabbing and keeping you totally guessing at every move. Which shell has the pearl under it this time? It's mass chaos and they exit as quickly as they came in and you're left to assess the damage.

    It's not fun when you aren't trained as a security, you have no method or means to check things, not to mention your own safety. I hated having to take register dumps to the office because we had a huge open back room that anyone could go to since the restrooms were located there too. You were alone. There was no security camera. You had to unlock the door and it would have been SOO EASY to jump me and take the money and run. They would have their kids hit one of the don't exit doors and while you and security are checking out that scene they're out another door! They'd flush diapers down the toliet and have it over-flow so there'd be less people on the floor because they're back cleaning-up that mess. They have it down to an art form. Some have a plant in the store working long enough to learn the basic in's and out's and find the weak points.

    Granted this particular store was an outlet. They were so damn cheap they wouldn't even play music in the store. Our big weakness was the phone. It was back in the office. So you had to run through the entire store and the back-room, unlock 2 doors before you could get to the phone to call the police. And do this without having customers know something is going on. Then of course wait for the police to arrive. We tried cell phones but for some reason the connection was lousy and we had to buy and pay for our own. Granted when they did the big grab and go everyone was aware of what was going on but they were grabbing their kids and getting away.......security wasn't there but the cameras were on and they were directed at a register and missed getting any of it on tape. Can you beleive that? Boy the stories I could tell!!!!!
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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by crazybird

    They check out the stores throughly before they hit. :
    That really is amazing. Whoever this store is, they should make an investment in professional security (forget about the cost) and start busting these people. It would pay off for them very quickly after the word got around.
    What really amazes me the most is the large amount of low life trash that we are forced to interact with everyday. Our government is leading us down a path of anarchy.
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