[TriLUG] shoplifting - Re: [WAY OT] security goons at TigerDirect in Raleigh: "No, thanks!"

[OlsonE at aosa.army.mil]

I've rarely been treated nice when I've visited there. I've asked for
things, and given the "I don't know, I just work behind the cash
register routine". Their customer service sucks.

I'd rather wait a few days for my online purchase to come in. They
always get the order right, rarely is it ever defective, and CS isn't an
issue. 

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
Behalf Of Jeremy Portzer
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 2:56 AM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: [TriLUG] shoplifting - Re: [WAY OT] security goons at
TigerDirect in Raleigh: "No, thanks!"

Magnus wrote:
> Brian Henning wrote:
>> Wouldn't setting off the alarm then give them "probable cause" to 
>> legally detain you?
> 
> That varies from state to state.  I'm not sure about NC.  In many 
> states, they have to actually SEE you conceal their merchandise in 
> your clothes/handbag/whatever and still can't detain you until you try

> to walk out of the store with it.

When I worked at a grocery store, the rules to detain someone were very
specific, a four-step process:

1) Observe the subject select the merchandise from the shelf [otherwise,
maybe they brought it in with them]
2) Observe them conceal the merchandise
3) Keep your sight on the person *continuously*, either in person or via

surveillance camera, after the merchandise was concealed.    This was 
the hardest part because the cameras didn't have 100% coverage.  Usually
the only way to do this was in person, so our "loss prevention" 
specialists would walk around the store, hopefully stealthily, in hopes
of catching someone at step 1 and following them through step 4.  If you
lost sight of them, even for one moment, you might not see if they
discarded the concealed merchandise.
4) Observe the subject pass the cash registers, and give them ample
opportunity to pay for the merchandise.  In practice, this means we
wouldn't detain people until they stepped across the threshold of the
door and were clearly on their way out.

Only those who had attended a training class, which included certain
personal defense and "detaining" physical moves, were allowed to
physically detain someone.

This standard for detecting shoplifting is a lot different that the
receipt-checking business, which as someone pointed out, is mainly to
prevent certain types of scams - namely, finding a receipt in the
parking lot, selecting the same item in the store, and then walking out
with it as if you'd purchased the item.

And yes, employee theft was a large percentage of our "shrink" - in our
case, it was estimated at 30-40% (grocery stores are a bit higher target
for run-of-the-mill shoplifters).

--Jeremy

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