"undercover" Sears security?

[bbs lm-r]

Another thread about someone's trip to sears got me thinking about my last trip to one, and I thought it was a little weird, so I wanted to know you guys thoughts about this.

Couple weeks ago I took in a CMan magnet to get warrantied, the cashier walked over and got a new one off the shelf, no problems, or so I thought.

I stayed around for another half-hour afterwards, looking at their tool sales and picked up a couple things. I only has a little to spend and wanted to figure the rough cost of everything, so I set everything down to total it, except the magnet which I put in my pocket.

I paid for the tools, started walking out, and right before the exit these two kids, looked like they were 15 y/o, called out, "hey buddy, we're with sears security, you have something in your pocket?"

There were no issues since I explained to them I got it warrantied and had a receipt for it, but I just thought that seemed a little weird, I had never seen/heard of anything like that at sears before.

 

[Az Scooter]

Happens all the time in retail. Legally they cannot even question you until you are out the door. They are also subject to assault charges and other charges if they detain you when you did nothing wrong.

 

[DanCo]

Hell, I've been to a couple of Home Depots in Brooklyn, where the they have armed security.

 

[Stuey]

Sounds a little weird, but with high foot traffic around holiday time, I suppose it's not unexpected.

 

[BHH]

I am pretty sure almost all stores have this. They are just paid to look like they are shopping all day and keep an eye out for shoplifting. They even have them at the grocery stores. Imagine your job was to constantly go around the isles filling your cart up with **** you just have to put back.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

shoplifting is big business

 

[diesel research]

"loss prevention"


Or maybe not. Maybe they really were 15 year old kids messing with you...

 

[crewchief888]

it's been common in stores for at least 30 years.
i ran into a cousin of mine one time in a dept store, as we were talking he took off after someone.
i had no clue what was going on till later when he told me he was working security

 

[gmwelder86]

used to be a manger at target in the electronics dept. They have all kind of undercover sercurity that travels from store to store depending on the activity in the area. You would never know who they were unless you work there and even chances than you dont know. It would be very surprising to your average theif.

 

[tjmonsen5]

my buddy works security for sears, he dresses in everyday clothes, blends in. He cant do anything until you actually walk out the door with the stolen merchandise. You wouldn't believe how much is stolen each day. He said that the acceptable amount of stolen goods for each sears store is about 250k a year in lost merchandise. Isnt that ridiculous?

 

[chris fresh]

just happened at my local lowes,i stopped in the other day to grab 3 small things and noticed a guy who works there in regular clothes,no smock.he was doing the same thing,just wandering around looking at floor cleaning stuff.so of course as i walked by i said,hey! nice work today yer doin,he just looked and smiled.

what makes me laugh about that is,about 4 month's ago i was talking to a bunch of managers i know there and they had some guy on tape,stealing a cordless drill,they said they had to let him walk out with it because they can not approach a shop lifter.all they can do is say,hey put that down,or wait for the cop's to show up.if the person walks out before the cop's show,off they go!

they said it's corp policy.i told them i was coming back with a wig on tomorrow

 

[Tarheelgarage]

The biggest loss to stores is from employees; this accounts to over 90% of theft and store security is centered around internal theft rings.

 

[osborn.ozzy]

Used to work at Krogers and there was 2 guys always there in everyday clothes. they walk around and put **** in their carts to blend in. Ive seen them tackle a few people and people drop steaks they had stuffed under their coat.

 

[daveblank]

The biggest loss to stores is from employees; this accounts to over 90% of theft and store security is centered around internal theft rings.

If you read the study's that produce those numbers, they aren't saying that exactly. They are saying that 90% of losses are due to employees. This includes things like cashiers making mistakes & not ringing items up. Mis-pricing items for less. Basic things of this nature.

 

[rsanter]

very common and no big deal
BUT, they made one critical error. they did not have the whole story and they obviously did not have view of you the entire time to see that you did not actually do anything worng. they made abig assumtion.
did they appologise to you? did they thank you for your cooperation?
if they did then great and no big deal to me....
if they did not I would have reamed them and spoke with their manager

bob

 

[ptschram]

I was in a Wal-Mart a coupla years ago and there were some unsavory looking characters talking to each other on FRS radios...

I found a manager and told him it looked like his store was being cased and that I was uncomfortable with these low-life looking thuggers running around talking on handy-talkies. Imagine my surprise when he told me they were store security.

I told him that if someone looking like that touched me they were gonna be in for a surprise as they sure didn't look like anybody you'd want to say worked for you.

It is scary when the people a company hires to protect their merchandise make the shoppers fear for their safety.

 

[gatewaysysop]

very common and no big deal
BUT, they made one critical error. they did not have the whole story and they obviously did not have view of you the entire time to see that you did not actually do anything worng. they made abig assumtion.
did they appologise to you? did they thank you for your cooperation?
if they did then great and no big deal to me....
if they did not I would have reamed them and spoke with their manager

bob

Meh. I wouldn't flip over someone asking to see a receipt for an item they saw me pocket at the store. It's not likely they could see exactly what it was, and by extension they would have no way to know it was the item he just warrantied, right?

Personally, I try to avoid doing anything in stores like that which could look suspicious to the guys on the other side of the camera lens. Not speaking about the OP specifically, but things like putting inventory (albeit your warranty exchange) in your pocket in a place dripping with security is tempting fate.

Glad the guy had a receipt and it wasn't some hulking neanderthal that tackled the OP on the way out. Some of the juice pigs I see working security at Best Buy and other places freak me out, I'd hate to have them chasing me.

 

[ptschram]

Personally, I try to avoid doing anything in stores like that which could look suspicious to the guys on the other side of the camera lens.

While I don't disagree with you and conduct myself in a similar fashion, I find it irritating to be confronted when I reach into my purse to get my wallet out to see if I have enough cash to make a purchase and I'm told I'll have to dump the contents out on the cashier's counter.

I no longer shop in a particular Tractor Supply due to repeated confrontations over their thinking I'm either stealing or changing prices. First off, I'm buying material for my business and secondly, just how do you think I can change a bar-coded price on a blister-packaged item?

 

[Gort the giant robot]

I knew a guy in Commiefornia that tried to shoplift a torque wrench at K-Mart. The store cop threw him threw a plate glass window. Later the guy opened up a gunshop with the money he got from the lawsuit.

Gort-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Danglerb]

Over on one of the Mustang forums in OT a guy posted about being stopped by security and refusing to allow them search his bag (nothing in it he didn't have a receipt for). Law in his state explicitly forbids search without probable cause, but he got arrested anyway and was looking for funds to sue the city. Last I heard he got to spend some time in jail, and city did nothing more than say they were "sorry". Technically he was both illegally detained, illegally searched, and illegally arrested.

Ebay and CL mean people don't need to fence things anymore, but without any real knowledge seems to me stealing from Walmart wouldn't be worth the trouble.

 

[garboui]

waay back when i worked at a canadian tire, they used to hire 'store walkers' to catch shop lifters. Usually after a day of a new store walker working a store they learned the lazy way by just hiding behind the oil wall.

 

[CD1]

The cashier should have put your warrantied item and the reciept into a store bag. You should not place merchandise in your pockets or personal bags until you leave a store.

 

[buildmyown]

At Home Depot getting some materials had a brand new tape measure on my belt. Did my shoping and was outside loading up. When 2 local leos pull in and the store cop are all right behind me. First thought was did I accidently kill someone. Nope it was all over that tape meassure. The store cop saw me with it on my belt and thought I opened one up and just took it. The good thing is a paint all the belt clips on my tapes a bright odd color it keeps people from taking them and then claining it was theres.

 

[Shipfittin]

I did loss prevention for a little while after I got out of high school. It's not as fun as a lot of folks think it is. People will go through some serious effort to rip a store off. I have no interest in being in that line of work anymore, it's too dangerous.

To my knowledge they are supposed to really watch you pick up the item off the rack and stick it in your pocket. They are not allowed to assume anything. Then they have to follow you outside of the store before they can do anything. Most companies do not want their associates involved in anything physical either. The last thing they need is someone to be stabbed or shot.

Most people would be surprised how many companies do have loss prevention departments. Everyone from your drug stores like Walgreens and Rite Aid to your Wal Marts and Lowes.

In my time doing it I worked for one of the major drug chains. I actually busted quite a few store associates for stealing, including other loss prevention agents.

 

[bbs lm-r]

I toyed with the idea of some kids just messing around, but it really didn't feel like it.

Having security like that seems like a good idea, I just thought they would be more capable looking guys on that job, atleast for this particular sears store.

 

[redwrench60]

Some store ape puts his **** grabbers on me, there'll be a .45 stuffed up under his lip. Only enslaved people tolerate this type of treatment.

 

[Pro-Painter]

It happened to me.

I was comparing the old USA craftsman professional single wrenches to the new china sets and kept hearing a loud buzzing sound follow me. After a few minutes of feeling like I was crazy, I looked up and realized it was a camera bubble making the buzzing noise.
After I was done looking I went (with my 2yr old son) to pay for a $9.99 "my first craftsman" toy set. The clerk told me he had to wait for change which I thought was a little strange since I paid with a $20 bill. Then out of nowhere two kids (>21 ) came up to me and introduced themselves as "loss prevention" and asked me to empty my pockets.

Sears loss prevention team is a joke. It's nothing but a group of kids who think they are detectives. They expect everyone to come in and buy their gimmicky **** and not look at anything too closely. I understand that thief's come in all sizes, but I'm a clean cut guy, that was dressed in summertime church clothes with my 2yr old son on a Sunday afternoon.
I highly doubt I fit the profile of a ******** shoplifter.

 

[0.511MeV]

Among many other reasons, the "loss prevention" guys at the front door bothered me to the point that I gave up on Best Buy. I really have to be desperate to go there. The only credit card I've ever cancelled was my Best Buy card. I would rather order online.

They would stand there and watch you go through the check out line, then stop you at the door, want to look in the bag and at your receipt. It just got really annoying to be treated like a criminal instead of a customer.

 

[koditten]

Exactly. That creep at the front desk always bothered me. I quit BB for that and other reasons.

 

[dayid]

You should not place merchandise in your pockets or personal bags until you leave a store.

I'm presuming you meant to say "until it's paid for". Once it's mine it's of no interest to anyone else what I do with it. This is the same thing with stores wanting to search my bags when I leave. No right. Allowing this type of behaviour is a poor choice. Glad I still live in a (semi)free state.

 

[Shipfittin]

I highly doubt I fit the profile of a ******** shoplifter.

You'd be surprised. Actually at Home Depot one of our worst offenders was a guy that is a millionaire. He wouldn't put things in his pockets and try to sneak it out. He's game was to swap labels on items. He'd take the UPC sticker off of a cheap item like for $10 and put it on something that was $50 - 100. He always got busted because a lot of the guys who do this don't realize that a lot of cashiers pay attention to the items and their prices.

 

[Farmer Joe]

Eh doesn't bother me too much, I don't do anything that looks suspicious at stores, so I have no worries. Most of these guys usually stick out like sore thumbs though. Just hope one never tries to touch me though, I wouldn't take it lightly lol

 

[Honda 1]

Sears always gave me a receipt and a sticker tape across larger purchases like paint cans or rakes and shovels.

 

[strnjss]

at my local Home Depot, they have just gone the opposite route. In the electrical, plumbing and self-checkout isles/lines they have face-level mounted security cameras with screens showing your face. They also 'ding-dong' incessantly at anything that moves.

I guess they are trying to deter theft rather than secretly capture it. But that dinging is annoying enough that I don't just spend time browsing those isles anymore. I just go in them if I absolutely have to.

 

[Tarheelgarage]

You'd be surprised. Actually at Home Depot one of our worst offenders was a guy that is a millionaire. He wouldn't put things in his pockets and try to sneak it out. He's game was to swap labels on items. He'd take the UPC sticker off of a cheap item like for $10 and put it on something that was $50 - 100. He always got busted because a lot of the guys who do this don't realize that a lot of cashiers pay attention to the items and their prices.

In nearby county, they caught a local judge and high school principal shoplifting.

Sticky fingers was plea bargined down due to "mental illness" or that's what they say caused the transgression....

 

[2oolhound]

I had a storefront photo video business for 15 years. I'd purchased 6 new video dubbing decks and needed the patch cables so I could get busy making a bunch of copies. I had no employees in that day so I put a "Back in 5" sign on the door and ran across to the shopping mall across the street. Eatons was the major tenant and there also was a radio shack in the mall. I was after the best quality I could find so went to Eatons and closely evaluated theirs through the packaging. Then I did the same at radio shack and for some reason I went back to Eatons for a 2nd look. By this time the 21 yr old kid there was sure I was planning a heist. I got turned off by the way he was talking to me so based on principal now, I went back to radio shack. I picked up a bunch of other adapters and related goodies as well and while at the counter paying, the clerk got a phone call. He kept looking at me while he talked and after he hung up he said some weird comments which didn't relate to our dealings and got me a little suspicious. All I could really think about was my 'back in 5' note on my door so I hurriedly paid but leaving radio shack I looked up to see 2 cops and the snotty nosed kid from Eatons looking down on the Radio Shack store from the next level. Instead of leaving out the front doors I walked right by them staring at them to see if I was the subject of their interest. They seemed paranoid and were whispering but wouldn't look at me. I think the cops were smart enough to see someone with a big bag full of freshly purchased goods of the type I'd been checking out in the other store was just a comparative shopper.
Unfortunately after after an idiot puts the cops on you and they ask someone else about you regarding some SUSPICIONS, those people brand you as guilty in their minds. The kid in Eatons already qualified me as a shoplifter and since I was a regular local, they all always suspected me as a shoplifter after that.

 

[Ign]

at my local Home Depot, they have just gone the opposite route. In the electrical, plumbing and self-checkout isles/lines they have face-level mounted security cameras with screens showing your face. They also 'ding-dong' incessantly at anything that moves.

That reminds me at my HD the loss prevention door alarms go off with just about every other customer that walks in or out. Talk about desensitized - NO ONE pays attention to it anymore including all the cashiers that are right there. I ignore it too; if they can't fix their junk, I'm not about to stop and wait for someone to wave me out the door.

I take dial calipers into stores ALL THE TIME to measure fasteners and other things. I keep thinking I'm gonna get hassled, which will only be embarrassing for them when they try to show me where they sell SPI or Mitutoyo. Never had a problem tho!

 

[kythri]

You'd be surprised. Actually at Home Depot one of our worst offenders was a guy that is a millionaire. He wouldn't put things in his pockets and try to sneak it out. He's game was to swap labels on items. He'd take the UPC sticker off of a cheap item like for $10 and put it on something that was $50 - 100. He always got busted because a lot of the guys who do this don't realize that a lot of cashiers pay attention to the items and their prices.

Local cops busted a shopper pulling a more elaborate version of this scam a few years ago - guy had "cased" stores, bought a bunch of cheap lego sets, duped the barcodes on labels, went into the store and bought big sets with the new barcode.

Got too greedy, hitting the same stores multiple days in a row when they weren't particularly busy, and they caught on.

 

[Joe B.]

For those that are offended, I would recommend giving the Loss Prevention guys a break. They have a rough job and they are there to save us all money. (The cost of theft is passed on to the consumer.) Like anyone else they may make a mistake now and then but they do a lot more good than bad.


Sailor killed at Kmart had survived Iraq

Kmart worker dragged by SUV, killed trying to stop shoplifting suspect in Waterford Township

 

[Stuey]

I went to Lowes the other day with an old Diskus lock to see if the Master Locks they carried were of comparable size. I took mine out of my pocket to compare and put it back in, thought I'd get hassled.

Later on I was at Home Depot, and was taking a photo of their Ridgid vs. Kobalt sign for a ToolGuyd post. Kid looks at me asks if I need help. I said no and went about my business, browsing around and taking another photo of the advertisement. Kid stared at me for a few more minutes. Guess I either looked really good that day or he had nothing better to do.

At some Sears, all the ratchets, sockets, and specialty mechancis tools are under lock and key. All sorts of knives and tape measures are locked up at the new Lowes in Brooklyn. I guess tools have a tendency to walk.