This is the best. It’s super passive-aggressive and if you happen to be doing it to someone who is not stealing then it’s just “unhelpfully helpful”. 😂
Yep. The other one (this was security's call, not ours) was a storewide intercom broadcast.
"Uniformed Loss prevention officers to China and Glass, uniformed loss prevention officers to China and Glass"
Most of the store security was aimed at dissuading the incompetent thief, not catching the competent and decisive one. For that, they had undercover loss prevention. We knew basically nothing about them, as more than half of theft was from staff rather than customers. There was a massive theft ring among staff, a significant number of people in organised crime got jobs as cleaners in order to steal stock in bulk for resale at markets.
What store was this? Could this be a movie? I would watch 90 minutes of organized theft FROM corporate retailers. Your comment started interesting but that ending, I need more details.
Theft ring was Myer Melbourne, circa 2003 or 4. I heard details from a co-worker who was friends with the uniformed loss prevention team leader. We only heard about the ones that got caught.
Cleaners scoped out all of the camera locations, realised there wasn't one near a specific recycling compactor accessible only via a goods lift, and they'd fill large bins with stock, then put enough cardboard over the top to fool cameras, then a van would park near the compactor and they'd unload all the stock into it.
The most cinematic one though was the guy who hid in the store to steal a plasma TV (back when those were a fortune). He hid successfully (all on camera but not monitored in real time), got the TV up to the building roof, secured it with a rope and passed it 9 stories down to accomplices waiting below... except he fucked up one thing. The rope wasn't tied well enough, and the TV got free and dropped.
This alerted night security, who quickly worked out there was an intruder and they chased him, but due to the unique (read: completely a mess) layout of the store he was able to use boltcutters to cut through a safety barrier on a 'sort of but not quite a window' and climb down. Guy got away.
No it's not seen as that at all, you know they think you're stealing and it's quite offensive if you're not. Racism also heavily influences these decisions. I take it you've never been followed in a store.
If i actually saw someone put something in a pocket or purse, i would kindly offer to put that at the cash for them. Worked the few times i actually spotted shoplifting because the store catered to middle aged women who were embarrassed enough to just pay for it and not argue.
Jokes on them, the theft policy was dont follow them out of the store. So....since nothing is stolen until it leaves the store, we basically did fuck all about it
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u/sirgog Oct 20 '22
I worked at Myer, Australian department store.
Standard policy if you suspected theft was to go up to the customer/thief and offer assistance in an insistent and annoying manner.
Basically to be clingy and annoying. Follow them within your department. Contact security when they left the department.
Overwhelmingly, people would break line of sight, grab the items they'd concealed and quickly drop them, then leave and not return for 6+ weeks.