Posted on 08/01/2005 4:28:48 AM PDT by nuconvert
Retail Gangs: A New Breed of Thieves
By Margaret Webb Pressler,/Washington Post Staff Writer
Sun Jul 31,2005
At CVS, the diabetic test strips and the perfume are now behind locked glass cabinets, with a bell to ring for service. Nearly all over-the-counter medicines are behind plexiglass panels that customers must reach over to get their Advil or Pepcid. And most razors and refills are in clunky, noise-making dispensers that won't let you put back what you take out.
The new displays are part of a larger effort by chain stores to combat what has become a significant problem for the retail industry: organized theft. Retailers say rings of habitual shoplifters are proliferating nationwide, but particularly in urban areas such as Washington, where retailers and malls are packed close together and there is easy access to highways.
"We're seeing an incredible amount of activity from organized retail theft gangs from the New York area all the way down into Richmond," said Robert Wade, vice president of loss prevention for Hecht's.
Losses from organized retail theft have topped $30 billion annually, triple what they were a decade ago, according to the National Retail Federation, leading to higher prices, frequent out-of-stock problems and a more cumbersome shopping experience for consumers.
Companies are spending millions of dollars on security systems to tackle the shoplifting rings, from software that tracks patterns of theft regionally, to complicated fixtures that prevent the removal of multiple packages at one time. Retailers are increasingly using racks that lock for a period of time after one unit is taken, cabinets that beep if they're open too long, and hangers that lock to a jacket or suit. Some of the nation's biggest retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Lowe's Cos. and Limited Brands Inc., have formed organized crime divisions
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Um, that's not really the reason.
Why can't they? I'm in Canada and the way it works here is that the store/mall security guard would make a citizen's arrest as the perp exited the store and then call police. I thought something similar happened in the US. (The caveat here is that if the suspect did not shoplift he will have an open and shut damages case against security and the store for false arrest.)
what prevents the perp from telling the rent-a-cop
to get effed and leaving the scene?
You got it.
Wow. I live in VA. Never experienced that. But I live in the burbs. I did, however, visit a shopping center in Portmouth and a majority of the stores refuse personal checks. I notice that in urban areas they also restrict the use of restrooms as well. Who ever heard of a McDonald's with a locked bathroom.
You got that right. Our small city of 40,000 has pre-paid gas pumps all over. I hate em. When I get gas, I want to fill it up. I have to prepay but I don't know what it cost to fill it up so I never get the tank full. The debit card usually stops pumping at $50, so you can't fill it up with the debit either.
If the guard has already told the perp he is under arrest and the perp doesn't comply he can be charged with resisting arrest even if he didn't steal.
From the article:
The day after making that statement, Biggs called back to say he had just arrested the same shoplifter for the 57th time.
bttt
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