[GOP_Proud]

Once again, the actions of criminals affect us all. You have to travel awhile to find a place where you can get gas without prepay or credit/debit...even in daylight. We are all presumed to be thieves due to the scum of society.

[Gondring]

...hangers that lock to a jacket or suit.

Too bad they can't lock onto the perp's jacket and hold him 'til police arrive!

But then again...maybe it doesn't matter if the police arrive:

"I'm going after a guy right now that's been arrested 56 times," Walgreen's Biggs said. "I've got to put together a case that can show this isn't your typical little shoplifter."

The day after making that statement, Biggs called back to say he had just arrested the same shoplifter for the 57th time.

[Skooz]

Retailers say rings of habitual shoplifters are proliferating nationwide, but particularly in urban areas ........

URBAN? You mean this is mostly and URBAN phenomenon?

Hhmmmmmm.........

[syriacus]

Interesting article, thanks.

[Quiller]

This is nothing new. Infant formula (infant formula for crying out loud) has been kept behind locked doors near the registers in supermarkets for quite a while now.

[AIC]

It's not just in the market chain. It's also in the work area where one works.
I had a real nice coat stolen from the work place coat rack. Then I caught a woman wearing my light cpo coat that she had taken off the coat rack without permission. It was just pure luck that I caught her. There after I locked my coat to the coat rack with a bicycle chain lock. Other employees laughed at me until those that laughed had theirs stolen as well.
I think in all, about six or seven real good coats where stolen in about as many weeks.
The work place didn't do anything about the thefts, the lockers were too small to put a coat in and you had to leave your coat on the coat rack as they weren't allowed in the work area.

[Rebelbase]

My local grocery loses between $20,000-25,000 per month to shoplifters.

I wonder what the numbers would be for a Super Walmart?

[WakeUpAndVote]

My wife has worked retail for over 10 years. The stories of theft are jaw dropping. Pile robbing, baby carriages, false bottom bags lined with aluminum foil.

The smaller mall stores do not have the electronic tags on and they know this. They will come into the store in teams of 4 and 5. When they split up and not speaking English anymore. She knows she's done. While the others distract her and her staff, the other two will grab TABLEFULLS of clothing and run.

You can't detain the ones that she was helping, they now say they were not with the people who ran with the stuff. Security gets called, race card is played. They are told by their district office to let it go. A lawsuit will only cost more money.

The best theft prevention is customer service. This is why some stores sales associates are all over you to the point of being annoying. I hate that too, but I hate higher prices more.

[from occupied ga]

an alleged fencing operation in Landover was raided. Prince George's County

PG county is VERY heavily Democratic going somthing like 80+% for Kerry. Wonder if there's a correlation?

[Drew68]

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.

Um, that's not really the reason.