Police in Mesa, AZ have arrested six people in connection with the theft of over $5,000.00 in merchandise from a local Mervyn’s on Sunday, October 26th. Loss Prevention observed a 16 year old cashier helping the others by charging very little, or nothing at all, each time the group would come to her register with merchandise. Two more subjects are being sought in connection with the thefts.

According to reports, three adults and three juveniles have been charged in the case so far.

This is the classic pass-off, under-ring scenario.  The cashier’s friends come to his/her register with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. The cashier then proceeds to “pretend” to scan and ring all items, but in actuality, is only scanning one or two low priced items. The items are then bagged, the receipt given to the “customer“, and hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise walk out the door, unpaid for.

Of course, there are ways to identify this type of theft. Between tools and training, loss prevention agents are usually pretty good at catching on to this scheme pretty quickly. This was a big win for the LP team at Mervyn’s.  I won’t be surprised if we hear later that there is even more to this story.

Popularity: 13% [?]