The Bunker Blog

Here’s an interesting story and video out of Las Vegas. Police recovered 2000 bottles of shampoo from this ring of thieves, who were stealing and then selling at swap meets, flea markets, and online.

Police there are considering charging shoplifters with burglary because, according to police, the shoplifters enter the establishment with the intent to commit a larceny. According to the police source, that’s burglary in Vegas. Not sure how that’ll stick, though.

We have also seen an increase in employees getting involved in these kinds of cases, and in some cases, even selling the items themselves. It’s happening out there folks, and each of us in the business is affected by these people in one way or another.

Organized Retail Crime is real, and it is having a negative impact on retail shrink. Some are being affected more than others. Anybody want to share an experience with ORC? Leave a comment.

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I don’t know how I missed this (shame on me), but back in December, this story ran in King County, WA.  According to the report, budget cuts caused some serious changes to the way police work is being done.  No property crimes under $10,000.00 are being investigated beyond a simple complaint report. Additionally, prosecutors are not prosecuting property crimes under $1,500 in Superior Court, but are instead saying they will be handled as misdemeanors in District Court, also a result of budget shortfalls.

The message being sent here is this: If you are a thief in this county, have at it, nobody is going to stop you.

It doesn’t matter why. It was reported in the news. The thieves now know that they have a free pass to steal up there.  Does anybody have any personal knowledge about this? Have property crimes increased since this news story was released? Somebody give us an update.

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A study released in December, 2008 shows that many companies are seeing an increase in workplace crime, and specifically, theft related crime. Of course, this just serves to further support what we have already been saying all along. Those of us working in the field don’t really need studies to tell us that there has been a definite increase in internal and external theft issues. But, this does give us some more ammunition, in the form of facts, to help combat the problem.

Awareness, training, accountability; these three are still the keys to reducing incidents, and to catching internal theft early. Many companies are increasing their audit cadence this year so that issues can, hopefully, be identified earlier. Inspecting what we expect has always been a key to success in shrink reduction, but it is much more crucial today.

We face an up-hill battle against shrink, and we have to fight a tougher fight with fewer troops this year. Less eyes in the stores means more opportunities for theft.

Employees who feel the pressures of this down economy, including reduced payroll and benefits, are much more likely to steal from their employers. These thefts can range anywhere from simple time theft to multi-thousand dollar embezzlements. Loss Prevention MUST, not only expect this, but get out in front of this issue and be proactive in efforts to discourage disgruntled employees from causing a “bad to worse” scenario for retailers.

As always, comments are welcome

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Orland Park officials are considering a measure that would allow police to impound vehicles of shoplifters who steal more than $150.00 in merchandise. I say “Way to go”.

I have always said, and written here on the Bunker Blog, that shoplifters’ vehicles should become taxpayer property, especially if they use that vehicle to flee from police after shoplifting.

This measure won’t do that, but it will cause the shoplifter to pay $500 to get their vehicle back. It’s a start.

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Here is a news story from WNYC about the increase in shoplifting incidents in New York City since the beginning of the recession. You can listen to the news report below:

But in my experience, I have seen a significant increase in internal theft cases, also, since about the beginning of the third quarter of 2008. The cases have also been much larger in terms of value, too. These, to me, are a much bigger problem than the rise in shoplifting incidents.

A dishonest employee, on average, will be responsible for about eight times more loss than the average shoplifter. Since this economic downturn, most retailers have cut payroll and other benefits in efforts to survive. Employees have been severely impacted by that, and in many cases, have made the decision to subsidize their incomes by stealing.

When employees begin working together to steal, like in this case where Walmart employees were working together to allow thousands of dollars worth of merchandise out the door, the losses could potentially be catastrophic.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that many retailers are cutting the very departments that can protect against these kinds of losses. Loss Prevention agents are losing their jobs daily, and are falling victim to the same cuts that are causing otherwise good employees to make the decision to steal.

Anybody want to weigh in on this?

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