Browsing Posts published in April, 2009
The Florida State Senate passed a bill that will reduce the penalty for shoplifting from a felony to a misdemeanor on Friday. Under current Florida law, anyone who is convicted of stealing merchandise valued between $300 and $20,000 faces a felony charge, with a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a fine of $5000.
This new bill (SB 1548) would reduce that current penalty down to 1 year and $1000 for any theft up to $600.
Here is my opinion: By reducing the penalties for shoplifting, Florida lawmakers are sending the message that the increase in theft is not that important. Instead of doing something to fund already stretched courts and prosecutors, they have opted to reduce the workload by making the criminal offense less serious.
Oh yeah, and next year, they will undoubtedly claim credit for a reduction in serious theft-related crime.
Anybody from Florida want to comment and start a dialogue on this? How about anybody else?
Popularity: 24% [?]
In a case in Pineville, NC recently, two subjects entered the store and stole 21 baseball bats. They worked as a team, one subject distracting the employee while the other cut locks off the fixtures and stuffed the bats into a bag. As they started to exit, a member of the store’s management team questioned the pair about the bag. At this point, both men ran into the parking lot and entered a waiting car.
The manager took down the license plate and called police. He gave a full description to the police of both subjects, and the license plate number from the vehicle.
The subjects were not immediately apprehended, but were later apprehended in Virginia by Virginia State Police. They had in their possession the 21 stolen bats at the time they were pulled over and questioned. They also had a set of bolt cutters which they used to cut the locks off the store’s fixtures.
Virginia officials notified the retailer and the Pineville, NC Police Department. Warrants were issued in NC for both subjects.
Then, less than a week prior to the extradition hearing, NC officials refused to proceed with the prosecution, leaving the retailer without their merchandise, or any means to recover their loss. This was done with no warning, no notification, and no explanation.
Virginia Police officials agreed to proceed with the prosecution of the two subjects, but the retailer has to foot the bill to send the manager on a 2-day road trip to testify in an out of state court just to recover their merchandise and get closure to this case.
I’m not sure why this is happening, but it is. I’m being told that many local prosecutors are dropping cases and making deals just to cut the costs involved with prosecuting such cases. I don’t know that this is true for this case, but it would make sense. The county probably doesn’t want to pay for a couple of officers to go on a 2-day road trip to recover these two subjects for a $6,000.00 case, so they leave it to the retailer to deal with in another jurisdiction.
Can you believe this? Anybody want to comment?
Popularity: 11% [?]
Looking for a job in the field of Loss Prevention? Believe it or not, there are some open positions out there. Here are some resources that will help you find a job in loss prevention:
LPJobs.com – No doubt the most well known resource for loss prevention jobs is LPJobs.com. Here you can search by keyword, region, state, or even city. If there is an opening in LP, it is probably listed here.
GetLossPreventionJobs.com – Newer site, but they have some great tools on the site, including some advanced searches, jobs posting email updates, a resume template for quick application to jobs, etc. The site also is free for job seekers, and free for employers to post jobs.
The Usual Suspects – Career Builder, Monster, and Hot Jobs all post loss prevention jobs, too. Each has different pros and cons. None of them, however specialize in loss prevention, so search results may be less than with sites specifically designed for loss prevention.
There are also some other resources that can help you find a new job in loss prevention:
LinkedIn – Sign up, get recommended by a colleague, and start networking. Join a Loss Prevention group and take part in the discussions there. You can also use your Facebook or Myspace pages to advertise your job search.
Forums and Groups – Join loss prevention forums and groups and take part in the discussions there. Don’t be afraid to ask if anyone knows of any jobs in your area. Here is a LP Group on Yahoo! to get you started, and there are several more out there. Just google “loss prevention group” or “loss prevention forum”.
Good luck with your job search. Hope this info helps.
Popularity: 14% [?]
