From the front lines of loss prevention

When I turned my back, the couple ran out with the groceries

Retail theft. It's something honest consumers don't think about. After all, they're honest.

But to thieves, shoplifting is as routine as paying at the check stand. This is where loss prevention comes in. Loss prevention, or LP for short, has the sole purpose of halting theft or potential theft. Many retailers that have LP use them in a proactive way, i.e. protecting merchandise, preparing for cases and arrests, etc. But when it all comes down to it, LP apprehends. They catch the bad guys.

Today, technology is so great that cameras, computer reports and even intelligent fixtures are used to combat an ever-increasing field of retail theft.

The uneducated, honest consumer might think that retail theft consists of grabbing merchandise and walking out the front door. Well, yeah, but that's more of a stone-age technique. Today, thieves use much more clever ways of beating the system. After all, the entire point to shoplifting is to not get caught.

Different stores have different policies regarding retail theft. Some stores have hard-core, in-your-face agents that don't allow you to take an item off a shelf, while other retailers insist on a hands-off regulation that will allow employees to stop shoplifters but not touch them.

But retail theft doesn't stay in the department store or big box retailer, it extends out to grocery as well.

In grocery stores, the most amateur of thieves can get away with murder. A large number of grocery retailers have virtually no LP. Their LP consists of observant employees who alert managers that theft is going on. In larger cities, uniformed guards are hired to patrol grocery stores in order to be a visible deterrent for theft.

Having worked in a grocery store myself, I know first-hand that theft is big and will normally go unnoticed.

Working in produce, I just dealt with vegetables and fruits, but a store exit was located at the end of our racks. One night I remember setting the shelves for the following morning and observing a man and woman, both rather dirty, shopping produce but not selecting anything. Their hand baskets were filled to the brim with other items and when I asked if they needed help they quickly acted as if they hadn't heard me.

Finally, I had finished up and walked my cart into the back room. Just as I did so I saw the man and woman walk toward the end of the racks. Minutes later, a front-lane cashier walked into the back room.

"Wade," he said to me, "Did you see that scruffy guy and blond lady?"

It took me a second but then I recalled the odd couple. "Oh yeah," I answered, "Why?"

"Because they ran out the side door the minute you walked into the back!," my fellow employee yelled.

It was my first real awakening to theft. If these two did it practically in front of me, what's to think everyone else wasn't doing it?

Over the next few years, after developing an eye for criminals and having stopped so many in the grocery business, I moved onto to a full-time position with the security team for one of the country's largest retailers.

The things I would see there were stunning. The retailer was committed to stopping theft, fraud and crimes against its own customers as it relates to safety.

On a typical day we'd stop assaults, identity theft and someone using a blow torch to remove a locked-up item.

In the past, I worked personally with Lodi and Stockton detectives on crimes, not to mention Homeland Security over suspicious purchases and transactions.

What I couldn't believe is how dark the theft world can be. Dishonest employees also played a huge part in our arrests, even some members of management.

In 2004, the 17th Annual Retail Theft survey conducted by Jack L. Hayes International stated that 689,340 shoplifters were apprehended by 27 of the major U.S. retailers.

The loss suffered at the hands of successful shoplifters though, cost the retail industry upwards of $37 billion.

How does that loss effect you? Well I'm sure you've heard that you pay for loss caused by theft, and unfortunately that's absolutely true.

Retailers don't want their customers ever getting involved with shoplifting in progress or security issues. After all, it's up to the retailer and could be a liability. But when those issues hit you in the pocketbook directly, might it be productive to at least mention to an employee the next time you see someone stuffing ten DVDs inside of a tissue box?

Wade Heath of Lodi is a college student studying in Southern California. He can be reached at reachwade@lycos.com.