Should Feel Good About Three Easy Grabs Right? ...I Don't.

Sitting before the monitors in the office, I just happened to be scanning through cameras in the Health and Beauty Department, when into the aisle walks three young girls. The Red Flag painted on these girls was the fact that they were hustling quickly down the aisle, and turning back looking behind them, as if they wanted to see if anyone was watching. Two of the girls were carrying items already in their hands, while the third was carrying a back pack and a shopping bag from a different store. They all turned behind the end of the counter, out of view of the camera, and paused, as if hiding from view. At this point I left the office and headed toward their location. Just as I walked into the adjacent aisle, I could hear the girls, and one actually encouraged the others...

"Here, back here, there are no cameras here."

Although she was right, no cameras were mounted in that aisle, there was a camera a few aisles over pointed right at them. Not to mention, the Loss Prevention Manager was standing in the next aisle watching their every move through the overhead mirror. And it was in this aisle that they decided to place all of their newly selected merchandise into the shopping bag from the mall nearby. They left this department and scurried to the rear of the store into the stationary department. I left them alone briefly and called for the Assistant Manager and advised her what I had seen, and that I was planning on stopping the girls when they try to leave. I quickly slipped behind the Service Desk and picked up a security tag, which activates the alarms at the exit, and slipped it into my back pocket.

After a few minutes of hiding behind the Easter flower display, with one eye on the girls, they started their move toward the front of the store. I looked to my right across the front of the store, and saw the Assistant Manager, as well as the service desk employee awaiting my signal. I waved to them to tell them the girls were coming toward us, and turned toward the register as if I was checking out.

Just as they approached, the three girls split up, and two went to a register while the third, carrying a back pack and the shopping bag, turned toward the exit. I quickly walked through the register line and got to the door just as the girl did. As soon as I stepped into the doorway, the tag in my pocket tripped the alarms, and everyone came to a stop. I turned to the girl carrying the bags, who's eyes were now the size of silver dollars.

"Oh that must be something they forgot to deactivate, we'll have to check that bag, have your receipt?" I said to her so fast she had no idea where I even came from, or who I was.

"This bag isn't mine! I found it! I was bringing it up here to give to somebody!" the girl rattled off nervously. I responded just as quickly...

"Oh cool! You found it in here somewhere? Thanks!"

I took the bag of stolen merchandise and handed it to the sevice desk employee and asked him to look through it to see if any of the merchandise was ours...knowing without a doubt there was. As I was talking to the first girl, up come the second two, trying to walk around us with their purchases. I put out my arm and told them to hold up. They stopped, but not without an argument.

"What? We bought this stuff, look here is our receipts! We have money!" To top it all off, one of the girls began yelling at me...

"I am not a thief! I'm not!"

I scooped them all together and had them follow me to the detention room. There I began recording their information. As usual, the first round yielded three false names, two false date of births and two false phone numbers. I chuckled when the third girl had trouble spelling "Crutchfield" as her own last name. After I explained that the police would be called if I couldnt notify their parents, the information changed a bit. I then got real names, and real phone numbers.

I pulled all of the stolen merchandise from the shopping bag and placed it out on the desk. I asked if anyone had any more that belonged to us. The answer was no from all three.

As I was walking the first girl out to meet her parents, she advised me that the girl with the back pack still had stolen stuff in her bag, specifically, three more large packs of chewing gum. I thanked her for being honest and hustled back to the office.

"Okay, I just reviewed the video," I advised the remaining two girls. "I will ask one more time... Does anyone have ANYTHING else on them, or hidden somewhere, that belongs to this store?"

Slowly, the first girl's hands reached for her backpack, and pulled out three large combo packs of chewing gum.

"Is there anything else you haven't shown me, I need the absolute truth here... keep in mind, I saw the video, I know the answer to this question already."

Again, the girl reaches deep into her back pack and pulls out a make up kit, slowly handing it over to me. When it was all said and done, I had collected a loot worth a total of $45.00. I explained to the girls that had they stolen just five dollars more, I would be forced to contact the police department, and they would all be in handcuffs by now.

Waiting for the parents to arrive, it soon became apparent that these girls were more afraid of their parents, and their near future punishments, than what me or the police department would do. They even asked if I had kids, and what I would do to my kids if I got a phone call about them stealing. I muttered something about being grounded and having their phones taken away. They seemed shocked that my punishment was so easy to them.

"Would you beat them?"

I explained I would try never to beat my kids and that there is usually a better solution. They didn't understand that. One little girl looked up at me shyly...

"Wish you were my dad."

I wondered what was in this little girl's past that would make her think like that about a stranger, let alone a stranger who just caught her stealing.

"I'm gonna get beaten!" the two scared girls said in unison.

I was almost saddened that this was what these kids had to look forward to. Yes, they had done wrong, they admitted it, eventually, but was beating them the answer?

I grabbed the phone. It was the grandmother of one of the girls. She had received a message to call me and wanted to know what her granddaughter had done. After determining that she was the legal guardian of the girl, I explained the situation. Her response...

"You got a belt at that store?"

Soooo Close.

With two hours left in an otherwise dead shift... I glanced up at the monitor and noticed four people entering the electronics department. They seem to overtake the department as they all separated and entered different aisles. I sat up, not that my feet were up, and zoomed in on the shot of that department. I then noticed, it was two females, and two males. They wandered around the aisles then eventually gathered near the PSP, XBOX, NINTENDO display case. Ha! I remember you people!!

It suddenly dawned on me, our buddies with the fraudulent credit cards have visited us again! Just as they asked the employee for some help, I rang the phone at that register.

"Just give me a Yes or No...are they our credit card buddies again?"

"Yep."

I hung up and left the office preparing for another fraudulent transaction, and try to decide what I was going to do about it. I went right to the front door and planted myself between them and their exit. I wanted to notify the police department, but I wasn't sure if it was definitely the same people. I waited.

Eventually, all four left the store with nothing in their hands. I watched them walk to their car and dialed the electronics employee. I was advised they only asked questions about merchandise and never attempted to buy anything. Glad I didn't jump the gun and have them surrounded by police officers. However, something told me to keep an eye on these folks. From the front door, I watched them pile into a small white car with New York tags. This didn't surprise me since I knew they used rental cars every time they come in. So far, they haven't changed their M.O.

I nonchalantly walked to my car and as they pulled out of the lot, so did I. I kept my distance enough to see what direction they turned, but not close enough for them to realize I was still watching.

I saw them weave through traffic, which made it even easier to keep an eye on them, and finally get on a highway that leads right to our neighboring store. I called that store as I drove and gave them a heads up that these people were back in action, and just left my store. I then got stuck behind a slow moving truck and lost sight of them. Forunately, my sports car was a little bit faster than their four door sedan, and soon I was arriving outside the other store, just in time to see the four exiting their car again in their lot.

I called inside and told the LP there that I was outside, and that the four entering the store right now, was them. Unfortunately, the LP on duty was a new part time guy, who barely knew the history, and wasn't really sure who I was. I parked far away, and walked into a vestibule of the neighboring bookstore. From there I could watch the car, and outside the front door of the store. I advised the other LP, if he needs me, I would be waiting outside. We stayed in contact by cell phone, and he kept me overly-updated as to their actions inside his store. I knew when they reached the DVD aisle, when they walked toward the register, and when they picked their noses. It seemed this guy was all over them. He then told me they tried to buy something with a credit card, but the card was declined. They would be coming outside any minute, again empty handed.

I cracked open the bookstore door and peeked down the sidewalk to watch the four exit the store. Sure enough, they came out one behind the other and started walking across the lot. Suddenly, one of the girls turned around and walked back to the sidewalk, where there were several racks filled with clearance items. Just before the girl reached the sidewalk, a customer from the bookstore tried to come out of the store behind me. I stepped out, politely held the door for her, and stepped back inside. The next time I looked down the walk, I saw the girl walking away from the sidewalk carrying a large package containing a comforter toward the car.

I put the cell phne back to my ear...

"Hey, did she pay for that comforter she has?"

"What comforter?" the voice replied. "I wasn't watching, I was on another computer..."

He had one assignment: Watch these four people until they are gone. He rewound the video quickly and then said..

"No! I see it now! She just grabbed it off the rack and walked away!"

Yeah, no kidding. I watched as they all piled back in the car and began to pull away before the LP came outside to meet me. A stroke of luck then hit... I thought.

"They stopped right up there and went into the pizza joint! What do you want to do?" Translated: CALL THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, THEY ARE STILL HERE!

He pulled out his cell phone, and then said... "Wish I could get Steve to answer." Steve, the guy I often work with in cases like these, was off, and nowhere near the store, but this guy wanted to talk to him before stopping a shoplifter? I was stunned...and frustrated.

"Do you think we should get involved?" the new LP asked me.

"If this was my store, the police department would be here by now, but this is your store. You do what you do here. They are right there in the lot, I have a license plate if you want to give it to them..." His face looked scared to death. "Look, credit card transactions are one thing, but now they finally made a mistake and stole something from the store! If you call the police, I will back you up, it was my idea, do you want me to call?"

Finally, after debating for a few minutes, he dialed 911. As expected, the four then came out of the restaurant and walked to the car. I could hear the LP still explaining what store he was at. This wasn't going well.

Again, I stood on the curb and watched the car disappear into traffic as two police cars came screeching into the lot. I wanted to just get in my car and drive away. I watched as the LP explained his version of what happened to the two officers. I provided my name and said goodbye. Just as I opened my car door, one of the officers called to me.

"Next time you see these guys, or something like that happen, call us right away, don't wait."

Really?

Four Hours of Court I'll Never Get Back

So after a week or so waiting to see my Thousand Dollar Thief again, it was time to face him in court. I arrived at the court on tim,e and slid right through the bad guy riddled waiting room, and walked right through the door labelled "Authorized Personell Only." After frequenting this courtroom so many times in the past twelve months, I have decided, I am authorized. Nine times out of ten, on the other side of the door are police officers and/or constables I know.

I made my way through the hall, past the offices and into the courtoom through the back door. I took my seat on the side of the room quietly awaiting for my turn to have my name mispronounced across the room, so I can testify. In my hand was the folder for this incident. I reviewed the report so the facts were fresh in my mind.

Eventually, the Judge took his seat, the Assistant District Attorney's took their seats and one or two Public Defenders floated in and out of the room, each preparing a defense for the Crime of The Century, they were assigned.

A few DUI hearing waivers lead off the morning. The offenders would walk in dressed to the Nines...as I am sure they were when they were stopped for Drinking and Driving, and read the riot act by the Judge. After that, they are asked to sign an agreement that they will behave themselves and attend a class on not drinking and driving. In a few minutes, their day in court is finished. They then return to their cars...

Finally the criminal cases can begin. First, the continuances are continued, then the waivers are waived. Hearings are next. But as luck would have it, I am not the only Retail Theft hearing waiting. Mine is no doubt the highest dollar theft, but apparently that doesn't count. I have to sit through a few retail Theft hearings at stores near mine. First an LP from a local "Food Store" testified. Apparently...or allegedly, a guy and a gal entered his store and teamed up to take some Prilosec, Whitening Strips and Razors. A third person was waiting in the SUV in the Fire Lane. However, in this hearing, they were only pressing charges on one guy, who according to testimony I heard, didn't do anything illegal. I felt bad for the LP testifying as the Public Defender tore him a new one. Did you see my client take anything from your store? Did you see my client help anyone else take anything from your store? Did you see what he did with the merchandise he selected from the shelf? Unfortunately, all of the above answers were the same...NO.

If in preparation for any of my cases I found that my respsonses were no to any or all of those questions, I wouldn't be sitting on the witness stand. Somehow, after all of the testimony, cross examination and rebuttal, the Judge held the guy for trial. What case he was listening to, I am not sure, but if nothing else, it looked good for me and my case. I could tell it was going to be a good day for the prosecution.

Next, th DA's and the PD's left the room for a brief conference and it was decided the next client was pleading guilty, and waiving a hearing. Great! I thought. I may be moved up on the schedule. It was already an hour after past the hearing time, but I don't mind listening in on other hearings. I am on the clock, and after all, I watch Law and Order for a reason.

A long pause in the action takes place as the Public Defender consults with defendants, families, counselors, cell phones and Blackberry. The pause was long enough that the Judge himself excused himself and asked someone to call him when they were ready to proceed with something.

After another hour, a stenographer pushes through the door carrying his equipment. He began setting up at the front of the courtroom, within reach of the witness stand. This was a sign that whatever was about to happen, was the real deal. Until now, it was all preliminary hearing stuff. It soon became apparent that I was being pushed back on the agenda instead of up. This case that just came bustling through the door, was going before mine.

Turns out, all of the wandering around by the Public Defender, caused a huge backlog in the hearing schedule. As a result, my thief hadn't even been spoken to by the PD. Nothing can be done until that occurs. And now in the courtroom, was a real District Attorney, and a real Defense Attorney.

"Sorry about this.." the Asst. District Attorney said to me with a shrug of his shoulders. Seems they had to step aside while this real hearing was given the green light. Defendants, two of them, for this case were brought into the room cuffed and shackled. Witnesses were sequestered in rooms on the other side of the building. Me, I sat up straight and acted like I belonged there!

Turned out to be a hearing for two guys being charged with making a Meth Lab in their house. And in the small world category, these two defendants were the same two guys who visited my store in August to buy the ingredients for their Meth Lab. Detectives were called to the stand, Police Sergeants were called to the stand, then I was called out of the room.

The Asst. District Attorney had decided he wasnt staying. He had places to be, and that our hearing would either be continued to another date, or waived, and the guy would be held for trial. This, four hours after the scheduled hearing time.

I was about to ask if I could just go back in and observe the Meth Lab hearing, but then he mentioned he would just tell the Judge I had to be somewhere, and I already waitied four hours. This was his attempt to stay off the bad side of the court. Since he was still an intern, I didn't blame him, and gave him prermission to say I had to leave. Truth was, I had a "mandatory" LP meeting starting at 9am, and expected to last several hours. Now that it was 2pm, and I still hadn't even testified...I didn't really want to face the District Manager with that bit of news either.

We both exited the courtroom with a feeling of frustration. My frustration was slightly relieved when he made sure I knew my Thousand Dollar Thief would still be residing in the County Prison until we decided what to do about the hearing.

I then decided, we could put it off for a while, that was perfectly fine with me.

Career High Dollar Grab!

I was in the office trying to figure out what to do with my time, since the week before was overwhlemed with paperwork and inspections and audits, etc. This week was looking like it would be mostly shoplifting stuff, and hopefully my shoplifting dry spell would change. It didn't take long to realize this would definitely be the case.

I glanced up at the cameras covering our Health and Beauty aisle, and in walks a black male pushing an empty cart. Halfway down the aisle he stops, reaches out across the shelf and sweeps the shelf with his arm, pulling all of the Prilosec into his cart. He reached back again and pulled out a box of a dozen or so packages nd dumped the contents, and placed the empty box back on the shelf. He glanced around only once before pushing the cart out of the aisle. I left the office and walked into the area in time to see him enter the toothpaste aisle. Once again, he reaches out into the shelf, and sweeps all of the Crest Whitening Strips into his cart, and moves on. So far, he hasn't done anything illegal, but I did think this was a most interesting method of shopping. I did like the idea a little since it only took a minute to fill half of the cart, and there is nothing more that I hate than wasting time shopping for things. I am an in and out kind of guy, and apparently, so was this gentleman.

I followed the guy out of the department as he grabbed two boxes of ALLI on his way by. He didn't act nervous, just hurried. He never stopped long enough to see if anyone was watching. He turned into our Pantry aisle and it was there he removed a large white plastic bag from his pocket, and filled it with the items from the cart. He seemed oblivious to anyone nearby, he was just on a mission.

I watched from the end of the aisle as he finished, then grabbed an energy drink from the shelf, and tossed that in the bag as well. He was walking right toward me at the front of the store, and I quickly grabbed a movie off a nearby display and pretended to be searching for a good viewing choice for the evening. He pushed the cart by me, and turned into a closed register line. I looked up from the movies just as he looked back and made eye contact with me. This was enough for him to change his mind, and he pulled the cart back out of the line and headed back toward the pantry.

In an effort to avoid being seen by him again, I walked to the front desk and informed the associate there what I thought was happening. He left the desk and began his surveillance of the man walking through pantry. I waited near the desk so I was in a position to see him go for the front door, but time passed with no sign of him or the associate.

I left the front desk and walke across the front of the store hiding behind the registers, trying to see wheere either of the two were. Just them the alarm at the front desk started beeping, usually alerting us to an open door somewhere in the store. I came out of hiding and looked back at the desk to hear where the alarm was coming from.

"Door Alarm Garden Center, Door Alarm Garden Center" a voice came acoss the PA system. I immediately turned and ran from the registers to the side wall and sprinted to the rear of the store. It didn't take a fraction of a second to realize what this guy just did. I cut through a stockroom and popped outside through a fire exit adjacent to the Garden Center where I was met by the Front Desk Associate coming out the Graden Center door.

"He just ran across the back of the building!" he yelled to me.

"Was it the same guy we were watching?" I wanted to make sure I knew who we were looking for.

He nodded his head and ran toward the rear of the building as I pulled my cell phone out and ran toward the front in case he was coming back around to his car. As I ran across the front sidewalk, I dialled 911. We were already outside th store, and I knew we would need some help catching this character. Between heavy breaths, I was able to provide a description of the guy and direction he was seen running. Just as I made the lap to the opposite side of the building I saw him making his way up a muddy hill to the parking lot behind our store. I continued running and again met up with the associate following him. We continued this halfassed pursuit into the shopping center lot behind our store. I didn't really want to catch up to him, but I did want to keep an eye on him so the Police Department could catch up to him.

Just as I crested the muddy hill and emerged between the trees into the next lot, two police cars screamed past me with the lights flashing. I hung up on the dispatcher and pointed toward the parking garage I saw him run into... still carrying his large white bag stuffed with my merchandise.

I stopped for a moment as the cars assembled in the lot. I figured five police cars could move alot faster than me running, so I stopped and waited right where I was. Sure enough, one of the police cars that flew past me returned to pick me up. They had successfully stopped the guy before he made it to the next store, and had him cuffed on the asphalt. As we approached the crowd, the officer in my car asked...

"Do you recognize anyone here?"

I almost laughed. There were five uniformed police officers, and a black guy wearing a black hoodie leaning over the hood of a police car, with his hands cuffed behind his back. Are you kidding? Hard choice! I positively identified the man as the guy I saw filling the bag with Prilosec. The man was hauled away to the police station as I was asked to go through the bag and determine if it was all merchandise from my store. Of course it was.

I took possession of the bag of goods, and got a ride back to the store. I walked in with the bag over my shoulder like Santa Claus arriving with a sack filled with gifts. I poured the bag out at the front desk and had the associate scan all of the items. My smile grew larger and wider as the count went on and on.

Finally, the grand total of stolen, but recovered, merchandise came to $975.00. Until then, my highest amount recovered was approximately $600.00.

This little visit to the neighboring parking lots certainly turned out to be well worth the trouble, and exercise.

I compared my video of the incident with photos from a similar incident at a neighboring store. Unfortunately, he took the same amount there, same merchandise there, just didn't get caught there.

I was later advised by the arresting officer that this man, 45 years old, was from New York, and couldn't make bail. He would be spending the week in the County Prison, until we will meet again for the Preliminary Hearing where I get to brag about catching him on the witness stand.

Dry spell ended.

This Just In...

Update to the "Tip of The Day" dated 2/4/10:

Today, I received a text in the middle of the afternoon... it read:

"Think we ID'd your thieves from the Technical School - Call me"

It was from the Detective who took me through the school after a student left my store with a Webcam in his pocket. As we talked on the phone he emailed me a photo of one of the students they thought might match the video I had from the store. I quickly brought up the photo and rewound the video to the day of the theft. I called an assistant manager to the office to get a fresh, unbiased pair of eyes to look at the photo and match it with someone in the video. It was a match to both of us.

Soon, the police department will visit the school, and pull this young man out of class and grill him about the incident. Hopefully, this too will put me back in court soon, listening to the defendant plead guilty.

I will just want to yell..."Surprise!!"

Continued No More!

Another Tuesday spent in the courtroom.

For the fourth time, I was subpoenaed to testify for the guy who used the stroller to hife merchandise, and then decided we would wrestle our way through the vestibule until the police department grabbed him up trying to run away. Several time before I had reported to the court for him, only to be told the case was being continued becaue he was represented appropriately. I always thought you would be assigned a Public Defender when you couldn't afford a proper attorney, but I guess I was wrong.

So finally, I am at the court, the bad guy is seated in the waiting room when I arrive, so I don't even slow down there. I walk right through the waiting room and enter the courtroom. Not only does this put me with the guys on the right side of law, but it also says I am here and ready for the case to begin.

Of course, the DA comes up to me and asks if its okay that he put a case before mine, and I agreed. Afterall, I am getting paid no matter how long I am sitting in the courtroom. So, I sat there and observed as a case of Stolen Identity, Forgery, False reports, etc was played out before me. I watched as a Police Officer testified about responding to an auto accident, then receiving false information from one of the vehicle operators, now, the female sitting at the Defense table.

They would end up debating back and forth about a detail of the way the law is worded and after close review by the Judge, the charge of Identity Theft was thrown out. The Prosecutor was not happy.

Finally, after every possible delay they could think of, it was time for my case of the Baby Stroller Assault Theft and Assault. Before the case moved an inch, the Defense Attorney and Prosecutor stepped into a conference room. Moments later, the District Attorney came out and discussed the possibility of dropping the charge of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. I pictured in my mind, how this guy shoved me to the ground, pushed the occuppied babystroller into me as he tried to get out of the store, wrestled with me out onto the sidewalk and finally fleeing on foot dragging the stroller behind him. How is this NOT endangering the child? The arresting police officer and the DA both agreed it will be very hard for this charge to stick. I voiced my opinion, but yielded to their expertise in the matter.

The deal was, if we dropped the Endangering Charge, he would plead guilty to Robbery, Assault, Retail Theft, and Harassment. I took the four guilty pleas to one dropped charge. The remaining charges would be brought up at trial in about a month, unless he makes another agreement about the sentencing without a trial.

Next up... the trial to be held for the young shoplifter who decided it would be necessary to spray mace into my face. Can't wait to see how the law gets twisted around these charges!

Funny Thing Happened On My Way Home...

Today, as planned, I reviewed video of the shift before, hoping to acquire a good shot of the movie thief. As luck would have it, I have plenty of footage of him buying his ring, and wandering around the store looking for the bathroom, but somehow, he, like an odd number of the bandits I deal with, avoids every camera like the plague. He walks right under several of them, but each time he is either looking down, or away. So, we have to pass on the photograph idea.

I spend the rest of the day relaying the story to employees who weren't there and those who heard about it and came to me for the juicy details. By the time the end of my nine hour shift arrived I had just about forgotten about the movie thief. Walking to my car in the lot I noticed the sun wasn't all the way down yet. I thought to myself, it will be nice to get home while the sun is still in the air. Before I left the lot, I decided to do a lap around the building. This is recommended by the higher ups, because sometimes they are able to catch an unsuspecting thief walking out the rear doors, or in the back hiding items in the bushes, etc.

I lap the building every time I close the store for the night, but when the store is still open, I don't usually make the trip around the building. For some reason, I decided to do it this evening. I checked all of the fire exits and found each one clear. I turned the last corner and was approaching the last door before I peeled away from the building and headed home.

Mounds of snow sat melting nearby. As I passed the last one, something caught my eye. Something in the snow was reflecting from the sun and shining at me. I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car.

Sure enough... there sat the three discs I told the Police Dispatcher the thief would have in his pockets. One by one, I dug them out of the snow.
First, "The Marine," then "The Proposal" and ironically, thirdly, "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

Something he was not.

All that effort for nothing. Case closed...advantage...me.

Almost a Good Start to March

March was almost kicked off with a bang. But, as my recent luck would have it, it fell through and did nothing but piss me off after my first shift of the month.

The day plugged along with the liveliness of a typical Tuesday morning, with the exception of one group of hispanic guys perusing the Electronics Department to perk me up temporarily. After following these guys for about thirty minutes, I determined they would not be helping my apprehension stats, and were only in the store to buy something...of all things.

With only an hour left in my shift, I noticed a white guy hanging around the Jewelry counter. After a few minutes of studying his actions, I saw the Jewelry employee helping him with purchasing a ring. As I did most of my last hours, I was hanging around the front desk watching people as they arrived at the store, and watching others leaving. I noticed subconsciously, the ring buyer made his way outside with his small bag in hand. I walked outside to do a weather check, since we were expecting rain, and saw the same guy walking back across the sidewalk toward the front entrance again.

I stepped inside and walked to the Jewelry counter to alert the employee.

"The next guy walking through the door...is this your customer from a few minutes ago?" I asked leaning over the glass counter. We both glanced over toward the door as the white guy wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and baggie jeans entered.

She nodded to me and we noticed he wasn't coming back to the Jewelry counter as I had expected. He turned and walked toward the center of the store. For a moment I thought it was strange he had returned, but then again, I have left stores before I was actually done getting everything I wanted. I didn't think of him again, and returned to the front desk.

I started looking for the Assistant Store Manager to let her know I was about to leave the store for the day. I found her in the pantry pulling expired merchandise from the shelves. Like usual, we entered into a conversation about the problems with store policy and leadership, when the employee from the front desk paged me. Every employee knows, if there is an urgent problem, as in a shoplifter or suspicious person in the store, they are not to use my name, they use the number "300." This particular page was my name. This meant it was nothing too importnat, and I could take my time getting back to them. Within thirty seconds, a second page went out...

"300 call 366, 300 call 366."

I was only a few steps away from the front desk and I hustled up looking for a signal from the employee watching for me. He picked up the phone and dialed 366, holding the receiver out for me as I approached the counter.

"Hello, whats up?" I said quickly as the phone picked up on the other end. I knew by the extension number that I was calling the Layaway Register, but I had no idea why, or who.

"Umm..I am having a problem with my register..." the female voice I recognized as the second Assistant Manager, but I could tell something was wrong. Not to mention, I have nothing to do with fixing registers.

"Do you need me back there, yes or no?"

"Yes." the voice replied. I hung up immediately and started for the back of the store. I made it into the next department when I heard the Service Desk employee call out to me. I turned and looked back as he once again held the phone receiver out for me to get. I jogged back and grabbed the phone from his hand.

Before I could get any words out...

"You have a white guy in black hoodie, just came out of the bathroom, he was opening packages in the bathroom, he's walking through the pantry right now..." the assistant manager rattled off.

I hung up the phone, repeated what I had heard to the guy working the desk, and together we positioned ourselves for a stop near the exit. As soon as I turned to look toward the pantry, there he was walking toward me. And as shocking as it may be, it was the ring buyer from earlier. I turned away from him and walked slowly toward the door, and soon he passed me and stepped into the vestibule. My partner from the Service Desk had already made it outside and I could see him approaching.

I walked up behind the hooded guy and called out to him before he made it through the second exit...

"Excuse me buddy... hang on one second?" He turned back to see who was talking, but never stoppede walking out the door.

"Can you stop for a second so I can talk to ya?" I asked.

He turned and looked at me very confused.

"I work here at the store, I just want to ask you something..." I tried several approaches to get him to atleast slow down. Again, he looked back at me, but kept walking away from me...

"Is that a no? Can't you just stop for one minute so I can talk to ya?" He turned back and said, "What do you want, I have to go," and never stopped walking.

"If you stop and talk to me I will explain..."

"Look, I just bought something in here and you are about to mess things up for me with my girlfriend..." he stopped long enough to get the words out and for his girlfriend to appear from out of nowhere and walk up behind me.


"I know what you bought and it has nothing to do with that, I am not saying anything about that if you just give me a minute..." He finally stopped halfway across the front of the store.

"What were you doing in the bathroom, I know you were opening stuff in there..." he interrupted my talking and again started walking away. "Were you opening what you bought from earlier?" I offered that to him and as soon as the words left my lips, I wanted them all back.

"Yes! Thats what I was doing in there...now can I go?" That was too easy for him. I should have never given him an out. With a slight doubt of whether he really stole something, I decided to let him go. Maybe he really was in there taking the ring out of the package and getting ready to give it to her. Not watching where he went when he returned to the store, I couldnt be sure. As I walked back into the store, I saw the assistant manager running toward the front desk carrying movies in her hand.

"These were in the toilet!" she said holding them out to me. She handed me the empty packages for three DVD movies. It was then I decided I was right the first time, he was stealing something and concealing it in the bathroom.

"Hey hang on a second!" I yelled again as I walked out the door again. The two stopped and turned to see what I wanted. I looked at the girlfriend who honestly looked confused about all of the drama. "Can I borrow him for one second?"

She stepped back and the guy walked back to me, surprisingly.

"How about the movies, you telling me you didn't take movies into the bathroom with you?"

"I don't lknow anything about that..." he said as he turned back around and kept walking away from me again.

"Its either cooperate with me, or you have to explain it all to the police when they pull up next to ya...I really don't want to get them involved." Honestly, I wanted nothing more than a police officer to pull up about now, but I thought I could use that to slow this guy down. Somehow it seemed he knew our hands off policy, and he did nothng but just keep walking away from me, and I couldnt do a damned thing about it.

As the couple turned the corner at the end of the building I called the Police Department. Within minutes, police cars flew past in the direction the couple was last seen walking. Moments later, a police car pulled up outside the front door of the store.

"You wanna take a ride?" the officer asked me, meaning they had located someone for me to identify as the actor. I jumped into the back of the car and we drove back behind the store. In the parking lot adjacent to ours, two other police cars were stopped and two people stood in front of the cars. As we pulled up slowly, I looked closely at the face of the guy standing with his black hood up over his head. Unfortunately, it wasn't him.

I returned to my store, with all of the employees waiting to hear the good news, but none was coming. Not yet any way.

Tomorrow, I will review the video, and provide the police department with a good photo of him. Then, if they run into him, there will be an apprehension. If not, that girl will get a new ring, and a few movies on us.

But I must think, when all is said and done, does she really want a ring from a guy who steals movies from a retail store? I hope someday I will meet them again in court, and find out.

My February Goes Out Like a Tortise

So yeah... February has come and gone, and I tallied up a big fat goose egg in the apprehension category. The only thing I have to show is the investigation, which is ongoing, and growing, into a fraudulent credit card ring hitting several stores in our area. Although this may yield a wonderful apprehension or multiple apprehensions, at some point, the fact remains I just went an entire month with no shoplifting or employee arrests.

The closest I came was on the last day of the month, at the beginning of the last hour of my shift. I was alerted by my Service Desk employee that a girl they had problems with before had just entered the store. The last time this girl was here she tried scamming the new cashier, and blamed him for overcharging her by ringing her up twice., As a result, she walked away with free merchandise, before I could review the video. Once I saw the video, it was clear she pulled a fast one on the cashier, confusing him just enough to ger her way.

This time I saw her as she paced the aisles in the Health and Beauty Department. I took a position opposite her in the aisle next to her, using the ceiling mirror to observe her. She seemed to be nervous about something, and paced back and forth before taking a bottle of Body Wash off the shelf. she then moved from this aisle to the Shampoo aisle, where she again did some pacing before choosing a few items. I kept an eye on her as she left the department and headed for the registers. I quickly grabbed a shampooo myself, and walked right up behind her in line. I wanted to watch her transaction first hand, without her even knowing she had more than just the cashier watching her. Unfortunately, the transaction went smoothly. I stepped up and placed the fake shampoo purchase on the counter and told the cashier to take the next person before me, as I watched the girl ahead of me walk toward the exit. Then it finally happened. She glanced back behind her, then at the last minute before stepping through the exit, she turned left, and back onto the salesfloor, this time carrying a bag from her first purchase with her.

I quickly left the line, and scurried down the aisle to see where she went. As I passed the Service Desk, the employee nodded toward the Cosmetics aisles, knowing I was in a slow pursuit of this girl. I walked past the Cosmetics Department and walked into the department next to it, and again used the mirrors to observe the girl fingering lip stick, eye shadow, and other make up. I was just waiting for her to pick one or two up and drop it into the bag with the merchandise she had already purchased. In my head, I had already played out the argument she would offer me when I stopped her leaving the store. I could hear her protesting saying she had bought everything in the bag. My heart beat actually quickened, realizing I would soon have my February apprehension...until that friendly, smiling coworker decided, of all days and times, to approach her and ask if there was anything she could help her with. She politely declined, tucked the bag under her arm, and walked directly to the exit, with only the original merchandise in the bag.

As I watched the girl leave the store, in my head I could hear the ticking of the 60 minutes clock. Only this time, the second hand was ticking away on my first apprehension-less month since starting this position. My streak has ended.