Our Own Most Wanted

For the first two weeks I was trained by James, a Loss Prevention Manager from a neighboring store, who had not only been in the LP business with this company for almost a year, but had come from working at a larger retail chain for several years . I liked the experience and the stories he could tell to help me obtain a better understanding of what was expected of me in my new position. For now they didn't seem like battle stories, they just seemed like his way of helping me learn about shoplifters, how to detect them, how to follow them and how to apprehend them. Some times he would talk as if these people who would come in and steal merchandise were members of the Philadelphia Mob and the truth of this remained to be seen.



It wasn't long before a sales associate approached me and discussed a frequent flyer, a customer who would come into the store often. The problem with this guy was he was suspected of stealing electric razors and electric toothbrushes each time he visited the store. At first this boggled my mind. If they know this guy is stealing all the time, why aren't they stopping him?



It would soon become clear, as the policies and procedures were embedded in my head throughout training. I went to management, as well as other sales personnel trying to learn more about this regular "shopper." Seemed he would come in on a Thursday or Friday to scope out the shelves, then return over the weeekend and take what he wanted. To me, this seemed like an easy catch.



I discussed the situation with James and we decided it would be a nice first apprehension for me. We decided to get together and plan a set up for the upcoming weekend. Instead of just using me in the store, we considered using three of us, making sure he wasn't going to get away. Since this store didn't have any LP personnel for a while, this would certainly be a surprise attack on the shoplifter.



It was a Tuesday when we met in my office to go over how we would work the weekend apprehension. James sat facing me with his back to the large screen displaying the twenty cameras spread across the store when suddenly my phone rang.



"Pat, that guy Obama just came into the store..." a female's voice advised me over the phone. This guy was labelled "Obama" since most days he wore a wool hat with "Obama" written across the front. Still holding the phone to my ear, I glanced up to the monitor and saw the man standing in front of the electric razors, pulling one off the shelf.



"Yes he is! He's here, he's in the aisle now!" I said to James as I stood and headed for the door to the salesfloor. He followed me out the door asking me something about where he was, I pointed and kept walking. I was moving like a veteran at shoplifter apprehensions. I never slowed down until I reached the aisle where he was known to hide while taking the merchandise out of their packages. The aisle was empty. My cell phone rang and it was James.



"Hey," I could barely hear the whispering voice, "I got him over here in the Pantry aisle ripping open the package."



It now became hide and seek. James and I were hiding, staying out of sight so he didn't know we were on to him. I was close to the exit but tucked behind an aisle of bed sheets and pillow cases. I stayed on the phone with James who was in a position where he could see Obama's movements. From where I was I saw Obama between the registers and reappear with a large shopping bag walking back toward the Pantry. It turned out he was going to collect the razors he had just opened and place them in the bag as if he had already bought them.



A minute later, I see Obama come out of the Pantry, walk hesitantly between two closed registers, and turn toward the exit. About ten feet behind him, James appears nodding his head toward me. I walk from my position, pass the service desk and approach the front door as Obama and James reach the exit doors. Just as we all go through the glass doors, Obama turns back and sees us coming out the door and begins sprinting across the front sidewalk, dropping the bag of merchandise as he runs. James and I without hesitation, follow right behind him, and I notice James now on the phone yelling "he is running toward the side parking lot."
Fortunately, James had already called 9-1-1 as we were heading for the door, and the police were already responding. James and I ran behind the shoplifter until we reached the side lot where the first of five police cars arrived. We pointed toward the man running through the lot and the officers sped away. Moments later, the police department caught him as he entered another retail store and placed him into custody.



At this point, my adrenaline could probably be seen pumping through my veins, because I could sure feel it. James and I stood outside the store waiting until an officer came back for somoene to go identify the suspect. I was all about that job, and jumped into the back seat of the patrol car. We circled back around, through two adjacent parking lots and pulled up behind a small gathering of police officers. In the center of it all was the gentleman I had watched on video over and over, as he repeatedly visited the store for his razor collection, the same man we just chased across the parking lot.



We picked up the bag he had tossed aside as he sprinted away, and inventoried his loot. This time the merchandise added up to more than four hundred dollars. It's tough to imagine how often he did this, and just how much we lost every time he visited us.



After being processed by the police, it was learned that this man had been arrested for the same thing almost twenty times before. He was no rookie, and it felt great getting such the professional for my first apprehension.



As the adrenaline subsided, we were reminded that store policy states we never chase a suspect and never leave the sidewalk.



It just so happened that my District Manager chose this day to stop in and meet me for the first time. He had gone to lunch and was returning to the store as James and I were chasing the shoplifter into the side lot.



As the last police officer left, the DM shook his head,



"Great job this time....but never do that again."