"Juwanna Man" - The Shoplifter

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4086497561/

The link provided here is for reference purposes. This story is about a regular shoplifter, or booster, who we've not-so-affectionately nicknamed, Juwanna Man. The link will take you to a movie trailer for those of you who have not seen the movie. This will help you picture the person I was dealing with because he acts and looks very similar to the star of this movie.

This story begins well before I was employed at this store. This "Juwanna Man" was like Retail Legend when I arrived. The story was told to me by several different employees. He was described as a thin, tall, feminine black man who was quite the flambouyant homosexual. He would dress with eyecatching accessories including a large flashy handbag, flowery bandanas, necklaces, etc etc. He would always come into the store accompanied by one or two shorter and heavier black females, also carrying the handbags. His M.O. according not only to the employees who work in this store, but other stores I know as well, is that he will arrive and walk around catching the eye of the employees, and quite often the customers as well. While all of the attention was on the flashy guy "shopper" his female partners would remove items from racks and fill their handbags. Since this store didn't have a Loss Prevention person for so long, the employees would witness this, but could do very little to stop them, short of making fake security pages.

Employees would explain these incidents and leave it with a laugh and a shake of their head as they return to work, or changing the subject. I would walk away thinking, "Why can't I have such an obvious shoplifter who everyone sees or knows?"

I would work for over six months hearing an occasional Juwanna Man story, but would never have a Juwanna Man sighting. Then again, I didn't know what he looked like and never even saw the movie or trailer until I just posted it on this blog.

Finally, when I least expected it, this would change.

I was sitting in the office finishing a monthly audit when my phone rang.

"Loss Prevention can I help you?" I answered looking up at the video monitors. It was a female voice on the other end, but at the time I couldn't place who it was because they were half whispering into the phone.

"Hey do you know hwo Juwanna Man is?" the girl asked.

"I know of him, never seen him before..."

"He is in the Children's Apparel Department right now..."

"What color clothes is he wearing?" I tried to get a quick description so I follow the right person especially since I never saw this character.

"He's got a white wife beater on, blue jeans and a red scarf around his head or something..."

"Thank you!" I stood hanging up and heading for the door as quick as I could without drawing attention to myself crossing the store.

As I approached the Kids' Department I slowed down, and grabbed some pants off a rack to throw over my shoulder. If he was as regular a shoplifter as they say, he probably keeps an eye out pretty good for people coming close to them. I wanted to come across as a shopper right away if he happened to see me enter the area.

As I got into the same department, I didn't even look up. I searched through racks of jeans, and cute little outfits, listening as hard as I could for any noise he would be making, and finally I ran my hand through my hair in fake frustration, and glanced up across the racks.

I caught a glimpse of the guy with the red wrap around his head along the side wall filled with kids' underwear. Within thirty seconds, he pulled the straps of a handbag up over his shoulder and began walking for the front desk. I followed his path at a distance. At this point, I didn't see him do anything, I had no reason to stop him, but did want to get a good look at him for future reference. He stopped at the front desk, asked a question, then walked straight out the front doors. I hustled up to the glass doors to try and see what kind of car he travelled in. As expected, he got into the passenger side of a car parked close to the door, and as they pulled out, he stared back at the door. To me, thats a look to make sure nobody followed him out of the store, which also means, he probably just took something in that handbag of his.

I turned from the door back to the front desk and saw the girl there looking at me smiling...

"So did Juwanna man take anything this time?"

"Not while I was watching, but he was already in the racks when I got to him, so yeah probably."

For the next half hour I reviewed the video to see if I could get a look at what he did, if anything, and atleast get a good snapshot of him coming or going. An hour later, Juwanna man had been just a quick hit and run and my mind was on to bigger and better things.

Less than a week later, the girl at the desk called my office.

"Juwanna Man just walked in with a girl and headed toward apparel..."

"Thanks, got'em" and I was out the door.

I walked quickly down the back aisle of the store, expecting them to be close to the front of the store, and walked through Menswear to get behind them. I glanced across the racks as I crept uip the back wall and saw them still in Kids' Apparel. I snuck up behind the stacks of blue jeans and escaped into the stockroom without them ever noticing.

Inside the stockroom I climbed up into the observation tower which was a small booth that was at ceiling height and had a two way mirored window overseeing the salesfloor. The tower came equipped with a stool and binoculars, which both had a layer of dust on them Apparently whoever preceeded me never thought to use this resource. And in this case, since I wasn't hunting deer, I didn't use the binoculars either.

I could see my prey just fine about twenty feet away. To the untrained eye, they looked like a couple shopping for their children's clothes. But what I saw was a guy and a girl nervous, and antsy. They would touch almost every item on the round rack, and wouldnt pick one out until they made it to the back of the rack, where they had a good look at the front desk.Their back was to me, but they didn't expect anyone behind them to watch. As a result, almost as if they were taking turns, they manuevered between racks to where they thought they were hidden, bend over quickly and stuff merchandise into their large handbags. Zipping them up quickly, they would stand up and nonchalantly peek around to see if anyone saw what they had done.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pants pocket as I watched the concealment.

"Hey it's me, I will be stopping them, they are filling their handbags...tell the manager for me." I notified the front desk, let them know what I have and intend to do, and let them notify my witness and the store manager. While they do that, I stay in visual contact with the "perps." Sometimes the time betweeen my notification phone call and the actual stop at the door can be quite long, maybe an hour. On the other hand, they may have all they came for and head right for the door...I never can tell. Either way, I need someone to know whats about to happen.

Unfortunately, this was one of the extended periods. I hid in the tower for what came close to 45 minutes after making my phone call. This becomes an issue because the "help" I asked for at the door may not only become bored waiting, they may get curious and start walking around looking for me or the shoplifter themselves, or need to get back to whatever work they were previously doing. The other thing that happens during this time, is employees talk. By the time I approached the door, still following Juwanna Man, it seemed most if not all employees knew what I was about to do, and what he had done. Now, not only do I havee to remain hidden and undiscovered, the girl at the desk has to act like normal, the girl at the jewelry counter has to act like she knows nothing, the stock boys who have gathered at the front desk have to act like they are on lunch...

I am the only trained in apprehensions, and nobody else should even be around with the exception of my one witness. When I looked around and saw the crowd, I was very concerned. After watching this guy for this long, I didn't want anyone eelse blowing it and scaring him off.

I was perched behind a wall of fake jewelry as he slowly approached the front doors. In front of him about six feet was the girl who also held her handbag tightly under her arm. I didn't want to come out of hiding until he was going through the doors with his bag, and hopefully nab both of them. My witness was pacing around in the vestibule, and I am fairly certain this made Juwanna man nervous too.

Finally, the girl made for the exit, made it through without any alarms, and no employee made a move. Juwanna man took one more lap around a clothing rack nearby, scanned the area one more time and started for the door, swinging his hips back and forth,his large overstuffed handbag tightly under his right arm. As he reached for the glass door, I stood straight up and ran the twenty feet from the Jewelry counter to the vestibule, brushing past curious employees and entering customers.
He was just starting to push open the second door leading outside when I reached out and grabbed his right arm, clenched tight on the bag. I got one syllable out of the phrase..

"Excuse me hold up a second..." the wrods were only formed in my mind and never got a chance to be vocalized. As soon as this guy felt my hand on his arm, he spun toward me, throwing his right arm back, and his left hand toward my face. I spun my head to the right, thinking in a split second he was trying to hit me, when I felt cold liquid running down my face, ear and neck. With that, he pulled his right arm out of my grip and began his sprint across the parking lot, alongside the female who had walked out ahead of him.

I grabbed my face, bent over and turned to see where my witness was. As I wiped my face, and watched the two thieves running for their lives, my not-so-handy witness walked out the exit.

"He just fucking maced me! Watch where they go!" I picked up my cell phone and dialed 9-1-1, not realizing a customer ran into the front desk and told them to call for me already. I walked out to the main road and looked down the block trying to see if I could see where they ran. The dispatcher asked if I needed an ambulance, since I kept repeating... "I can't believe he fucking maced me!" While we talked at the beginning of the call, the mace just felt wet on my skin. By the time I had provided all the descriptions and the details of the incident...the mace felt like it was burning right through my face. I asked to get off the phone so I could go back inside to start rinsing off with cold water. As I walked by the front desk, chins dropped.

"That was you?" "I heard someone got maced, I didn't know it was you!"

I walked straight into the mens room and made a mess as I splashed the water on the left side of my face. For the moment I was in the bathroom, my face felt so much better. I knew I neeeded to meet the police department outside, so I headed back out. Within ten feet of the bathroom door, my face was on fire again! I found I couldn't leave the water source. As soon as it dried and hit the air....the burning would reignite!

The third time I tried to leave the bathroom I was met by a police officer. He looked at my face and called for an ambulance. As I stood with three officers awaiting the ambulance arrival, I reviewed the events that led to this burning situation. It didn't take long as I described the look and mannerisms of the guy who maced me, for the officers to recognize him as a person they knew from prior arrests.

Within the hour an officer returned to the store with a photo line up in one hand, and information on the person they suspected in his other hand. After a quick look at the line up, I selected the right suspect and they went to work. By the end of the night a warrant was drawn up for Retail Theft, Robbery, Assault and related charges.

As of this date, Juwanna Man had a Preliminary Hearing where the charges were held up for a Criminal Trial.

While being interrogated by the Police Detective, he was asked if he had ever maced anyone when he tried to leave the store. His response...

"I don't even carry mace on my keychain!"