Retail Store Theft

[Montelores]

Inside Home Depot’s efforts to stop a growing theft problem at its stores

PUBLISHED FRI, NOV 22 20196:20 AM EST
Courtney Reagan
Jennifer Schlesinger
CNBC

Imagine loading up a cart full of merchandise at a store, and just walking out the door in broad daylight as store employees watch you do it.

It’s known as organized retail crime, and it’s a growing trouble for the nation’s retailers. Instead of stealing for personal use, these criminals are part of a larger crime ring. The goods are taken to someone else in exchange for cash, then resold at a pawnshop, online or directly to a buyer.

“I personally believe, this is driven by the opioid crisis,” Carol Tome, Home Depot’s then-chief financial officer said in a phone interview with CNBC in May.

Many of those who steal are addicted to opioids. They turn the stolen goods quickly, often the same day, into money to buy drugs, according to the Utah Attorney General’s office. The crime rings vary in size and complexity and can include as many as 100 people across multiple states, according to Home Depot.

“We watch them leave our store with product ... Often, they are armed and we don’t want to put our customers or associates in harm’s way,” said Tome, who retired in August.

In surveillance video from Home Depot stores that CNBC obtained, a suspect is seen punching a store employee when the worker tries to stop her from stealing. In another video, a suspect appears to squirt pepper spray into the eyes of an employee. Home Depot said they have seen suspects flash guns or knives in other surveillance videos.

Home Depot is far from the only retailer seeing the spike in this activity...


https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/22/inside-home-depots-efforts-to-stop-a-growing-theft-problem.html

Monty

 

[Mobuck]

"the opioid crisis"
Is a term I'm sick of hearing. It's a crutch for folks who don't have the gumption to stop doing what they've been doing. Coming from someone who's been there and quit.

 

[Bull Barrel]

Has nothing to do with opioids. These thieves know they won't be prosecuted so they know they can do it and get away with it.

If there is an opioid crisis its due to doctors overprescribing.
The makers of the drugs aren't going around handing out the stuff like candy.

 

[Cholo]

If it's this big of a problem, why not post someone at the exit door checking receipts like Costco does?

 

[Bull Barrel]

These people will walk right past the checker and dare to be stopped. Its company policy to not attempt to stop them. Don't want a lawsuit.

 

[Montelores]

We watch them leave our store with product ... Often, they are armed and we don’t want to put our customers or associates in harm’s way,” said Tome, who retired in August.

In surveillance video from Home Depot stores that CNBC obtained, a suspect is seen punching a store employee when the worker tries to stop her from stealing. In another video, a suspect appears to squirt pepper spray into the eyes of an employee. Home Depot said they have seen suspects flash guns or knives in other surveillance videos.


Monty

 

[gramps]

Where are the police? Video, witnesses, should be an easy conviction!
gramps

 

[Rancher Will]

This is nothing new. In my 40 years LEO career, "shop-lifting" reports were a common occurrence. Usually it involved the store employees noticing an individual stealing one or more items. However, fairly often we often found that it involved usually two or more professional thieves operating together. These are often more organized and not obvious to store employees. These can result in many thousands of dollars stolen from a store before the theft is discovered.

If the thief is armed and the store employees are intimidated from stopping them, then it becomes an armed robbery. This is a different crime than shop-lifting. Also various states define crimes in various ways. For Example, simple theft in Colorado may be only a petty offense, a misdemeanor, or a felony, depending on the value of the stolen property. The method of the theft may also involve more than one crime, depending on how it occurred.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Why do you think Wally World is no longer a "low" price place to buy from? When
they went to the 24/7, they quickly found that there were MANY large screen TVs
going out the door without being paid for. Think about how many $1 to $25 items
have to be sold to make up for just one big screen TV going out the door without
being paid for.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I worked security back in the 70's. It was happening back then. Organized theft is nothing new. May be more common, but not new. Usually multiple people involved. Seldom is there more than one security person on the clock, so following them out and trying to get the merchandise back, is risky at best, depending on the gun policy of the store. One place I worked, were taboo on guns. I did go out a couple of times but it was obvious I was seriously out numbered and they were desperate. If the company is serious about stopping theft, they need to get serious.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Give each security guy a camera to follow and video the persons and vehicles and any weapons they might show. That would help the police and the courts.

 

[powder smoke]

Put the stores on lock down only one exit except for emergencies.
Some scoots out an emergency exit run em down. They probably figure
thievery is cheaper than an employee, just a guess.
This is not rocket science. Any good manager would be able to cut on the thievery!
Pay attention for goodness sakes. ps

 

[kmoore]

Those who said "nothing new" is the right answer. A Home Depot opened in Oregon City and is the #1 address in the city for crime. Gangs park in the lot looking for a tradesman coming to buy building supplies and has tools in the open bed of a pickup. They watch him go into the store and drive over and unload everything they can as fast as they can from the pickup.
Others get high dollar tools, even generators from the store and just walk out. Those mostly end up at a pawn shop. The SO Pawn detail gets the list by serial numbers to run them for stolen. They never are if new and still in a unopened box. A buddy who was the Pawn Sgt. went to HD and asked about them tracking the items by serial numbers and then the SO could prove the item was stolen and not paid for, they will not do it. I worked plain clothes when possible at an HD and a Fred Meyer dept store across the street. It takes a team of cops but, we made many parking lot arrests. Once a store employee who was supposed to round up carts was finding the pickups with tools and the back, he had friends parked nearby. He phoned them and together they unloaded the pickup while wearing a HD apron.
Several times the store employees would see the marked police car hiding near the loading dock. Contact him with the details of a theft who was still gathering up loot in the store. I got the radio message and met the theft outside.
The PD I currently work at had a (just one) theft who finally was arrested and found he had stolen about 35,000 from one HD store over 6 months.
Nothing new, thieves mainly low life drug addicts find what works and tell they buddies, soon it's all over the place. There could be many measures a retailer can take to stop much of the crime. I guess mostly they just up the price of goods that we the non thieves pay for to cover the losses. And how add to that by DAs not willing to prosecute theft. Yeah we pay a lot more for goods and will continue too.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Far as I'm concerned, Jeff Cooper had the answer, “If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.”

 

[Fox Mike]

I have a friend that works as a 'floor walker' for Macy. She was telling us of the inovative different ways they come up with to steal stuff. Little things like they walk in appearing to weigh 110 and start to leave appearing to have gained 100 additional pounds.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I don't know if I'm unusual, or was just too close to people that did bad stuff, but I could stand near the front door and watch people who walk in, and know who to follow. I was typically right. But who knows how many people I missed, that I didn't follow. They just give off a different "vibe". Don't really know how to describe it.

 

[CGDustDevil]

Where are the police? Video, witnesses, should be an easy conviction!
gramps

Funny you should mention videos... A couple years ago our local Walmart became the target of 'big box thieves'... They'd wheel huge flat-screen TVs out the door, toss 'em in a truck and off they'd drive. Had it all on video! It seemed to be happening two or three times a month or more. A couple local chat groups on social media used to post the photos provided by Walmart in hopes that someone could identify the thieves.

Never caught any thieves, but the photos DID demonstrate to the community how easy it was to walk out with TVs. What used to be 'a two-or-three-times-a-month' thing became 'a several-times-a-week thing'! They stopped posting the photos as a result.

We asked a couple of the old folks we know who check receipts, and they both told us it really got out of hand, so they had to stop reporting it to the news and social media. Once they stopped trying to be 'crime stoppers', the thefts went back down to 2 or 3 times a month. The reason they appealed to the public is because the local police aren't interested in those kinds of crimes unless they're caught in the act and are detained. They'll come for those, but they don't retroactively look for 'suspects'.

It's a brave, new world out there...

 

[bogus bill]

I hate any type thief. I was raised in a country general store during world war two that my mom ran mostly by herself. I did 35 years as a security guard. If I had the power any type thief caught, I would order everything he owned be stacked up in the town square and burned. Hurts, don`t it?
A few years ago we bought a computer chair from Walmart. We didn't get one off the floor but out of stock. Got it home and there was close to a $800 worth of other store loot packed around it. We drove it back and security said, looks like we have a internal problem here. I think they gave us a $25 gift card.

 

[eveled]

Has nothing to do with opioids. These thieves know they won't be prosecuted so they know they can do it and get away with it.

If there is an opioid crisis its due to doctors overprescribing.
The makers of the drugs aren't going around handing out the stuff like candy.

The doctors aren’t the ones swallowing the pills. I’m sick of people not taking responsibility for their own actions.

 

[SamV]

I hate any type thief. I was raised in a country general store during world war two that my mom ran mostly by herself. I did 35 years as a security guard. If I had the power any type thief caught, I would order everything he owned be stacked up in the town square and burned. Hurts, don`t it?
A few years ago we bought a computer chair from Walmart. We didn't get one off the floor but out of stock. Got it home and there was close to a $800 worth of other store loot packed around it. We drove it back and security said, looks like we have a internal problem here. I think they gave us a $25 gift card.

I used to work at Home Depot years ago. Most employees at my store were very conscientious about shrink. But, while there is a lot of drug addiction theft, I think all lot more is group theft. We had a couple of good guys doing nothing but shoplifting work. They caught shoplifters everyday. I caught a bunch too. The drug addicts were usually the easier ones. Sometimes they were high when they were shoplifting. They would often steal something and try to return it for a refund without a receipt. The store would not give cash back, but a gift card. They would then sell it to gift card resellers at a discount. I saw some of them getting a hundred dollar or more gift card, turn around and offer it to the next person in line for $20 or $30, because they needed the cash immediately to get high.
I think my favorite was being asked to approve a return for someone who clearly had no clue what it was being returned, several unique pieces of electrical equipment. While explaining their reasons for return, they would black out for several seconds at a time, swaying back and forth.
Sometimes contractors or a sketchy employee of one would return used items in a new product box. I was called to approve the return of a couple of multipacks of ground fault interrupters, about $60.
He claimed they were defective. I asked, "All of them?" I offered to exchange them. He got angry and demanded his money. Last question, You realize that the label states that the color is white, but the products in the boxes are Ivory (a much darker shade), a different manufacturer, and some have clearly old paint on them?
I have found many really cheap light fixtures taken out of their boxes. ??? People were using $10 light fixture boxes to fill up with more expensive items.
Kitchen cabinet boxes crammed full of all kinds of stuff. Large PVC pipe filled with copper pipe. One of my coworkers caught a guy walking out the door with a large Rubbermaid type storage container in his cart. He waved a receipt. She grabbed the cart. The container was filled with spools of copper wire. He took off and left the cart. It never ceased to amaze me the countless ways people would plan their theft. One of our cashier's had been addicted to drugs when they were younger. That person was really good at spotting shoplifters.
The organized crime guys were more determined. They went for big ticket item stuff and didn't always care if you saw them or not. They were probably more about speed.
Our tough loss control guy wound up being severely injured and hospitalized from one of them.
I worked in retail for many years of my life. More than once I have been hired or called in to turn around a store with excessive shrinkage. It was always the problem I feared most in retail.
I could go on and on for pages. I didn't even start to talk about internal theft.

 

[Taterman]

I'd love to sit down with you and here those stories Sam. I've always been intrigued by those types of things.

 

[eveled]

At a local home depo. Someone bought a vanity and got it home it had a bale of pot inside of it.

 

[BlkHawk73]

We can all thank the over-litigious society we live in. Retails store have such a stringent "hands off" policy on anyone stealing that thieves know they won't be bothered. Employee does try and stop them, the thief sues for $$$$$.

 

[eveled]

If the Koreans owned Home depo I doubt there would be any theft.

 

[Tallbald]

Not a Big Box store. Not retail but just me. Today like HD I was the victim of shoplifting at a high school sponsored craft show in Louisville KY. From my display of artish, lathe turned wood mushrooms, snowmen and Christmas trees, a $65 natural edged sassafras example was stolen right off Penny's and my display table. Had to have happened when the aisle was crowded and customers were bunched up near our display. Most folks carried shopping bags and we were often talking with browsers so I was an easy target. And too trusting. Never again. Debating about never attending that show again because of the huge size, poor parking and rudeness of some of those running the event. He##. I can stay in my own town and be stolen from and treated rudely.
A total of a day's worth of labor for me, which was of necessity done a couple hours at a time because of physical limits (spine injury), the theft hurt me Penny and me. Sale proceeds were to go toward our 2019 property taxes. Scumbag.
Don

 

[langenc]

“I personally believe, this is driven by the opioid crisis,” Carol Tome, Home Depot’s then-chief financial officer said in a phone interview with CNBC in May.

Many of those who steal are addicted to opioids. They turn the stolen goods quickly, often the same day, into money to buy drugs, according to the Utah Attorney General’s office. The crime rings vary in size and complexity and can include as many as 100 people across multiple states, according to Home Depot.

Copied from above somewhere

Dont blame it on opioids. Many of those kind got started on cough syrup, paregoric and pot..

 

[Taterman]

Sorry to hear this Don. Disgusting someone would do that.

Not a Big Box store. Not retail but just me. Today like HD I was the victim of shoplifting at a high school sponsored craft show in Louisville KY. From my display of artish, lathe turned wood mushrooms, snowmen and Christmas trees, a $65 natural edged sassafras example was stolen right off Penny's and my display table. Had to have happened when the aisle was crowded and customers were bunched up near our display. Most folks carried shopping bags and we were often talking with browsers so I was an easy target. And too trusting. Never again. Debating about never attending that show again because of the huge size, poor parking and rudeness of some of those running the event. He##. I can stay in my own town and be stolen from and treated rudely.
A total of a day's worth of labor for me, which was of necessity done a couple hours at a time because of physical limits (spine injury), the theft hurt me Penny and me. Sale proceeds were to go toward our 2019 property taxes. Scumbag.
Don

 

[Slyk Willy]

As a HD employee, other than offering to assist, I could get fired if I even approaching a thief. I believe the retail companies are afraid of law suit from anyone that is "accused" of being a thief.

 

[toysoldier]

Employee theft may equal or exceed shoplifting, especially at a place like Wal-Mart.

 

[kmoore]

Bear Paw Jack, your not that unusual in your observations. It'd still called profiling and legal. It's not profiling by skin color, but actions. When you see someone doing what no one else is, that's a clue. Of course they are many other clues.
In my post on page #1. I watched that employee wearing a orange HD apron walking away from the exit doors. He walked across the parking lot. Like other cart roundup guys. So, I continuing scanning for bad guys. He just happen to be stopped by a pickup and on his phone when I seen him again. He had a arm raised as a car turned into the same aisle. Still no alarms in my mind went off. But the why did he have his arm raised. The car stopped and the employee grabbed a chop saw out of the pickup bed and placed it into the car. I and another UC officer crabbed the employee, who called me a liar. The marked unit went into felony pursuit with the getaway car and stolen saw. After it was over, 2 were in custody. I met with the store manager, he had no clue what we had just done. That guy was a new hire.
BYW, The case I mentioned were the guy had stolen over 34,000 in about 6 months. I spoke with the Det.s last week. That guy sold most of the loot on craigslist or had a few others take loot to pawn shops.