Shoplifting, methods used

Editor’s note: During tough economic times property crimes like burglary, robbery and shoplifting generally escalate. “Shoplifting is one of the most common nonviolent crimes facing America today,” according to the American Crime Prevention Institute.

This is the first in a three-part series, provided courtesy of the Maricopa Police Department, utilizing “The Law Enforcement Officer Complete Crime Prevention Manual.”

Shoplifting is the theft of property offered for sale. Shoplifting is an expensive problem that ends up costing U.S. consumers and businesses billions per year. Businesses pay the costs of lost merchandise and security-related expenses. Consumers pay higher retail prices for the goods because merchants pass on their costs. Police and the security industry should help merchants in their efforts to properly prevent and apprehend shoplifters.

Shoplifters represent every age group and income level. Anyone who enters a store could be a potential shoplifter. There are two types of shoplifters: professionals and amateurs. Professionals steal for a living while amateurs steal for a variety of other reasons. The reasons may include a simple desire to have the item or a desire to own luxury items; they steal for the thrill of it, peer pressure or group status; they may experience an irresistible impulse to steal (kleptomaniac) or to support a drug habit; they believe the store owes it to them; they steal out of desperate need such as a vagrant taking food, clothing or alcohol, etc.

Common Methods Used by Shoplifters
Shoplifters develop and use methods that are the most suitable for the particular talents of the shoplifter, and the type of merchandise to be stolen. The various methods employed include:

• Exiting the store with merchandise exposed either openly carried or worn by the shoplifter.
• Concealing merchandise through a variety of means and walking out of the store. The means may include the following:
• Palming or sleight-of-hand is the carrying of a small item out in their hand. Packages, gloves, newspapers, or other aids that are normally carried in the hand can be used to cover up the act. • Using aids to conceal the property. The aids may include: shopping bags, umbrellas, books, knitting bags, strollers, diaper bags, purses, briefcases, paper bags or booster equipment.

“Booster” is slang for a shoplifter and booster equipment is any item used to aid their theft, for example:
1. A booster box is typically a cardboard box that is large enough to conceal stolen items. It is usually wrapped to give the impression of a securely wrapped package. One side of the package opens and is held in place by a spring. Stolen items are inserted into the box through the trap door.
2. Booster coats are loose topcoats with large pockets in the lining to hide items. Some booster coats have exposed hooks sewn onto the inside of the coat to hang merchandise on.
3. Wearing skirts, pants, or other garments with elastic waistbands that can receive and hold stolen merchandise.
4. Booster bloomers have a flexible elastic waistband with the legs tied off just above the knees. Items are dropped down from the waist.
5. Booster cages are hollow cages designed to make a woman seem pregnant. Stolen articles are placed inside the cage.

• Using fitting rooms to practice their trade. Many different shoplifting techniques are used in fitting or dressing rooms where shoplifters feel secure and believe in the store’s inability to detect their shoplifting activities. The most common method is when the shoplifter places an outer garment over the merchandise, and wears it out of the store.
• Talented professional shoplifters can crotch merchandise between their legs and walk out of the store in a normal fashion. The shoplifter wears a long outer coat into the store, and carries out items between his/her legs.
• Some brazen shoplifters find a vulnerable store area near an entrance or exit, particularly those with a street immediately outside, where he or she can grab an armload of merchandise from a display and run out of the store.
• Employing diversion techniques sometimes works to distract employee attention away from the shoplifter. An accomplice occupies the attention of the clerk while the shoplifter does the stealing. Employees should be on the alert for distractions that may be used to divert attention from an accomplice, whether the customer is too friendly, belligerent or demanding of attention.

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