Clothing Security- 3 WC Blog 212
Clothing Security Tags-3
Checkpoint Tags-5
Checkpoint Tags Eliminated Need To Chase Shoplifters
Chasing shoplifters has become taboo in the retail industry as companies have determined the risks to employees, as well as the shoplifters are too great. There was a time though, when there were few rules governing pursuit and I was fortunate to have worked as a Loss Prevention Officer for a department store when it was still permitted. I will say, in hindsight and the benefit of years of wisdom, chasing is not smart, no merchandise is more valuable than someone’s well-being and safety. That said, those chases sometimes resulted in some funny stories. I had one incident when a young man decided to steal a ball cap or a couple of ball caps from our store. I don’t recall how many he was taking for sure. We had clothing security tags on some of our clothes but at that point, we had not started tagging baseball hats and he tried to take advantage of it.
To clarify for some readers who may be new to retail or merchandise protection, clothing security tags come in a variety of types and styles. There are some manufacturers that provide clothing security by incorporating electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags in their manufacturer hang tags. Frequently, Checkpoint Tags are used for this because of their reliability to activate EAS antennas when someone tries to sneak tagged items out of a store. Checkpoint Tags also come in hard tag designs that are easily seen and deter theft because shoplifters know that they will activate antennas. They also know how difficult clothing security hard tags are to defeat and remove from merchandise. Generally, tampering with these types of tags damages merchandise and renders them unserviceable. Checkpoint Tags of all types provide retailers with security against theft and therefore aid in increasing the profits of a store.
As I mentioned, the young man in this situation was looking at ball caps and I was watching him on closed circuit television because he was in an area of the store where shortage was high. When he decided on a hat(s) he did the usual shoplifter moves of looking around and up at the ceiling. I’ve never understood the looking at the ceiling because you can’t see the camera inside the dome, but that is a story for another time. When the shoplifter apparently felt it was safe, he pulled off the manufacturer tags not knowing if they had Checkpoint tags in them I suppose, and hid the hat(s) under his shirt. I left the office and followed him as he exited the store. I identified myself to him, told him I wanted to talk to him about the hat under his shirt and he decided to run. “Here we go again!” I thought as I took off after him. I chased my culprit across a street to a restaurant where he stopped and sat down on the sidewalk. He decided he was too tired and out of breath to continue…I could sympathize, I was pretty tired too. I put him in a control position so he couldn’t run anymore before the police arrived. While we waited I asked if he had anything on him that he wouldn’t want the police to find. He said he did and asked if he could hide it under the newspaper rack next to him. I told him that was fine with me. He pulled out a scale used for weighing marijuana and hid it under the rack. When the police arrived they handcuffed the suspect, and I told them about the scale the suspect had hidden. They pulled it out and added a charge of possessing drug paraphernalia to his shoplifting crime. The suspect looked at me in disbelief and said, “I thought you said I could hide it!” I reminded him I did allow him to hide it, I kept my word, I just never said I wouldn’t tell the police where it was. I was always careful about what I would tell a shoplifter and I would never promise what I couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver.
As our company expanded the use of clothing security on merchandise, eventually we did find a clothing security tag that we used on baseball hats. As we did use them, the theft in that department dropped dramatically. Try them out yourself and see the benefits of using clothing security tags and more specifically, Checkpoint tags to prevent shoplifting. They can also prevent the need to chase a thief!
Need information on Checkpoint Tags? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Chasing shoplifters has become taboo in the retail industry as companies have determined the risks to employees, as well as the shoplifters are too great. There was a time though, when there were few rules governing pursuit and I was fortunate to have worked as a Loss Prevention Officer for a department store when it was still permitted. I will say, in hindsight and the benefit of years of wisdom, chasing is not smart, no merchandise is more valuable than someone’s well-being and safety. That said, those chases sometimes resulted in some funny stories. I had one incident when a young man decided to steal a ball cap or a couple of ball caps from our store I don’t recall how many he was taking for sure. We had clothing security tags on some of our clothes but at that point, we had not started tagging baseball hats and he tried to take advantage of it.
To clarify for some readers who may be new to retail or merchandise protection, clothing security tags come in a variety of types and styles. There are some manufacturers that provide clothing security by incorporating electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags in their manufacturer hang tags. Frequently, Checkpoint Tags are used for this because of their reliability to activate EAS antennas when someone tries to sneak tagged items out of a store. Checkpoint Tags also come in hard tag designs that are easily seen and deter theft because shoplifters know that they will activate antennas. They also know how difficult clothing security hard tags are to defeat and remove from merchandise. Generally, tampering with these types of tags damages merchandise and renders them unserviceable. Checkpoint Tags of all types provide retailers with security against theft and therefore aid in increasing the profits of a store.
As I mentioned, the young man in this situation was looking at ball caps and I was watching him on closed circuit television because he was in an area of the store where shortage was high. When he decided on a hat(s) he did the usual shoplifter moves of looking around and up at the ceiling. I’ve never understood the looking at the ceiling because you can’t see the camera inside the dome, but that is a story for another time. When the shoplifter apparently felt it was safe, he pulled off the manufacturer tags not knowing if they had Checkpoint tags in them I suppose, and hid the hat(s) under his shirt. I left the office and followed him as he exited the store. I identified myself to him, told him I wanted to talk to him about the hat under his shirt and he decided to run. “Here we go again!” I thought as I took off after him. I chased my culprit across a street to a restaurant where he stopped and sat down on the sidewalk. He decided he was too tired and out of breath to continue…I could sympathize, I was pretty tired too. I put him in a control position so he couldn’t run anymore before the police arrived. While we waited I asked if he had anything on him that he wouldn’t want the police to find. He said he did and asked if he could hide it under the newspaper rack next to him. I told him that was fine with me. He pulled out a scale used for weighing marijuana and hid it under the rack. When the police arrived they handcuffed the suspect, and I told them about the scale the suspect had hidden. They pulled it out and added a charge of possessing drug paraphernalia to his shoplifting crime. The suspect looked at me in disbelief and said, “I thought you said I could hide it!” I reminded him I did allow him to hide it, I kept my word, I just never said I wouldn’t tell the police where it was. I was always careful about what I would tell a shoplifter and I would never promise what I couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver.
As our company expanded the use of clothing security on merchandise, eventually we did find a clothing security tag that we used on baseball hats. As we did use them, the theft in that department dropped dramatically. Try them out yourself and see the benefits of using clothing security tags and more specifically, Checkpoint tags to prevent shoplifting. They can also prevent the need to chase a thief!
Need information on Checkpoint Tags? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.