LP War Stories

This is an area that a lot of visitor's have shown interest in.
Aside from the humor that often comes from this profession, there is a lot to be learned
from other's experience. If you have any stories that you would like to share, email
them to me.

When putting together these stories, try to make sure they fit the following criteria:

Will put a smile on people's faces, or make us drop our jaw and say "What the @%#^!"
Has something a little out of the ordinary from most incidents.
Hopefully ended well
What we learned, that we can use going forward

Dan

While working at J.C. Penney during the early summer of 2000 I was casually watching the CCTV since the store had just openedwhen I panned over the Fashion Jewelry Dept and noticed a female, we'll call her Melinda, "shopping" with her toddler daughter,who was in one of those basic, cheap, strollers. Melinda was checking out the jewelry spinners and selecting some cheap-o fashionearrings and hanging onto the ones she liked. Just then her daughter started fussing and Melinda started walking away pushing thestroller. The baby turned around trying to escape from the stroller and Melinda reached down and concealed the earrings underneathher daughter! Right underneath the camera!! I was completely paranoid about this whole situation since the camera was an old B/W oneand the motor was loud when it was being moved. Thankfully, she didn't hear anything. Never looked around, never looked up. She didn'treally show any signs of your typical shoplifter. But now, it's on! Melinda walked around the store for a bit, doing more "shopping" inthe infants department and fashion jewelry. Then she decided that she was finished "shopping" and started heading out of the store viathe mall entrance. Once she stepped outside, she sat down on the benches and was fixing her daughters shoes and rearranging the merchandisethat she had concealed. When I approached her, she was in the process of looking at the merchandise she had just stolen! Still sitting infront of the store! She came back in quietly enough and was given a Notice to Appear since she had her daughter with her and was cryingabout her husband and how she didn't want him to find out. This case, my partner and I recovered about $200 in merchandise.
Now, for round two.
Three months after the first incident, I spot a female in the fashion jewelry department, once again, right after the store opened. Shelooks familiar, I said to my partner, who just happened to be the same person I busted Melinda with. We could not figure out where weknew this person from while we watched her walk into the infant's department. Just then, this female started selecting infant girl'sclothes like she was a looter trying to get out before the cops showed up. Just then, it came to me. Melinda! In the midst of our laughter,Melinda started concealing some hosiery cleaner and jewelry in one of her shopping bags from another department store. When Melinda decidedshe had had enough of "shopping" (at this point, she had about 30 pieces of kids clothes that she was carrying around, still on the hangers),Melinda swung the merchandise over her back and casually walked out the children's doors. I was shocked! I started hauling ass down the stairs,since our office is on the second floor, laughing all the way, mind you. I finally caught up to Melinda and tapped her on the shoulder and said,"Melinda, I need you to come back in the store, again. You know the routine." She dropped her head and said, "I thought if I came back monthslater, you wouldn't be working here anymore. Don't you ever have days off?"
We get her back into the LP Office and she starts crying hysterically, telling me she didn't want her husband to find out, that I'm a woman andI know how men can get when they're angry, etc. I started laughing and told her that I had no idea what she was talking about, and that theonly thing we have in common is that we are both women. Needless to say, she didn't get a Notice to Appear this time.

The Moral: If you got caught once, you'll get caught again, especially if you go to the same store at the same time with the same M.O.

While working at J.C. Penney during 2000 I was scanning the Junior's department looking for shoplifters. There were so many potentials,I couldn't choose, but I did, and I chose wisely. This female, we'll call her Mary, walked out from behind a rack with about 20 itemsslung over her back, and made a bee-line for the fitting room. I couldn't really get a count on what she had, but I wrote down somekey items, colors mostly. My partner stayed on CCTV while I went down to the fitting room. I was a nice customer letting people goin front of me, until Mary came out, and this actual customer assumed I was going to let her go in front. I told her I didn't thinkso. I go into the fitting room and there are tags ALL OVER the place, some of the tags matched the merchandise I had written down.Mary then hung all her items back on a rack, which I promptly inspected and found about 5 empty hangers double-hung. At this point,Mary and her sister exited the store. By the time I got out there, both of them were in their vehicle exiting their parking space.My partner and my manager both told me to follow the vehicle to see where it went. Well, I lucked out, the drove to the other sideof the mall and parked in front of Sears, where I worked before I started with J.C. Penney. By the time I got into Sears they werealready in there, but after doing a quick walk through of the store, I found them in the Junior's department. So I ran back to theCCTV room at Sears opened the door and said, "Hey Tommy, need CCTV now." Without waiting for a response, I commandeered their CCTVequipment. The LP at Sears was dumbfounded, but I didn't care and they didn't protest. I watched as Mary picked up 18 items, all onhangers and enter the fitting room in juniors. Less than two minutes later, Mary exited the fitting room, empty handed with a bulgingbag! The female LP Officer went to check the fitting room and only found empty hangers, no clothes anywhere, in any of the stalls.Mary and her sister exited Sears by way of the parking lot door and my partner and the Sheriff's Office was right there to grab herat her vehicle. Sears LP stayed on the sidewalk, since it's their policy to never step off the sidewalk to apprehend someone. Werecovered about $400 from our store and about $300 from Sears. Mary was taken to jail and her sister claimed she didn't have anythingto do with it, despite the fact that she had merchandise in her purse that would not have fit Mary.
This was just a hilarious story because of the Sears incident, up until the point that I left J.C. Penney, everyone joked about itbecause I just walked into their CCTV room and started using their cameras to catch someone. All the while I was in there, no oneprotested or said anything, they just all had these dumbfounded looks on their faces. They also tried to claim Mary as their own,and that they "saw her first".

06/24/2003

I work in Loss Prevention for a large department store and one day my coworker had a great case. These two young guys came in andwent to the athletic shoe department, where both of them took a pair of sneakers and stuffed them in their oversize pants. Theyleft the store and when my coworker attempted to apprehend them, one of them took the sneakers out of his pants and they bothtook off. Having to pick just one, my coworker began to chase the guy who still had the sneakers down his pants. He ended upcatching him and bringing him back to the security office. Well when the police officer got there we made him look at the surveillancetape to see what his friend looked like in case he by some miracle saw the guy on the street. Well the police officer took the guyaway in handcuffs and we expected to never hear about the other one.

A few hours later the police officer called. He said that when he brought the guy to the station he had no ID on him, so the officer toldhim he better call someone to bring the ID to the station or he would not be released. Well apparently the guy called his uncle, who hadthe ID at his house. Unfortunately for this guy, the uncle did not drive, but he said he would send someone down to the station to dropoff his nephew's driver's license. Well much to the officer's surprise, when the secretary told him a young man was waiting in the lobbywith his friend's license, the officer walked out and saw the very same guy that had eluded capture earlier with his friend. The officer told me he brought the guy back and put him in handcuffs and when the kid asked why, he replied "you're under arrest for being a F******* idiot"

06/24/2003

If you're in the business of loss prevention, I'm sure you find yourselffrom time to time eyeing potential thieves in stores on your days off. It'snot that you're actively seeking out bandits, it just becomes instinctive ina sense. I've been a LP Investigator for over 3 years now, the past year fora large department store in Toronto, Ontario. I consider myself a bit of amovie buff. I enjoy action and love going to the video store to rent itwhich is just around the corner from my house. However, the action alwaysseems to find me at the video store. In February of 2003 I entered myneighborhood video store...in uptown Toronto which is a fairly safe anddecent area to live. I noticed an employee standing next to the door who washaving a discussion with an unshaved burly fellow. Then, a female enters thestore and yells to the male "Hurry up, let's go!!" All of the sudden, Inotice the male grab a stack of DVDs off the shelf and punch the employee inthe lip going out the door. I immediately assist the employee to try andarrest the bandit. Outside the store, I took hold of the male and told him Iwas security and he was under arrest. The DVDs went flying and an all outbrawl ensued. The male and I crashed to the ground and in the process, thethief's shirt got torn off. As I'm on top of the thief, another male out ofnowhere says to me "It's ok bud, let me help you with him". Turns out, thisguy was an accomplice and faked assisting me to subdue the thief. The thiefthen takes off running with no shirt. I turn around and didn't see the staffmember anywhere. As I'm dialing 911 on my cell and trying to keep the thiefin sight, the female that yelled to the thief in the store elbowed me. Ithen advised her she was under arrest...and in the process she bit my hand.Then her and the other male accomplice got into a cab and took off. LuckilyI was able to catch up to the cab at a red light on foot (Gotta love TorontoTraffic). Both the accomplice and the female bolted from the cab. Theaccomplice hailed another cab and went north as the female entered yetanother cab and attempted to flee. Luckily I had my badge on me and I placedit against the windshield of the cab and told the driver not to drive offwith the female. Still no sign of the police, the female then bails on footand the police finally arrive and take her into custody for assault andassault with intent to resist arrest. At least she went to jail and I got afew free rentals for my trouble. Last week (June 2003), I entered the verysame video store on my day off. I see a fellow at the rear of the storeglancing towards the staff at the front service desk. I said to myself "Herewe go again"! I went outside the store and began to watch the thief throughthe plate glass windows as he removed the DVDs from the rental case andconcealed them in his back pockets. I took no chances, keeping last time inmind and called police immediately. The police show up within 2 minutes andluckily the thief was still inside the store. The police entered the storeand approached the thief. All I hear is an "ohhhh man" then the thief startspulling out DVDs from every pocket in his pants. The thief was before thecourts for robbery, and because of his actions in the video store, he gotcharged with theft and breaching the terms of his release for robbery.Again, I get 4 free movie rentals and one hell of a funny nickname at thevideo store.

04/28/2003

I was working at a large home improvement store in a bad area of Toronto.Chases and fights were a weekly occourance! One fine afternoon while workingalone, I observed a kid who seemed to be about 16 years old select andconceal 3 cans of spray paint and an expensive painters mask. I knew I wasin for a chase beacuse the teens ALWAYS ran, but this kid started runningthe moment he concealed the items. He ran from the asile to the exit and hada good start on me by the time I got outside. As I ran after him I yelledthat it would be better to deal with me than to run and get in more trouble,but he kept going. I gave it up and called the police on my cell phone andwent back to the store, not confident of a capture at all. About 20 minuteslater the police show up at the store with the kid in the back of thecruiser. They asked me to identify him and I looked. It was him, but he wasa mess! There was blood all over him and he had no shirt anymore. The policeofficer told me that he had hopped a fence into a backyard and was attackedby a Pit Bull terrier who happened to live there. The woman who owned thedog was home but too frightened by an intruder in her yard to go out andpull the dog off of him, so she called 911 and watched while the dog mauledhim. The police had to convince her to get the dog because THEY were afraidof it too. I couldn't bring the kid back into the store to finish the reportbecause they had to take him to the hospital right away. The police officerlater told me that they informed his parents that he was running away from ashoplift arrest and got attacked by a dog, and his father said "GOOD!". Hewas charged with theft, fleeing lawful custody, and criminal tresspass..butif you ask me, the dog punished him enough. If he had listend to me he couldhave avoided 2 of the charges, 37 stiches and a rabies shot.

04/10/2003

I am a Loss Prevention Agent for a Big Outlet Chain all over the US. I was sitting on CCTV scanning the store when I observed afemale suspect walking around the store with only with no shoes. She was just in her socks. The suspect then went to lingerieand selected 5 pairs of panties. She walked around the rack to Ladies casual footwear and concealed them in her purse. Thesuspect then selected a pair of gray slippers, ripped the tags off and put them on her feet. At this point another femalecame up to the suspect and the suspect handed her some Peds socks. I saw motions of concealment from the female that walkedup. The suspect then walks around the store to see if anyone was watching her. The suspect then passed the last POS andexited the store without offering to pay. I went out and stopped the suspect and identified myself to her. Like most do sheplayed dumb. I grabbed her in an escort position and walked her back to the store doors. When we arrived at the store doorsshe said "There ain't no way I am going back in there." The suspect started resist and try to pull away. I wrapped the suspectup to keep her from getting away.
While I was wrestling with the suspect her two friends came up and one tried to bite my shoulder and the other was hitting me.I told them I was Store Security and if they hit me again I was going to put me and the suspect on the ground. They hit me againand I put myself and the suspect on the ground. while on the ground the other two hit and kicked me. One grabbed my shirt and rippedin up my left side. They were trying to get the suspects purse from me too. When the police arrived they grabbed one of the girlshitting me and put her in a patrol car. They then took my suspect into custody. I then advised the officer that there was a thirdfemale hitting me as well. Needless to say they all 3 were charged with Strong Armed Robbery. I ask the other Agents I work with"Why do all my cases fight me." I don't mind getting down and dirty with a suspect if they want to get fight, but it would be niceto catch someone other than a juvenile who just walks back in.

Jeff St Petersburg,Fl

04/10/2003

I am a loss prevention agent for a retail store, and this story is frommy first week on the job. My co-worker and I were in our office, watchingpeople on the camera. We started to watch a male and overweight female in thechildren's section, and watched as the female concealed 13 shirts in herpurse and the male stuffed a shirt down his pants. After they exited thestore, my coworker and I ran out the front doors after them. By the time wegot outside, the male had his hand on the door of his car, ready to get in.We told them that we were store security, and to get back in the store. Themale laughed at us and proceeded to get into his car, sitting in the driver'sseat and attempting to start the vehicle. My coworker jumped into the carwith him and laid on top of him to hold him down. The female suspect wasoutside of the car and I grabbed her purse from her. The male suspect in thecar told the female "Get the shot gun out of the trunk." My coworker thenslammed the male suspects face against the window and yelled at me, "Get herKatie, use force if necessary!" The female suspect took two steps back andstarted running towards the busy intersection in the middle of rush hour. Ichased after her yelling "Store security" and got to the edge of the parkinglot and she kept running into traffic, barely missing being hit at 45 mph. Ithen discontinued pursuing her and ran back to assist my coworker who wasstill holding down the male in the car. The male was cussing and notcooperating so my coworker was using the suspect's car key to stab into hisfinger. The suspect was threatening to sue my coworker and saying "Oww myfinger hurts." My coworker said: "I don't give a f*ck. You should havethought about that before you f*cking stole!" The suspect began to laugh andmy coworker said: "What are you on man, crack? Are you smoking that dope?"The police then arrived and dragged the male suspect out of the car, smackinghis head on the concrete in the process. The police ran the female suspect'srecord from the id in her purse and it turned out she had 10 warrants for herarrest.
Moral of the story: Never underestimate how fast a fat girl can run whenshe's in trouble!

04/10/2003

I'm a former loss prevention agent with lots of good stories from the field. When I worked in the business, I was good!I was so good, I could spot a thief before he/she even got out of their vehicle. I had so many apprehension that afterawhile my store nicknamed me "Secret Squirrel." I made the hard catches(professional thieves), and the easy catches(kids, crackheads). However, there was this one very strange thief that got away.
For months, our stores had been receiving memo about a lady who had been hitting many of our stores for two of the samemodel of Sony VCR's. According to the memo, the lady was seen on video tape exiting the store "waddling like a duck".Our L.P. staff in my store began to call her the "Duck Lady", and we all were on the hunt for her. All except for onelazy ass L.P.
It would be just my bad luck that she would arrive in our store on a day when I was working with the lazy L.P. I was onto her when she came in, but had no idea she was the Duck Lady. While watching her on C.C.T.V, she had slipped into oneof the stores blind spots. In our store, an L.P. has to maintain front door coverage in order to sign receipts at thedoor. Only another L.P. could walk the floor to see what this lady was doing in the blind spot. I called on my other L.P.He refused to help me. He claimed to be taking care of something in the warehouse. I felt very sure that this lady wasup to something, but without all of my "Five Step" to apprehending, I could not do a damn thing to her. That day she hitour store for two Sony VCR's. She waddled like a duck because she stole the VCR's by PUTTING BOTH OF THEM UP HER DREES,and walking out the door. I was blown away by this too say the least.
Phil A-K-A "Secret Squirrel"

01/30/2003

I am an Ex LPO and at the time this incident occured I was working as head of security for a large shopping center with 4anchor stores, all having their own internal LP departments we worked closely with both identifying trends in the storesand issuing trespassing notices for the center to shoplifters. One day I received a call from one of our anchors from theLP stating that she had a woman in the store who had lost her purse. I arrived to take a report in case it was found in themall. What I found was a sweet older woman who was nearly in tears about her purse and stated she had no way of getting homeas she had no bus fare or even her keys. We helped her get in touch with a neighbor to let her in her apartment and I, feeling sorry,gave her bus fare to get home. About 2 hours later I receive a call from the same LP stating she found the purse. I thanked her andtold her I would remove it from my Lost and Found log, she told me that I needed to attend as "I had to see this" I came to thesurveillance office and was shown the purse, containing the womans ID, Wallet, Money and Keys as well as about $100 in stolen merch,including tester cosmetics. We laughed about it and the LP placed the purse aside and phoned the woman to pick up her purse. Shereturned to the store the next day and was picked up on CCTV by the same LP as the day before. The LP watched the woman lift over$400 in merch before she left. The LP aperhended this woman, I was called to issue the Trespassing notice and recognized the womanright away. She was in tears crying about her sick cat that she needed to buy medication for. We spoke with the woman asking ifshe had ever been arrested she said she had and stated she had been caught at the downtown location of the same chain. We calledand gave the LPM the womans information, before even checking the file the LPM responded "How's her cat?" The woman had beengrabed at that store over 10 times. When the police arrived we returned the womans purse (minus the stolen merch) which shewas grateful to us for. This did not turn out to be the last time I saw this woman, she managed to get arrested in the other3 anchors in the Mall and by myself and other officers in the mall for Theft under at smaller storess and for Trespassing inthe next year. Each time she told the same story of her sick cat.

It's nice when the theives identify themselves to you although I did feel taken by her for giving her bus fare, when the purse wasreturned to her she paid me back. At least she was a nice woman.

01/30/2003

I've been in the LP business for over five years now, with a Midwestern USA retailer. A couple of years back,I observed what I thought were three juveniles, one male and two female, in the electronics department. Oneof the females had two bags, with merchandise already in them, tied shut. The male had three compact discs(CDs) in each hand. It was unusual to see anyone buy more then two CDs (at that time they were around $12-13 each).I and one of my partners watched as they left electronics and went to home fashions. One of the female "juveniles",who was later identified as the mother of the other two (she was barely 5 feet tall) began taking the CDs, cuttingthe anti-theft cases and handing the CDs back to kids, who concealed them. The entire group then went to the deliand got a big box of chicken and exited the building. When I stopped them, I had two partners. We approached andstopped, leaving a enough space for a reaction to anything they might do. Mom began a legendary stream of profanitythat would put sailors and construction workers to shame, followed by a "Matrix" like leap and a punch to one of mypartner's jaw. As we restrained "mom", her kids were removing the stolen merchandise and discarding it in a trashcan, all while calling us every possible obscene name in the book. She had them trained very well, even though oneturned out to be 10, the other 12. Three grown men had to hold this woman down until the police arrived. We laterfound out that "mom" had prior arrests for prostitution, assisting a criminal, theft, assault (surprise), andconversion (a lesser included theft offense). The kids were taken and given to child protective services.Months later, I went to court on this case. I checked in with the prosecutor and a nearby lawyer heard memention his client's name. He approached me and introduced himself as her attorney. I expected the normalroutine, but he instead notified me that this case would be no problem, as his client ("mom") was in jailawaiting a pending murder charge!!!!!
If there is any moral to this story it is NEVER underestimate ANYBODY and be ready for anything. I hope her kids find a better life.

01/14/2003

Roughly two years ago, I began my current position as Regional LP Manger for specialty retailer. I was visiting one of myremote markets for the first time and as I entered the store I noticed a customized truck in the parking lot. One of thenicer ones I had ever seen by the way. While talking with the Assistant Manager I asked who drove the truck. He told methe one of the cashier's. Being a car enthusiast myself as I met with the other employees I spoke with the cashier abouthis project. He told me about the custom exhaust, chromed engine parts and trick paint job. Then he told me what he paidfor all these items. Now, being the highly trained investigater that I am, I put two and two together and came up with awhole lotta of cash theft. The cashier only made about $6.00 per hour and went to school. So I asked him, "How much moneyhave you stole from us?" He said, "About $7,000.00."

Morale of the story. ALWAYS VISIT YOUR REMOTE MARKETS

01/03/2003

I was working as a LP on the west coast. I was the only LP on duty, while a uniform guard stood at the store entrance.I watched a guy select a bunch of steaks and jam them down the front of his pants. I watched as he made his way towardthe front of the store and hung out near the exit. While I was hiding behind a large snack display, I signaled to theuniform guard that I had one. He acknowledged with a small nod. The suspect hung around near the exit trying to geta good look around before leaving. Finally the big moment came and out the door he went. I followed quickly behindwith the uniform in tow. We got out about 15 feet from the doors when I began the apprehension. I identified myselfand asked about the steaks in his pants. He denied it of course. Finally he took the steaks out and dropped them tothe ground. I was holding his left arm, and bent to pick up the steaks. While I was doing so the suspect pushed meto the ground, and belted the uniform guard in the face. He then took off. Normally chasing him would be out of thequestion, but after his assault on the guard, I gave chase. There was a white caravan taking notice of all this whileparked near the store. As soon as I started running, with the uniform right beside me, the van took off. As we crossedto the other side of the parking lot, the van came screeching up and got in between us and the bad guy. I thought thatthis was a friend of his. I ran around the van and followed this guy across a highway where he nearly got smoked by apassing motorist. This motorist stopped and informed us as to the location he was heading in on the other side of thehighway. We crossed and entered a field. We could see the guy still in full tilt on the other side of the field.He was just going through a tear in a fence. We followed through. This led us into a parking lot. From the otherside of a building came that white caravan. This is the point where I started getting nervous, still thinking thatmaybe there was a van fully of this guy's friends. With the suspect sprinting across this parking lot, the caravansped right toward him, locking it's brakes into a loud screech...SMACK! The driver of the caravan nailed the suspect!I couldn't believe my eyes. I stopped running right where I stood. The suspect got up and started running again....SMACK!The van hits him again sending him flying. Again the suspect gets up and started for the hills. The van corralled him,blocking him in one area. Now it looked as though the suspect has given up and decided to see what fate was up to. Thisis when I got to my senses and started running toward the suspect. When he saw me coming he bolted again. This time thevan was close enough that when he hit the suspect, the suspect didn't go flying. The suspect opted to hang onto thewindshield wipers. Bad move, the driver floored his van to god knows how fast, then locked the brakes...this time thesuspect went flying. While he was rolling around on the ground, the driver then did a u-turn and backed right over topof the suspect. The suspect grabbed hold of the rear bumper and went for a ride. The driver dragged him around for abit before stopping. I was now not only trying to arrest this suspect for theft...but to save his life as well. Thesuspect stood up and held his hands up in defeat. The driver waited until I reached the suspect and waved a quick goodbye. I still have no idea who the driver was, or why he risked getting into trouble himself just so we could arrest ashoplifter, but I'm glad to report, the suspect earned very minor injuries. We later found out that he had severalwarrants. hence his assault on the uniformed guard. I'll tell you though, I don't think that I'll ever chase again...the suspect might get killed...or worse...a slight injury!!!

01/03/2003

Here is the kind of case in which you learn that cutting someone a breakjust isn't enough for them. I was working LP at a large home improvementstore in Toronto. One evening I observe a nicely dressed couple select avery expensive faucet and a very cheap faucet. I had seen enough boxswitching in this store to last me a lifetime, so I began to watch thiscouple. Sure enough, the man removes the expensive faucet from the box andplaces it inside the cheap box while his wife keeps a lookout. This was allcaught on camera, and he was good enough to face the camera as he did it, sothere was undeniable proof. They went to the cash and the woman used hercredit card to pay. I arrested them both for fraud right there at the cashand brought them back to the office. Natrually, they protested theirinnocence and feigned outrage, but they were clearly terrified. They claimedto be doctors, as if that would make a difference. I didn't tell them aboutthe great videotape I had of them. The police arrive and view the tape...thepolice laughed at how obvious these two were and they were impressed by thequality of the tape. One of the officers ran their names through the systemand both of them came up clean...it turns out they WERE doctors and inOntario if Doctors are charged and convicted with a criminal offence, theywould lose their right to practice medicine. They really risked theircareers in comitting fraud. Both the police and myself decided not to presscharges in light of this, and because they had no previous convictions. Thiswas not enough for them...they feigned outrage even more, mistaking beinggiven a break with being falsely arrested. The cops told them how lucky theywere not to get charged, and yet they still acted extremely indignantly.They were released that night, but soon began making harrasing calls to thestore and to my bosses at head office. They began to insist that I be firedand they threatened to sue. Finally my boss had had enough and told me to goto the justice of the peace and press charges. I did. The police told me thewoman fainted when they showed up at her door with the notice of action. Ipresented the tape to their defense lawyer and HE tried to tell them toplead guilty, but they would have none of it. The judge was fed up,considering that I had PROOF, and he sentenced the man to 3 months in jailand the woman to 30 days in jail and 60 days probation. They will never bedoctors again. The moral of the story? WHEN YOU ARE GIVEN A BREAK, TAKE ITAND SHUT UP!

OLDER STORIES

08/07/2002

I was working as an LP agent for a fast-growing Midwest, now Nationwideretailer when I noticed two females come out of a ladies fitting room withhuge, bulging purse bags. They were moving very quickly toward an exit, notallowing me an opportunity to check the fitting room stalls they hadoccupied.After they exited they walked quickly, with their bags, on the sidewalk bythe West side of the building. I was the only person anywhere nearthem,approx 25 feet behind them, and they had nervously glanced back at menumerous times. I felt at best I was only going to be able to make themaware I realized they had taken something, though would ultimately beunable to assume the risk of a stop.Once they arrived to the door of their car, one of them turned to me andasked "why are you following us?"I pretended to be jittery myself and I stated "I'm not following you, I'mnervous". She replied "why are you nervous?" I cleverly stated "because Ijust stole a cd from the store and I thought I was being followed." Sheasked to see the cd and I refused, stating I was too scared. She theninvited me into their car. All three of us were sitting in the front benchseat of the car with me in the middle, and both females began removinglarge quantities of clothing, bragging about what they had taken. I thentook out my badge and informed them I was Store Security. They both thenran from the car, though soon realized I was occupying their means ofgetaway transportation! They then came back to the car and I arrested bothwithout incident. Nearly 15 years worth of thief -catching has given me anabundance of stories to remember....

07/22/2002

Hey everyone, I've been working a Loss Prevention Officer for about 3 yearsnow and this story is the highlight of my career.
I work in a large retailer in BC Canada, I was just doing my normal thingwhen i got a page over the intercom from the store manager to come to heroffice, which wasn't all that odd. Once I got to her office she sat me downand told me that she received an anonymous phone call regarding the nightjanitors, at this point my interest peaked because we were trying to watchthese people for some time, but having no cctv camera's made it very hard.
The store manager told me that the caller informed her that the nightjanitors were thieves and they shouldn't be trusted and to check insidetheir vacuums, and we would find merchandise, and not to ask them forcriminal record checks or they would just leave and never come back. I justsat there in shock , I radioed my partner at the time and give him thesituation. At this point we decided to come to the store at about 7 o'clockin the morning and see what we could dig up. So we sat in our office forabit trying to think how to approach this without making a big old mess, wedecided to tell them that we were going to do a "Random Spot Check" with theconsent of the store manager, she approved of course.
The next day at 7 in the morning I show up and my partner shows up just abit later then myself, so we stand near the door out of sight and wait, atapprox. 7:45am the store manager comes out and says that they are about tocome out. The night janitors finally leave at about 8am so I approached andidentify myself and explain to both janitors that we are doing a "RandomSpot Check" and that we have to look inside their vacuums. The male janitortried to say he doesn't speak English (Ya right) and that we can do ourcheck tomorrow (YA RIGHT) finally he says ok you can look, my heart justdropped thinking in my head "YES SUCCESS". So I bent down and was about toopen the smaller of the vacuums when i noticed that the cord on the end wascut and there was no plug(?) which really made me think. So I opened it upand I saw a Store bag inside the vacuum i looked up at my partner and he gotthis sly grin of his face, so i pulled the bag out and opened it up, to myshock there was 2 pairs of pants in the bag tags still on. At this point mypartner opened the bigger of the 2 vacuums and he found 2 bottles ofcleaning supplies so informed the janitors that they were under arrest fortheft. I escorted them back into the holding cell did the whole reading ofthe rights and all that then I searched the guy. I asked him to takeeverything out of his pockets, which he did. I was shocked to see that hehad almost $50 worth of small merchandise in HIS POCKETS! Then the wife ofthe man took everything out her pockets and she had another $50 dollarsworth of small merchandise in her pockets. Jeez this case was just gettingbetter and better by the minute, all together we recovered about $200 worthof merchandise. Which Ya I admit isn't exactly a huge bust but....
When the police were called I was informed that these 2 had been caught in 7or their last 8 previous employers. Maybe they SHOULD GET A NEW JOB!

Moral of this story:
1. DON'T TRUST ANYONE! You never know who could be stealing from right fromunder your nose.
2. If you get an anonymous phone call definitely look into it, you neverknow what you could find.

06/19/2002

This tale took years to come to a conclusion, but each chapter got better and better as the years went by. This all started when we got an internal memo outlining a scam that two brothers had been running in some stores along the Gulf Coast. The two were known for fraudulent refunds, and were using each others ID to confuse retailers, or cast just enough doubt to get away with the cash
.Months go by and the memo is all but a memory when we call from the sales floor. We pick up the subjects on CCTV, and nothing stands out. We did not see any theft take place, so we go ahead and advise the sales associate to give the refund, but be sure to see the subjects ID. Later, I get a copy of the refund transaction, and while walking back to the monitor room, the name rings a bell. I went back over old E-mail and found the alert on the two brothers. Well, sure enough it was one of the two. I felt burned, but chalked it up as a lesson.
The two brothers came in to the store just before closing, and I recognized one of them as the subject from earlier. We got solid CCTV footage of the one brother picking up the goods, and approaching the counter and asking for a refund. As soon as the money changed hands, he went down for the crime.
Fast forward two years, the team came in again, and this time the one who was busted, picked up the merchandise and passed it off to his brother, and just like before, the end result was an apprehension. So now, bother "A" and brother "B" have both been popped. I thought that was great...but it gets better.
Jump forward about six months, we got another alert, this time it states that the son of brother "B" is acting in partnership with his dad and uncle. Not even a week goes by and sure enough, the brother "B" and son show up. We were on top of this and the son goes down for a fraudulent refund. The twist here was that dad took off and left the son hanging, he took the rap alone. Now, bear in mind the brother "B" is in his late forties, and the son in his early twenties, so he is not a minor. As if all of this is not enough, yes, it gets better.
Another four years go by, and brothers "A" & "B" are just about nothing more than a fond memory. Then one day while working with a new partner who had not even heard of the brothers, low and behold brother "A" and "B" are in the store, but we are too late. They had already done their dirty business, and by now the company had instituted a gift card only policy on refunds without receipt. We watched the pair go to gift wrap and have their "purchased merchandise" gift wrapped for Christmas! They were giving stolen gifts to family and friends.
Just after New Years, brother "A" came in with a female companion, and he selected an item off the shelf, handed it to her, and she went to the counter for a refund/gift card. She knew he did not have the goods in hand when they came in, she saw him pick the item off the shelf, and then she went to try the refund. I had no problem with taking her down for the fraud. She was shocked when we apprehended her. She was even more surprised when I could name her companion, and recite his date of birth, who his brother was, and what line of work they were in. During the interview, she said brother "A" was her boyfriend, and that she was pregnant with his child. After law enforcement left, the scope of the big picture set in.
Over the course of the past six years or so I have put brother "A" in jail, brother "B" in jail, the son of brother "B", the girlfriend of brother "A", and the unborn child of brother "A"! I don't know if I can stay in the business long enough to actually get the kid for an offense he was responsible for, but I'll be around a while, who knows?

06/19/2002

I was working for a large Fresno retail grocery combo store back in '96 and I noticed a man running through the parking lotpushing a shopping cart full of camping supplies and unloading the merchandise into a Jeep Cherokee. By the time I got outthere, the subject was already gone and I couldn't get a visual of the plate number. Needless to say I made sure all theother agents saw the tape so we could catch this dirtbag if he came back again. The next morning at eight I observed thesame Jeep Cherokee in the same parking stall. I scanned the front doors with the cctv and observed an individual who hadthe same physical characteristics as the subject from the day before. I called to my supervisor, "Hey the Jeep guy is back".My sup said, "Do you want him or should I", before he could say anything else I ran outside and grabbed two assoc! ia! tes forback up. I waited outside behind a pillar while my sup gave me direction of travel over the radio. "He is loading up the cartwith camping supplies", said my sup. In less than five minutes the cart was full and the subject was headed toward the exitfailing to purchase any of it. My sup gave me a countdown of when the subject would be outside, "He'll be out in five, four,three, two". At this point my adrenaline was going and I came out from behind the pillar; but, the subject still hadn't exitedthe store. I acted as though I was waiting for the door to open and the subject exited. Just then my radio blaired, "One,HE'S OUT THE DOOR!" The subject began to fight. He was 5' 9" and 180 lbs and I was 5' 8" 260. He struggled and it eventualytook five of us to get the guy cuffed. Why did he fight so hard? He was an ex deputy sheriff who had been arrested for pullingpeople over and stealing their mon! ey! . He was caught for his offense and later escaped from custody. That's when he decidedto come to my store and steal camping supplies. I guess he would have gotten away with it too if he didn't come back two daysin a row. What I learned from this is that thieves often commit the same crime in the exact same way as long as they are succesful.I later tesitfied against this man about a year later and his defense was insanity. He stated, "All I remember is walking out of thestore and getting beat up."

05/22/2002

I was working as LP by myself(my partner was off that day) When I got a call from an assistant manager that a suspected portable cdplayer theif had just exited the electronics department with two cd players in his buggy. The assistant manager and myself (both fairly petitefemales) spotted the subject in softlines just as he was removing the cd players from their packaging and concealing them in his hardhat (yes he was wearing ahard hat). We then followed the 6 foot 280lb. subject to the vestibule where I approached him and Identified myself. The subject attempted to run and I tackledhim from behind and pinned him on his stomach in a choke hold. I wasn't paying attention to what was going on, just concentrating on keeping ahold of thesubject, when I heard someone yell "he's got a knife" I glanced up, and noticed that he was swinging a box cutter around in the air. That's when I realized thatmy wrist had been sliced. I tried to jump up, but I had a leg pinned under the guy from the way we fell. As I tried to crawl away on my hands and knees, I sawhim jump up and lunge at me, trying to stab me in the back. Lucky for me, a CSM who was watching, kicked the guy in the butt (broke the subjects tailbone), andthe subject pulled back real quick (only about 4 inches from stabbing my back), and ran out the door. Three days later he was apprehended in a neighborhooda mile away and I was informed that he had recently served jail time for stabbing someone to death and the sheriff's office had been investigating him for arecent stabbing murder.

Here's what I learned:

Nothing in the store is worth my life
Never leave your handcuffs at home (I never would have been injured if I had just had my handcuffs with me)
Never underestimate a shoplifter's desperation.
Live life to it's fullest, you never know when it's going to get cut short.

05/06/2002

I was working a smaller hometown location (pop.10,000), which at the timedidn't have a f/t lp officer. Naturally, shrink was high and when LP didroll in for a blitz, the cases were plenty and the game was on! The thievesin this town were fairly close knit, and once one person spotted you,everyone knew, but they would still go for it anyway.
Shortly after starting the shift, observed two females about 17yrs old inthe infants dept. One selected a case of baby formula while the otherremoved a bag from the pocket of her coat and held it open. In goes theformula and the two head for the door, separately about 50 feet apart. #1goes out (without merch.) while #2 trails behind. With no other option, andworking alone I only arrested the one with the merch. and the other gotaway. Charged the one, but also advised attending police of the secondaccomplice.
Later on that day, I attended a diversion program for first time offenders.I was a rep. for my company and it was my first time taking part. Involvedin this are the offenders and their family, the victims, a police rep. andjustice officials. All agree upon an alternative sentencing arrangement toavoid a criminal record. This particular meeting involved two offenders.One was late by about 20 minutes. When the offender finally arrived, guesswho walks in - the girl that got away from me about two hours earlier! Thelook on her face was priceless.
I asked to speak to the police rep. outside the room, informed him of thesituation which he confirmed with a quick phone call. We went back in andshe was promptly advised of the impending theft charge. Her charge thatbrought her to the diversion program was promptly diverted back to thecourts to be dealt with normally along with the new one.
Score one (make that two) for the good guys!

05/05/2002

While working an evening shift one day, I came upon two young females in theprocess of loading up a cart with pretty much everything you can think of -clothes, housewares, electronics, cosmetics etc. Absolutely no indicationsof anything bad happening - no nervous glances, no other bags, well dressed.Just appeared to be normally shopping. The only thing odd was the youngage and the amount of merch. Watched them for about 45 mins as they shoppedand eventually lost interest. About an hour later, I picked them up againin electronics and then to my amazement they started removing the EAS tagsfrom CD's. Now I thought they were simply going to steal CD's, using theother merch. in the cart as cover. Wrong, they proceeded to the front endregisters and proceeded to unload the cart. Seeing as how it was the end ofmy shift, I simply called the cashier and told her to carefully scrutinizethe method of payment and told her why. Next day, another employeeapproached me and told me that shortly after I left, she found a cart"dumped" in a quiet area of the store. Low and behold it was the cart andall merch. from the previous night. Puzzled, I viewed the tapes from theprevious evenings and discovered that the two females only each made a smallpurchase after putting everything back in the cart and presumably dumping itwhere it was found shortly after. Now I was really confused. Why?
Fast forward a couple more weeks, working another evening shift and I passby a male & female, thinking the female looked familiar but couldn't placethe face. Five minutes later after racking my brain, I realize who thefemale was. The one from a couple weeks before. I proceed to follow themfor the next hour and a half and watch as they select a pile of merchandise. This time I saw the female very carefully peeling bar codes off low pricemerch. placing it on the high priced stuff. She filled a shoulder bag withcosmetics jewellry and pharmacy, and switched the price. Eventually theywent to the checkouts and you guessed it, straight to the cashier that Iwarned two weeks earlier to be leary of the two females. This time Iwatched and as the cashier rang about one tenth of merch through the till(all price switched) and bag the rest, meanwhile laughing and talking withthe two suspects.
After the transaction was complete and the male/female left the store withtheir ill gotten gains, they were arrested and brought back in to the storeright in front of the cashier they just went through. You could see thecolor drain from her face - she was nailed and she new it. The two paidabout $21.00 for more than $600 of merch. After having the police attendand take the first two away, the LP Supervisor attended and we pulled theemployee for the interview. She had about two hours to wonder if she wascaught for sure, until we pulled her in. She promptly admitted to thesweethearting and several other incidents - including the one two weeksearlier where I inadvertently burned it.
Moral of the story - don't blindly trust your employees even if they havegiven you good info. in the past. You never know which ones are bad. Moreoften than not, your internal cases are the ones you'd least expect. (Anddon't be so eager to leave the store at the end of your shift, I learned mylesson!)

05/04/2002

Our LP Div. caught wind of a "group" that was hitting one of our storesheavily on almost a daily basis. There MO was the same every time whichrequired us to bring in an extra pan tilt cam. to give us the bestadvantage. Urgency of the situation required us to install the cam quicklywhile the store was open. A huge ladder was up on the sales floor and thecam was up within 5 minutes. We quickly headed to the office to make sureeverything was working, which it was. While "panning" around and testingit, we spotted one of our possible suspects already with a half full cartabout 20 feet from the ladder which was still, up near the cam.
After approx. one and a half hours of surveillance on what turned out to be5 suspects, two were arrested after selecting, bagging and leaving with$1500 of clothing. All captured on tape. Further review of the taperevealed that the suspects were in the area while we were installing thecam, how they didn't clue in to what was going on I'll never understand.Talk about great timing. The following few weeks led to the arrest of acouple more of the suspects and about 35 other unrelated cases. Effectivelyshutting down that group.

02/02/2002

I was working as a Loss prevention manager for a large retailer, after a natural disaster. We had to sit in a store becausethere was no alarm system, no water for the sprinkler system and no way to secure the front that had been blown out by flyingdebris. After several nights of working twelve hour shifts, our district manager had finally gotten approval to hire a contractsecurity company to sit in this store. After about a week of recovering from the long nights, I got a call from my boss tellingme that we needed to pick back up the surveillance in the store. Naturally I asked what surveillance, we were being over paidsecurity guards. he explained to me that all the registers in the store had been coming up short, we immediately assumed thatwe had an internal case. Never would we believe what we would find. After two weeks of conducting surveillance in the store onthe employees and auditing the cash office four times a day, we made a decision to come in at night and lock ourselves in theCamera room and conduct surveillance on the security staff we had hired. Sure enough the first night we nailed the contract securityguard getting into the registers and stealing the money, of course she denied any wrong doing, as she still sits in jail awaiting trial for her several felony drug charges. After all that time invested the one thing that we learned was that you need to always make sure that the keys to the store and especially the registers are always secured. She had found a set of keys in a desk and tried each one of them until she had found the right key that opened the registers.

01/29/2002

While working at a major Canadian hardware chain I had the honour of meetingthe dumbest criminal of my career. While standing beside the CS desk, a mancame into the store with a reciept. He then asked where the item waslocated. I watched him go over, take the item, and march right back to CS.He plopped the item down infront of the same employee he had askeddirections from, and said he'd like to return it. I could barely contain mylaughter as the transation took place. When he had his money I asked him tocome to the LP office. He couldn't understand how he was caught, so needlessto say, I said very little, but laughed alot.

01/20/2002

While working for a major retail chain in NJ I bared witness to the most major theft in the district's history. I was doing routine camera surveillanceon the 21st of December 2001. I was scanning the electronics aisle and saw what appeared to be two males and a female putting DVD's into a Green plastictub. After switching to another camera to get a better view I indeed saw the two males stuffing large amounts of DVD's (about 6 or 8 at a time) into thetub. After watching the cameras for several minutes I decided it was time to call in the LP Manager. We consulted and decided to let the idiots filltheir tub to the brim. After the tub was filled the whole crew headed toward the infants section of the store. Once they were in the infants sectionthey proceeded to remove a car seat from its' box and put the green tub inside then re-taped the box. It took two of the men to put the box now filledwith DVD's into the cart. A potty training box was also filled with some CD's and batteries. After placing both boxes in the cart a fourth individualcame down the aisle and grabbed the cart and headed towards the front of the store. The man with the cart went to the self-checkouts while his "friends"left the store. After the man scanned the items and proceeded out of the store I and my manager stopped him and asked him if he had any kids. He repliedyes. We asked him if he ever bought a car seat before and he said yes. So my manager asked that the gentleman come back to the LP office so we could discusswhy he stole the merchandise. While walking to the office he said he didn't steal anything and I ripped off the top of the box and revealed what his friendsput in the box and he almost cried right there. When one of the local cops arrived I opened the plastic tub to reveal the merchandise and the officer couldn'tbelieve his eyes. The total amount of items was over $4000.
Moral of the story: If you buy a car-seat check the box first make sure it weighs less than 50 lbs. Happy Hunting!!
P.S. Apparently these guys are a new gang, they have hit Burlington, Delran and other parts of south Jersey. Let's round these guys up!!

01/02/2002

While working for a major retailer as a Senior Detective in 1997 I had the opportunity to be involved in an internal case involving LP detectives.One day, while doing routine surveillance via CCTV, a fellow detective began complaining about her brother using her cell phone. She told me howmany minutes he had used and I figured it to be about 7 hours a day. She also said that her bill was almost $1000 if memory serves me.
Well, needless to say, we started having cash shortages at various registers in the store. One night at closing we set up surveillance of thedetective. As many of you know, this can be very tricky, as we had no one on the inside to watch her actions. We waited until she was workingwith detectives that she might feel comfortable closing with while carrying out the deed. Before closing I met with the LPM, store Investigators,another Senior detective, and a LPM from another store in our chain. We sent the LPM, from the other store, in to try and keep surveillance of heras she locked doors. Of course he had to dodge sales associates, managers, and 3 closing detectives as the lights went down. The rest of us wereset up in the parking garage or in stockrooms that allowed for a partial view of the sales floor. After the surveillance the LPM inside the storerecounted the details of his experience. As he crouched down behind a rack he heard a whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, noise. For! t! hose of us on thesurveillance that worked in the store we immediately identified that as the nylon clothing that the suspected detective normally wore. He heardthe noise stop about 15 feet from him but could not see what was going on for fear of being spotted. He did bet his paycheck that if the registerhe was near were short it would be our suspect. Sure enough the register was short the next day.
On a subsequent surveillance we set up the same way. I was outside with the LPM observing the employee entrance and the suspects' car. Via radiowe heard that the suspect along with another detective were exiting the store via the mall doors. The investigator also informed us that theymight be carrying something under their jackets. The suspects made their way to the car and got inside for a brief time then reentered the associateentrance. It was about time to close so we maintained observation until we knew the detectives were locking the doors. We made our way to the carand noticed a bag with a purse in it on the floorboard of the car. (DON'T ASK)
Since the decision had been made to interview the detective based on the previous surveillance the detective was pulled and an interview was begun.
I along with another detective began the task of auditing our over 100 registers in the store. After opening probably 20 registers we approached one andnoticed on of the security radios sitting on the wrapdesk. We looked at each other and smiled. Opening the register we were overjoyed to notice therewere no bills in the tray. We returned to the LP office where the interview was taking place and reported our findings to the investigators conductingthe interviews. Each detective coughed up a couple hundred dollars from their pockets. We secured confessions and the detectives spent a couple nightsin jail including Thanksgiving.
Moral of the story: Thanks-for-giving us the tip about the cell phone bill.
In all seriousness, these are difficult cases to work. Especially when you catch bad guys with these people on a daily basis.

01/02/2002

This has to be the most stupid shoplifter I have ever encountered. A couple of weeks ago a woman came into the grocery store where I work LP and triedto return some half used cheese whiz cans without a receipt. The CSM lady told her that they couldn't return the items for her and told her to go onher way. I got involved because she was a little disruptive and obnoxious towards the CSM. I blew the incident off as petty and dismissed it. Well,a few weeks later I got a call from another store across town to watch out for a woman trying to return shrimp because she stole ten packages fromtheir store! and was trying to fraudulently return them to area grocery stores. Sure enough she came in and I walked over to her and asked her tocome talk to me. When she turned her head I recognized her not only from the week before, but also from other incidents in other grocery stores. Acouple of years ago I caught her shoplifting in two of our other grocery stores in the next town over. So I knew I had her at least on trespassing.When she came over I asked her if she ever shopped in our other stores and she said yes. I then asked her what her name and she flew off the wall.She told me that she knew her rights and she wasn't going to tell me her name. I said OK that's fine with me but your not supposed to be in thisgrocery store because you were banned from all our grocery stores when I caught you shoplifting in two of our others. A look of surprise crossedher face and she ran out the door. A few minutes later she walked in with a policeman and said I violated her rights. I again asked for her name.She refused to even tell the cop. She was the lady that was banned from our stores and the cop she brought arrestedher for trespassing and a violation of probation. I laughed at this one for days.

01/02/2002

It was the summer of 2000, I was working for a National Retailer in Dayton, Ohio. I had just come back to work after spending a week of vacation for thebirth of my daughter. It was Sunday and things were pretty slow. I was in the camera room scanning electronics. I noticed this huge guy pushing a cart.He was about 6'5" and 250lb. Since it was summer and I was still in vacation mode I wore sandals to work. BIG MISTAKE. I watched as the guy selected adisplay DVD player and sit it in the cart. My heart was jumping through my chest. I quickly moved to the floor for live observation. I watched the guygo through housewares. Peeking around an endcap I saw the guy put the DVD player in his pants. I #@%^ my pants. He leaned up against the cart and headedfor the door. I then realized that I did not have a radio. I kept in pursuit of the guy, we headed through the checklanes and I motioned to the cash supervisorto follow me. The guy went through the doors and said to the cash supervisor that he had to go get a return. He exited and I followed behind. I identifiedmyself and ask him to come back inside. He refused. I then pulled out my cuffs. He freaked. I looked for my backup and he was nowhere to be found. The mansaid "you ain't cuffing me" and reached in his pants and threw the DVD player at me. Since the DVD player was in his pants, his pants came down. I havenever seen a dirtier pair of underwear in my life. I caught the DVD player and he took off. The DVD player was covered in sweat. That was sick. When Ireviewed the tape, It showed the cash supervisor walk away from me as I badged the guy. I yelled at him for being a sissy. The parking lot tape lookedlike bigfoot running across the parking lot.
Moral of the story, never wear sandals because you can't pursue and always have a radio.

01/02/2002

About 10 years ago, I was working in a store in Revere, MA. I had arrested a woman twice in a matter of 8 months, she was a known fortune teller in the area,as well as a known shoplifter. In any case, three time is a charm. I apprehended her for a third time, for shoplifting. As usual she was dressed inher fortune telling outfit. I said to her, "Hmmm Linda, let's see how good I am, I am gonna give you a free fortune reading."
I put my hands to my temples and said "hmmmmm!! You are going to spend the night in jail�"
Three minutes later the revere police arrived, As I placed her in handcuffs I said, "What do you know, I was right, not bad for my first time, huh Linda ?"

OLDER 'WAR STORIES'

10/24/2001

I work as an LPM for a large department store in the Chicago area. WhenI came back from a weekend off I found a backpack with over $300.00 inmerchandise stuffed inside it in the LP office. I asked one of myofficers what was going on and he told me that he had been doing astockroom check and discovered the backpack in the misses stockroom. Hewatched the backpack for a good 3 hours to see what was going on withit. When a misses associate entered the stockroom and picked up thebackpack and walked out of the store he stopped her and asked for areceipt. She said that she had purchased the merchandise the day beforeand did not have her receipt, it was at home. My officer kept themerchandise and told her to bring the receipt the next time she workedand he would give her the merchandise. I checked it out and was not ableto find any proof that this associate had purchased the merchandise. Ifigured oh well, she won't be back to work, she can't be that stupid,and moved on to other things. But when the time came for her scheduledshift guess who shows up? I pulled her into the office immediately andshe admitted to stealing the merchandise that time and two other times!The moral: Never underestimate how dumb a thief can be.

10/02/2001

I work as the district investigator for a large drug storechain. One morning while I was still in bed, one of themanagers calls me from the store where our office is. Shereported that a refunder, who has been in the store many times,had come in with 4 water filters at $39.99 a-piece with out areceipt. She had refused the return, and walked out after himand wrote down his license plate. He saw this, and later begancalling the store asking what was going on. I told her to havehim call me. Sure enough, he calls. First he gives some longstory about how he got the merchandise, and wants to know if weare calling the police. I asked him why we would call, and hesaid "I do not know, but I am on probation". So, I startedusing my interviewing skils, and after about 45 minutes got himto admit that he stole all 4 from the same store that morning!I tried to get him to meet me at the store, but he wanted aguarantee that there would be no police. I went through somehills, and lost him on my cell. He called back and left amessage, saying he was going to the store to drop them off andthen leave. I beat him there, and as soon as he walked in themanager pointed him out, and I approached him and hooked him up. He was carrying all 4 water filters. Ended up that he was onprobation for a petty theft with priors felony. Now he has 2convictions! Not often a shoplifter calls security, let alonecome to the store willingly and return the merchandise. Makesmy job easier!

10/02/2001

A few years back I was the supervisor of Asset Protection for a department store. One day while scanning the cameras wespotted a suspicious looking individual about to exit the door with some merchandise that did not appear to be paid for.Since we did not see the individual pick up the merchandise inside the store there was nothing we could do. We continuedto observe the individual as he left the store and loitered outside of the store entrance. After about 10 minutes we noticedthat he was stopping customers and asking them to return the merchandise for him. Two customers actually agreed, the firstchanged their mind soon after, and the second was denied at every register he tried. Still the stubborn thief refused togive up and kept asking people to return the item for him. After about twenty minutes of this, one of my AP agents, whowas not working, dropped in to say hi. After telling him of the situation, he decided to see if the persistent thief wouldgive him the merchandise. The AP agent circled around the store and approached the entrance; sure enough the foolish banditcalled him over and asked him to return the merchandise. Being one to always help others, the AP agent readily agreed. Hetook the merchandise, walked in one entrance on one side of the building, dropped the merchandise off at our office, andleft out the other door. We continued to observe the suspect as he waited for over 45 MINUTES for our AP agent to come back.Finally giving up, he entered the store and circled the sales floor looking for the person he had given the merchandise to.Not finding him, the suspect made an unwise move and decided to try again. He proceeded to the men's department, picked upa piece of merchandise, and proceeded to the register, asking for a return. He receives his money, and the next thing he knowshe is sitting in our office wondering what went wrong. Moral of the story, quit while you're ahead.

09/22/2001

I was working for a Midwest retailer a few years ago when this happened.. I still laugh thinking about it.
I received a call from an associate who stated that a coat in which she had just purchased, was stolen out of hercar along with the receipt.
She stated that She notified our credit department since the coat was charged to her store credit card. And thatshe was informed her account would be credited. Yes I agree! Why would my company give her a credit? Especiallysince the theft happened outside. The first thing I did was look at her account on the computer and sure enoughtheir was a credit for that coat.. A little intrigued I looked into it further and the credit had actually takenplace at that particular store..Huh! (our Corporate office is over 500 miles away)
I researched the register and talked with the sales associate who completed the credit. What she told me was...A young female approached her and stated that she wanted to return the coat. And when the associate asked for thereceipt, the girl gave her a receipt.. After the transaction was completed the girl asked "Where's my money"..The associate replied I put it back on your credit card.. The girl left.

08/31/2001

I work as a district loss prevention coordinator for a grocery chain, and I had a shoplifter last year that has to be one for the "worlds dumbest shoplifters". I was watching this guy pick up a sheet cake from the bakery, there was something about him that kept me watching him.I watched him walked pass all the cash registers, making no attempt to pay for the $30 cake. As I approached him to make the apprehension he decided he was going to drop the cake and run. I pick up the cake and to my amusement his picture is the cake, along with his phone numberand address attached to the actual cake. It didn't take long for the police to catch him.

08/28/2001

It's the beginning of July and I am at another location for a NationalRetailer I work for as a Loss Prevention Manager and I notice one of the mostnotorious Shoplifters in the area. What made this Shoplifter so notoriouswas not his beauty or wit but his history.
As I knew "MB" was a former Police Officer with a SWAT background. What madehim even better was he had worked for us as a LPM (suspected of dishonesty)and our competitor as well, after his Law Enforcement career ended.
As soon as "MB" passed me I was able to tell he knew exactly who I was. Idecided to let the LPM and LPA of that location know. I went to the frontand guess who wants to talk with me? "MB"! So we start talking and Iintroduce myself, he introduces himself, and I reply with I know, followedwith didn't you work for such and such Agency and then company. To hisamazement he replies yes, so after a few brief minutes he states he needs tofind his wife and I say "I have to find the other guys!" So as I'm walkingaway thinking I was rather witty "MB" states "So who is the LPM at (and namesmy store) followed with Why wasn't he there earlier? So I walk away taken atthe very least with the feeling I don't want to go in tomorrow.
Next day I get to my store and the Electronic Manager informs me that we aremissing about 30-40 DVD's. Needless to say I'm less then amused as I knowwhat has occurred. Next Day I look over at a Camera and notice MB with hiswife walking through the store. After three store associates either knock onmy door or call me to tell me "that guy you should us the pics of is in thestore" I realize that he is just planning for later. So around 9:00 PM myfriend a DLPM for another company is meeting me at my store to go out and getsome drinks when just as I'm turning the monitors off I notice "MB" in theElectronics Dept. My friend calls me to see if I'm ready to leave and I askhim if there's a Gray Van in the parking lot with License Plate 111-aaa, towhich he replies "yes." So now I know for sure what is going to happen.
Soon as soon I have concealment I call PD (which happens to be in the samecity he used to work, knowing that Agency has a hard-on to get him) PDresponds and to make another long story short- blows it. Basically innutshell tells me their not Loss Prevention they're Crime Prevention!
Well, "MB" got a walk I got about $700.00 in DVDs back, and gut feeling hewouldn't be back at my store. About a month later a LP associate with about6 months of experience catches him stealing about $30.00 in food from anotherlocation (same company). The funny thing is the LPA knocked him out duringthe fight for food.
Moral of the story. I don't have one.... LOL

08/01/2001

In August of 1996 I was on duty at a music store in Vancouver Canada working from 0930hrs to 1700hrs.At around 1645hrs, a male entered the store and concealed four compact discs. I arrested and handcuffed themale after he left the store, and brought him into the back room for processing. I sat him down and calledthe Mall Security to attend and ban the male from the property. The Security Officer arrived and insisted thatI move the handcuffs to the front of the accused so that he could sign the ban notice. I complied and after thebanning, the Security Officer left the store leaving me alone with the accused. A few moment later while I waswriting my report to crown counsel I heard a "click", then the accused stood up quickly and ran at me. I grabbedthe accused and to my horror heard the words "I have a hammer". Before I could react the accused began hitting meon the head with the hammer. After a fight that seemed to last forever I blacked out on the ground bleeding profuselyfrom the head. The Mall Security were summoned by store employees and chased the accused into a back lane near themall, where the accused assaulted the security officers using the edge of the handcuffs as a knife. The SecurityOfficers were joined by two Police Officers who, with the aid of a moving freight truck and a couple of ASP batonstook the male into custody. In the mean time I was transported to the hospital and sewn up from what I found outwere Six holes in my head and one bite wound on my scrotum (ouch). As if this was not enough already, a few dayslater I called 911 to get some details on the call and was given the shock of my life. I told the operator my nameand the operator started yelling at me asking if i was so kind of sicko. It was at this point that I was told thatI was pronounced dead at the scene! I assured the operator that I was alive and not a ghost coming back to haunt him,and after a very lengthy conversation hung up the phone and cried. Your probably asking yourself where did he get the hammer?and where is this guy now? The answers, a staff member left the hammer in the back room and the accused is in jail for therest of his life after being convicted as a dangerous offender. The lessons you should learn from this story are:

1. Never under estimate a suspect, a lot of these people are very desperate. /
2. Always check that your holding area is safe /
3. Once the handcuffs go on, they stay on. Behind the accused and double locked. /
4. Live each day to the fullest, I almost died over 4 compact discs.

GOOD LUCK & BE SAFE!!!

08/01/2001

I am a Detective for a major retailer in the south. I had just moved out ofmy Town House and was staying at a local motel before my new place wasready. I had been out by the pool and doing laundry. I did not have enoughchange so I was heading to the office when I walk past this young kid nearone of the housekeeping carts acting nervous. At first I ignored it as toomany years in LP, but when I turned around the kid had grabbed all thetowels off the cart and boogied. Okay the towels are free so what was thedeal. I told the women at the office, and she informed me that they wereshort on towels as they were being stolen like crazy. so I gave her adescription and went back to the pool. A short time later I see the same kidup stairs near another cart. He looks around then ducks near the cart thenoff again. This time I got his direction and went up to the cart. By thispoint, my Detective's curiosity had gotten to me. I spoke with the housekeeper and sure enough all her towels were gone. So now the motel staff islooking for the kid and I go back to the pool. Guess who is in the pool.Turns out the kids family had about seven hundred dollars in towels in theirroom. The motel had them arrested for theft. Some day's you just never get aday off. And no, I did not get my bill knocked down

08/01/2001

I had been attempting to catch a female that had been refunding right much merchandise,she was always on the way out of the store when I picked up on her. Well this past March,I saw her enter the area ...... ( That made me so happy ). I watched her for over an hour,never letting up. She had taken 2 pair of jeans and 2 shirts into fitting room, (the last trip).After a period of 10 minutes she came out of the fitting room with only one of each. I went tocheck the fitting room while my supervisor watched her. Of course it was empty. I followed herout the door where she met up with 2 other females. I identified myself and asked her to comewith me. She complied with every request. When I got her to the office, I told her I wantedmy merchandise back. She begins undressing to take the merchandise off from under her clothes.Finally she is dressed and begins putting her boots back on when she says , "Am I going to jail ?".Before I could answer, my supervisor says "Oh yeah !" With that she begins running upstairs....notknowing where she was she ran head on into our assistant manager. She then turns coming back atme....she then throws her cell phone at me (she missed ) then runs at me and starts hitting mewith a set of keys....barely missing my eye. Being that I have been doing this so long I didn'ttake it personal and did not knock her out. I did slam her into the lockers where I removed herfrom her feet and ever so gently put her on the floor. After a moment, she began yelling forher friends that were with her and yes they were attempting to help her when finally our assistantmanager shut the door and locked it. Mall security arrived and a Police Officer was not far behind.When the case went to court the Judge asked if I received any injuries.......I simply replied " No,Sir ......Your honor .......She hits like my 5 year old." She received 90 days for the shopliftingand 6 months for the assault.

08/01/2001

I was working for a retailer in Brockton, MA as an LPM several years agowhen this occurred, but it has always stuck with me. I had just returnedfrom vacation to find four large bags full of toys in front of my office.When I asked the store manager about the items, he told me that a boy about9 or 10 years old tried to steal the items. The total amount of the itemswas over $300. Obviously this concerned me.
Several days had passed when I was cruising the floor through toys andsporting goods when I noticed a boy about 9 or 10 years old looking at anitem that he dropped in a shopping cart that was full of toys. At first, Iassumed the cart was simply returns but after my conversation with the SM, Ifigured I'd give it a minute to see what was up. After watching this kidpick up several more toys and add them to the now overflowing shopping cart,I knew I was in for a long day. Normally for a kid this age I would deterhim and put "the scare" into him, But knowing that the SM had confronted himonly a week earlier and he was already back, it wouldn't work. After sometime, he finish making his selections, and was going to attempt an exit viathe garden shop. One problem... there was an associate helping a customernear the door, and the kid knew that he couldn't very well walk past themwith a loaded cart. So he waited... and waited... and waited. Finally thecoast was clear so he went for it. After he exited, I stopped him andescorted him to the LP office. After almost forty minutes of trying to gethis name, number or something, I call the police.
When the officer arrived, she was not pleased with me. But after spendingtwenty minutes herself trying for some info, she realized my predicamentthat was now hers as well. So she took the boy into custody. I informedher that the total amount of the SL case was $425.00 + but I was not goingto prosecute based on his age. Several hours later, the officer returnedand informed me that after an hour at the station he began to talk. Shetold me that his mother was very sweet and completely shocked. His fatherwas on the road most of the time so there were many days that the boy wasleft to check in with a neighbor.
I guess the moral of the story from an LP stand point is to listen andrespond to what other tell us about what goes on when we're away. Once anda while they get it right. As a new parent, get involved in your kidslives, no matter what the cost.

07/09/2001

I was working as a lead Detective at a major Clothing chain in Downtown San Francisco in early summer 1999.I had just returned from lunch when I noticed an Adult male returning 15-20 belts valued at $12.99-19.99 themale seemed nervous and hasty, (picked up on that behavior quick) I decide to work him from the floor andtry to get an ear shot of what was going on. His story went like this: His mother had purchased all thesebelts as a gift for a family reunion and did not end up going so he needed to get his money back. Seeingthat he was getting rather fidgety I was afraid he would leave my store with all that (suspected) stolenproduct, So I stepped up to the return counter and introduced myself as LP for the store.(For those of us who have had WZ training this will put a grin on your face!!) The momentI finished with my brief introduction he SUBMITTED I rolled straight into a soft accusation and got a passivedenial rolled into a rationalization (actually a couple) and BAM submission on peer pressure, now I asked himwhen was the first time he did a fraudulent return with us it was last year was it? it wasn't was it? "No sir"he responded "it was last month". "good good" I said, "My investigation clearly shows this (HEHE)""So how much do you return at a time?" I asked, "not $1,000.00 is it?".
"No, no sir " he said. "Only about 300-400 dollars never more. My Mom said you guys wont sweat me if I keep it under $500.00"So I asked "Where is your mother now ?"
"She's at lunch" He said.
Hmm.... Guess where this is going? So now I had MOM involved and guess what? Mom was my return desk supervisor!!!
I explained to that he was being placed under arrest for fraudulent returns and he smiled and said "thank you".As I was processing him in the office I had him right a full statement and in that statement he implicated his Mother.
Well, we waited about 15 minutes and the SFPD arrived and read my report and asked where the Mother was. Just then the LP doorsflew open and low and behold Mom was there with the look of SUPER SURPRISE in her eyes. The police took both of them intocustody and we recovered all admitted monies from them as well as restitution.
Now I ask you is getting wicklander certified worth it to you?

07/09/2001

While employed by a grocery chain up North, I locked up a guy for $300.00 inrazor blades. He told me that he was on his way home from court on ashoplifting charge and asked if I could just let him go home. I said no.
2 weeks later, I'm working one of our low risk stores in a "posh"neighborhood when all of a sudden, I round the HABA corner and there is thesame crook. This time I knew he would probably put up a nice little fightwith me. I called th PD on my cellphone and 2 units were dispatched.Meanwhile, I waited patiently and much to my surprise, he lines a shoppingcart with a 30 gallon yard trash bag. PD arrived and came to the CCTV room.All three of us then went down to the floor, one cop went to the other endof the aisle while the 2nd cop and I stayed at the other end. The crook tookhis hand and started scooping the contents of the shelf into his bag. He wasin the aisle for a good 10 minutes. As soon as he tied up the bag, PD andmyself approached him. He came without a fight and the recovery was 486boxes of Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, etc., with a value of $1,900.00.

06/22/2001

A little while after being hired on to a drug store chain as the district investigator, I was working shoplift in one of ourbusier stores on the outskirts of Oakland, Ca. A white female adult entered the store and walked the floor, looking forsecurity. After circling the store, she selected a scooter valued at $80.00 and passed the checkstands. While standing bythe exit door, she suddenly bolted out of the store. I followed her outside. As soon as I got out of the door, I noticed thefemale had just gotten into a small white pick-up truck, that was filled with pallets in the bed that was parked right infront of the store. I ran up to the drivers window to identify myself, when the female turned on the truck and turned rightinto me. It was either get run over, or jump in the back of the truck with the pallets. I jumped on in and the female gunnedit, hitting about 50mph in the parking lot alone. The truck blew through a red light, lost about three pallets in the middleof the intersection, and started flying through down town, blowing more red lights and lossing more pallets. I was holdingon for my life with one hand, and trying to dial 911 from my cell with the other. A police officer saw the speeding truck,and pulled us over. The only problem was that the cop thought that I was with the lady and that we had just stolen the palletsfrom my store. When the female finally pulled over, both of us were ordered out of the truck at gun point. While lying on theground spread eagled, I had my badge out and was explaining to the officer what happened. He looked into the truck saw thescooter, and told me to get up and place the female under arrest. About 4 more cops showed up, and all had a good laughat me. It turned out the female was on heroin and methadone, and she turned over on her dealers to P.D. One of the cops thatshowed up after the chase was asking the officers what happened.

They told him, all of them laughed, then the cop turned to me and said "A scooter is not worth your life......But you theman!" Yes, I am.

06/22/2001

In Augest of 1996 I was on duty at a music store in Vancouver Canada working from 0930hrs to 1700hrs.At around 1645 hrs, a male entered the store and concealed four compact discs. I arrested and handcuffedthe male after he left the store, and brought him into the back room for processing. I sat him down andcalled the Mall Security to attend and ban the male from the property. The Security Officer arrived andinsisted that I move the handcuffs to the front of the accused so that he could sign the bann notice.I complied and after the banning, the Security Officer left the store leaving me alone with the accused.A few moment later while I was writing my report to crown counsel I heard a "click", then the accused stoodup quickly and ran at me. I grabbed the accused and to my horror heard the words "I have a hammer". BeforeI could react the accused began hitting me on the head with the hammer. After a fight that seemed to lastforever I blacked out on the ground bleeding profusly from the head. The Mall Security were summoned bystore employees and chased the accused into a back lane near the mall, where the accused assaulted thesecurity officers using the edge of the handcuffs as a knife. The Security Officers were joined by twoPolice Officers who, with the aid of a moving frieght truck and a couple of ASP batons took the male intocustody. In the mean time I was transported to the hospital and sewn up from what I found out were Six holesin my head and one bite wound on my scrotum (ouch). As if this was not enough already, a few days later Icalled 911 to get some details on the call and was given the shock of my life. I told the operator my nameand the operator started yelling at me asking if i was so kind of sicko. It was at this point that I wastold that I was pronounced dead at the scene! I assured the operator that I was alive and not a ghost comingback to haunt him, and after a very lengthy conversation hung up the phone and cried. Your probably askingyourself where did he get the hammer? and where is this guy now? The answeres, a staff member left the hammerin the back room and the accused is in jail for the rest of his life after being convicted as a dangerous offender.The lessons you should learn from this story are:

1. Never under estimate a suspect, a lot of these people are very desperate. /

2. Always check that your holding area is safe /

3. Once the handcuffs go on, they stay on. Behind the accused and double locked. /

4. Live each day to the fullest, I almost died over 4 compact discs.

GOOD LUCK & BE SAFE!!!

05/15/2001

In the early 1990s I was working for (Company Name) in Cincinnati Ohio. It was getting close for me to be heading home forthe day. I had to use the mens room after drinking diet cokes all day. While at the urinal two men walked in, one stoodat the urinal next to me the other washed his hands. About that time an assistant manager walked in to get some papertowels. While doing so he got a call over the radio and he left the restroom. The man standing next to me asked his friendif that was Loss Prevention. His friend said he thought so. Needless to say I had a great indicator. I followed the twoand watched them load up over $500.00 in Nintendo cartridges in a cart and push them out of the store. So make sure youlisten to any conversation even those in bathroom.

04/18/2001

I was working with a new specialist, training him on how to detect shoplifters, conduct the surveilliance and make theapprehension. I left the CCTV room to stratch my legs when he called me on the radio, I went back to the CCTV room andreviewed the first portion of the tape while making sure he maintained surveilliance. Everything went well, we bustedthe SL for over $250.00.

Seven months later I got a call from the District Attorney and asked to show up for court, I showed up at 8AM for courtand went over the case with the DA. I had to sit in the DA's office until 11:30 when a guy walked in and started talkingto the DA about the shoplifting case. The Defense Attorney stated to the DA that he set this case for court because heknew that I would not show up for court due to the fact that my company had gone out of business. The DA than introducedme to the Attorney as the witness in his case, he immmediatley began asking for a plea bargain. The DA refused, citingthe fact that they did not find me and have sit their for 3 1/2 hours for nothing, they finally plead out and I got readyto home. As I got ready to go the defense asked me how to spell my last name, after i told him, he asked me if I plannedon showing up for any toher case, I told him that I would show up everytime I was called, he than went and pled out fourother theft cases that he ahd from my store, all due to the fact that just because we had gone out of business, he thoughtI would not follow up on my cases.

04/18/2001

This is a story I thought would never happen twice with me. It beganwhen I was a store detective for a retailer in NEW YORK. I was in theoffice watching a young man (cctv) who just walked in grabbing severalitems from it's displays. He then walked over to a register where ayoung lady was, who you would never suspect of any wrong (lessonlearned don't trust anybody) This young man was kind enough to allow sixpeople to go before him. Finally she closed her line leaving him to bethe last sale. I continue to watch and she remove every eas tag from allitems including a few that was stashed under her register and baggedthem up without ringing anything. My investigator who is very good wason the phone with me and said let it go I said really he said trust me.I watched a big case walk out the door. So I stayed put and watched thisassociate the remainder of the day and she did it again this time withher own mother. The investigator on the phone again said let it go. Noargument from me I sat back and continued surveillance. The store nowclosed the manager a few feet away, this young lady pulls money from herregister drops to the floor placing it in her left front pocket. So Ifigure the investigator would say let it go, my adrenaline was not evenflowing hard any more. Needless to say he did. The story ended the nextday he allowed her to ring for three hours and as she was going on herbreak she came in for the interview. When it was all over she admittedto theft over the past three months that amounted to $5700.00 inmerchandise and cash. The money she took the night before was customersleaving without a receipt and she voided it out without approval.

At the Police Station she gave up the young man who was also a stat,bringing merchandise back that was a total of $874.00. The mother nevershowed up and left her child in jail for a week until the company agreedto a negative 32b which basically let this woman get away withshoplifting. She received probation, it made the news paper and herschool got a hold of the info and she lost her spot on the basketballteam. She just destroyed her life. There are a lot of us who wake up toget that shoplifter, however that internal kills us the most. I movedfrom NEW YORK to PA. before becoming LP manager at JC PENNEY I workedsome where else and the same thing happened except it was mommy passingout merchandise to daughter and boyfriend, the regional manager and Imade the stop on all three that same day.

04/10/2001

This was from one of my better LP Agents. She had arrested a large FemaleAdult for shoplifting a pager. They sat in court, awaiting to becalled as witnesses. For some reason, the Defense Attorney saw no need toexclude the witnesses.

The woman sat down on the stand to give her "side of the story".

"Well, your honor, I was in the store, minding my own business. When Istarted to leave, these bullies attacked me and accused me of stealing my ownpager!"

"Which pager was that?", the Prosecuting Attorney asked.

"The one there on the table in front of the Court Clerk".

"Well", asked the Prosecuting Attorney, "how did you know it was your pager?"

"It was black, and had that pink tag on it, just like the one sitting there!".

"A pink tag?", asked the PA.

"Yes".

"You mean this pink tag, affixed on the side of this pager, stating 'People'sExhibit #1?"

This response wrought havoc throughout the courtroom. It even took the judge15 minutes to calm down!

04/10/2001

In July of 2000 I was utilizing CCTV in my electronics department. I noticed a female select and concealseveral CDs in her purse. Next, she selected thirteen cordless phones for more than $100.00 each. She thenripped off the EAS tags and covered the phones with clothes and book bags she selected earlier. Next, sheselected and handed a laser pointer, with EAS tag, to a male. The male passed through the EAS gate andit went off. The clerk attending the electronics department asked the male to pay for the item and thefemale coasted right through the EAS gate undetected. The male handed the laser pointer to the clerk. Themale and female met at the handbag department and they concealed all the items into the stores bags that thefemale pulled out from her purse.

After concealing they exited the store and I stopped them in thevestibule. An altercation ensued and they fled. I used my cell phone and called 911. I informed 911 of thelicense plate, make and model of the car. An APB went out and the municipal Police arrived with in 30seconds. Approximately 1 minute upon the Police arrival a radio call was made saying subjects incustody. They were stopped at the GWB by another municipality going over 1 hundred MPH. The male thenidentified himself as an NYPD Officer. The vehicle was searched and approximately $1,600.00 of stolenmerchandise was found from different retailers. Both subjects were arrested and prosecuted for assault andbattery, robbery, eluding Police, and various motor vehicle charges. Yes, I recovered my merchandise $1,589.53.Only some minor scratches on my forearms from the females nails. The male was an NYPD Officer. He was fired, andthe case is still waiting for trial.

04/10/2001

I had just taken over as an lp agent at a small store where their previouslp guy did just about nothing. He had only two arrests in six months, butthe tags in the fitting rooms and empty hangers were piling up. His lastarrest was a 54 year old man that had taken a $5 coin purse, and whomappeared and acted as if he were mentally disabled. Feeling sympathetic forthe subject, he let the man go on his own recognizance. Two weeks later, Ihad taken over the position and one of the first calls I received was tocome talk to a couple who came in asking to speak to security. Upon myarrival to the department the two identified themselves as case workers forthe 54 year old man my predecessor had apprehended. They then opened abackpack they were carrying and dumped its contents on the counter. A pileof 19 wallets with values ranging from $5 to $30 emerged. The man hadgotten ill and asked one of the case workers to get some things for himduring his hospital stay. They found the wallets in his dresser, and headmitted to stealing them from my store. He was apparently a well knownthief in the area and had been banned from almost every store in the city.The two then went on to tell me that he suffers only from a facialdeformity, and that his behavior was just an act he used to get out oftrouble. A $215 recovery for me, and a serious hit to the previous lpo'sego.

03/10/2001

I was a new Detective with my first company. I had been in the training program and had been cleared to make stops. I was transferred to one of ourdiscount stores. I was by myself in the LP office when one of our associates came banging on the door. She had this women trying to pass a check with whatwas the worst fake ID I had ever seen. I called the Bank and discovered that the account had been closed for so long that it was no longer on record. Icalled my Manager at home and asked her what to do. She advised me to let the transaction go through then stop the subject and make an apprehension. WhileI was on the phone the subject had seen the associate come to my office (which was unmarked), and began banging on the door. I opened the door and shewanted to know what the problem was with her check. Thrown off guard for a second I looked her in the eye and said nothing be right with you. I told theassociate to complete the transaction and went to wait for the subject a few feet away. I was expecting the subject to go for the doors but instead shecame up to me and asked again what the problem had been. As this was my first ever stop and by myself no less I showed her my badge and told her she had tocome back to the office. She came with me and complained the whole time. I advised her of why I had detained her. She told me she had just put moneyinto the account. I called the local PD after completing my report. The dispatcher told me that the amount of the check was to small to prosecute andthat all the cops were on stand by for a protest rally. I called my Regional check investigator. I had already placed the women under citizens arrest andif the cops did not pick her up could be sued for false arrest. After some calls from my manager and Regional the cops finally came for her. I had foundseveral ID's in her purse and three check books. When the cops showed up they were pretty ticked off. I told them of the ID's and checks but they did notseem to care. They faxed a warrant to the bank. So fare my first bust had been more of a headache than a thrill until the cop got off the phone withthe bank. $20,000 In bad checks. And ten warrants for arrest. One for each fake ID. She got ten years. I got my first bust.

03/10/2001

One day last year while working at _________ in Greensboro, NC, I observed a male enter our sporting goods department and starting selecting severalhats. By our CCTV camera system I had a limited view of the subject but could tell he was acting very strage and after he had selected about 21 hatsand ducked down with them behind a rack of clothes the subject came up without any of them. I sent one of my officers down to check for the hatsbut before he got there the subject began to run and exited out of our doors the furthest point away from our office. Just seconds after he exited outour doors we were there looking for him only to find that he had vanished.
Furious of what just had happened I double checked the area that the male wasin to find a suit case full of items valued at almost $600.00. I must have reviewed that tape 100 times because about 3 weeks later in the same mallthat I work in I saw a subject enter Victoria Secret with a Large Bag. I thought man he looks like the guy that got away, sure enough moments after Ientered that store he exited with his bag full of goods to sell. I promised this time he would not get away, so I approached this individual in referenceto the concealment of my goods from 3 weeks ago and the chase was on. He began running though the mall, and exited out into a wide open parking lot.Almost half mile later me and another LP apprehended him. He laughed the whole time about not getting caught from _______ just the other week when helearned that Victoria Seceret didn't want to prosecute. I looked at him and said "Sir I chased you becasue of all the hats you stuff 3 weeks ago, andguess what, you are going to Jail". He was suddenly not laughing. I guess the moral of this story is they always return to the scene of their crime,some just arent that lucky to get away twice.

02/26/2001

Here's story that would make you say "huh?!!??"

On 2/25/01 I observed a male and female enter the store with a shopping cart lined with a Macy's bag. So I took that as an alert signal and began surviellance on the subject. The male subject went into the ladies department with the cart while the female selects (2) boxes of perfume from the perfume dispaly. She then walks over to the male and hands him the (2) boxes andhe then conceals them inside the Macy's bag. Both subjects exited all points of sale and the couple was stopped outside the store by myself. As I I.D myself the male runs away from me with the merchandise still in hand into a Marple Township Police officer. The Officer gets out of his vehicle and handcuffs the male. During a routine pat down the police officer recovers $1000.00 in U.S. currency 30 bags of herion, and 20 bags of crack cocaine. Not that the female walks over to where the apprehension has occured to "FIND OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON" . Of course well all know that she acted in concert, and after I expalined to the officer what had happened inside the store the officer then took her into custody. Here's where itgets better. The police goes to the vehicle they were driving and opens up the trunk and finds over $1500.00 in stolen merchandise from another store down the street. Now the male had $1000.00 in cash, was it worth going to jail for a $36.98 retail theft? I wish that this was all on video...

02/13/2001

One day a few years ago while working in a large department store as a plain clothes loss prevention detective, I had an unusual bust. As I was sitting in the snack bar, located in the front of the store, I watched asthe snack bar counter girl walked over to my head cashier and changed out a $1 bill for one dollar in pennies. I though that this was a little odd so I figured I would keep an eye on her, it was a very slow night anyways.Well, to make a long story short, I watched her from an overhead managers office as she sold "Icee" drinks to customers for the .99 cents, which was the daily special. Nearly every customer would come up and pay with a $1bill, the counter girl would then give the customer back a penny. The counter girl had stacked the pennies off to the side of the register and was sliding the customer's $1 bills under the register. When no one was around, she would then pocket the bill in the front pocket of her jeans. I watched this go on for about 2 hours with multiple customers. I then informed my store general manager of the situation and advised him that I would make an arrest on her at the end of the night. Well, I figured I would also do one other thing, that was to put a cap on the bust, somethingthat she could not lie her way out of, like most try to do. I called my dad at home and told him to come and buy an "Icee" drink, large of course for .99 cents. I told him though that before he comes in, to stop at thegrocery store next door and photocopy the dollar bill he would be using so that I could use it as evidence. What I didn't know was that my dad played a little trick of his own on the counter girl. After the store closed andI made the apprehension, myself and the general manager were interviewing the counter girl about her activities. I asked the suspect to then take everything out her pockets, and that I wanted to see all of the money that she had in her possession. Well, she pulls out about $60 in one dollar bills, all of which are crumpled up as if she had stuffed them into her pocket. As my general manager and I were going through all of the one dollar bills looking for the one that I had a photocopy of, I came across something that was absolutely hilarious. I found the $1 bill with thematching serial number as to the photocopy that I already had. The funny thing was that after my dad made the photocopy, he wrote on one side of the dollar bill "YOUR BUSTED", and then on the other side he wrote "CRIME DOES NOT PAY". When I asked the girl where all the money came from, she said it was hers. I then laid out the dollar bill that my dad had paid with and she just started to cry, giving the usual sob story of how she should belet go and not have to go to jail. Well, by that time the police were there and she was never seen in our store again. Let this be a warning to all salespeople, CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

01/23/2001

This is one that made the Boss's jaw drop...

I was working as an LP Officer at a softlines store of a major retailer forabout 4 years when this happened. A female associate that I had becomefriends with over the course of our employment had recently been added to hermother's charge card as an authorized buyer, went on a shopping spree for herboyfriend that she could not have possibly afford and I had made the commentto her that she should be careful because credit cards are a quick way to getinto debt if not kept in check. She paid no attention to my warning and wenton shopping. Shortly after she received her first credit card statement shehad casually mentioned to me that there was no way she could afford it.Having been around a couple of years I paid a little more attention to herringing activities and sure enough caught her conducting fraudulent chargecredits to pay off the debt - she even had the nerve to ask me to authorizeone of the transactions! Having conducted research to the point of confidencethat we had all of her frauds, I informed my Loss Prevention Manager and hedecided she would be interviewed. At the time, I had never conducted adishonest associate interview, they were left to the "experienced" LPM's.Just before pulling the associate off the floor for the interview, my LPMdecided that it was time for me to "get my feet wet" and conduct theinterview. I WAS SHOCKED, I wasn't ready for it at all, and had not told myLPM everything. By this time there was no going back. Once in the interviewroom the only thing that I could think of to say was: "So, is the reason youhave been sleeping with me is so I wouldn't turn you in if I caught youstealing?" I could have swore I was going to have to call 911 on my LPM hewas aghast of my statement and was about to terminate the interview when theassociate looked up from the table and said: "I only did it 3 times and itwas only $900". After we got the statement and the color returned to my LPM'sface I got the lecture about separating my work life from personal life, etc.

Now, I would like to say that this is a one in a zillion opening interviewline, but desperate times call for desperate measures and needless to say,she didn't call me again!

01/16/2001

I had been in LP for about a year when this one happened.

One night while "Surfing the Linolium" I came across a subject that seemed a little out of place.You see, I live in a desert region and during the summer not too many people wear leather trench coats.Anyway, this person went into the Tooth Brush aisle and selected a very nice Water Pic, about $60.00 andplaced it into his coat.

As he exited the store, so did I. After telling him who I was he asked me, "What is extradition?" Of coursein our business we call this a clue. When I inquired why he wanted to know he stated that he heard they weregoing to extradite some witnesses for a local court case and did not know what it meant.

While walking him to the LP office I explained the difference between extradition and subpoena.

I asked him for his I.D. and he handed me a Kansas Drivers License that was expired (please note "clue" reference from above).In the town I was working, most all LP people were registered with local police and could get warrent information from dispatch.When talking to the dispatcher she asked if the subject was handed cuffed and like all good citizens he was. She informed methat an officer would be there shortly and to stay away from the subject.(?)

Within a minute or so, three of the most pissed off police officers I had ever seen forced their way into the office, guns drawn,and for some reason yelling, "Get on the floor !!!" to this poor soul who only wanted better dental health. Turns out he waswanted in Kansas for the killing of his wife, two children and a neighbor (wonder what that was all about?)

After he was EXTRADITED back to Kansas he received several life sentances for his actions.

01/10/2001

I was training an Air Force Police officer as an LP agent 3-4 years ago and while walking the salesfloor came across a Caucasian male subject in the Footwear dept. The subject had just finished stuffing something into his heavy down jacket as we walked by. The subject exited the dept. and walked tothe front of the store. He obviously had items concealed inside his jacket, under each arm. Going by the book, we circled in front of him and tried to "burn" him out. He got the message but still walked into the vestibule of the store. He picked up the receiver of a pay phone, located in the vestibule, and pretended to talk into it. As he did this he kept an eye on my partner and I. I walked into the vestibule and stood a little off to the side of the door that led outside. My partner went outside. One of the subject's hand wasshaking as he turned his back to me and continued to talk into the phone. Looking outside at my partner I noted that he had lit a smoke and was standing by casually. As I stood there for at least two minutes I tried to come up with a creative way to ensure the apparent theft was aborted.
Suddenly the subject dropped the phone receiver, lowered his shouldered and rushed me. He knocked me back and was out the door. My partner, like a deer caught in a pair of headlights, stood outside and watched as the subject ran past him. My partner started giving chase as did I and the subject reached into his jacket as he ran. Obviously a desperate individual, I readied myself to dive to the side if he pulled a weapon. Instead, he pulled out 1 snow boot and threw it back at us. As he continued to run he threw anotherone. He was trying to hit us with the boots! I had my partner retrieve the boots. I was going to break off the chase when I saw a bystander at the end of the parking lot angle toward the subject. The subject lowered his shoulder and tried to blast through the bystander. The two of them went down with the subject on top of the bystander. I tried to take control of the subject while he was down on the ground but had a little problem. He kept on trying to get his hand inside his jacket. I struggled with him a little more and finally got my point across; that his hand was not to go into his jacket. We regained our feet and were turning to go back to the store when another bystander came up to us. He started to yell at me that I was too rough on the subject and that he would help the guy with any lawsuit he wanted to file against us. He also insisted that he was going to walk with us back into the store to make sure we did not do anything else to the subject. I was polite, though it was difficult, and told the bystander he could do whatever he wanted. He followedus into the store and then demanded to come into the LP office with us. I drew the line at that and informed him he could wait outside the office. I continued to tell him that he could file his complaint with the responding officer. When the officer arrived the complainer was gone. When I informed the officer what occurred he told me that in the same situation he would have probably shot the subject as he tried reaching into his jacket.
The subject had no History of crime and was only trying to ditch a pot pipe. My trainee left the company soon afterward. He thought facing potential dangerous individuals without his M-16 or at least a handgun was not in his best interests.
I had been in Lp for about 10yrs to this point and had let my guard down because I wasn't trying to arrest the individual...Stupid! I did not follow one of my golden rules: Always keep your hands in front of you, not folded, at your sides or behind your back when in a potential confrontation.

01/10/2001

One day during business hours I was in the Mens department trying to hone my floor skills. Well, I cam upon our leather coats and my jaw dropped at what (or shall I say whom) I was looking at.Let me rewind you to the previous day. In our store we had 2 male blacks one who was about 6'4 280 the other who was about 6'2 190-200 wearing a jean jacket and a red stocking cap with whitehorizontal stripes.... both were solidly built guys. Well, they selected two leather jackets and then went and selected several other items without looking at size/price. So, now we have analert signal. Well the two went into our Domestics department and stashed their cart. We kept an eye on the cart till they came back..Long story short we ended up losing them....And probablyabout 250-300$ worth of leathers....Now back to what I was talking about I enter the mens department and what do I see? Male Black 6'2 200 red and white stocking cap..It w! ! as him..and whatwas he selecting you ask? Well duh! Leather Coats..I look next to him and I see his lil pal from the previous day. So the two select other merchandise again without looking at size/price....They enter our lamps section and cut off the ink tags from the leathers. They put the coats on and head for the door. I grab my cuffs and make my way out..Keep in mind Im a smaller LP Detectiveso I may have my work cut out for me. I come up behind the two out in the parking lot they take one look at me and BOLT....I give chase running a good distance while shouting."STOP WHERE YOU ARE!" and "DROP THE MERCHANDISE AND DO IT NOW!!" They end up dumping the coats so I get a recovery of bout $370. My partner asked me the next time we worked together..."If they would of stopped, what would you have done?"..My answer? Well I probably wouldn't be writing this.....Just proves that there is only one good person to back you up and thats God......Remember play it safe...Don't be afraid to ask for backup and when in doubt,,,,Don't go Out..

01/10/2001

On Christmas Eve 2000, I was walking the floor at my store and just as the store operator made the announcement, "Attention shoppers, the store will be closing in 10 minutes so that our associates can spend time with their families this Christmas Eve..",I noticed two black females in the softlines area. They selected several clothing items and went to the shoe department, never looking back. The two females began concealing all of the clothing items under their clothes. I followed them out of the storeand made the apprehension at 5:58p.m., two minutes before closing. The police officer arrives and then they start with the "it's Christmas Eve, you should just let us go" junk, so I let them go, yeah right.. At the station, the officer brings the reportto the clerk and she notices that the girls have given fake names. The officer talks to them and they fess up their "real identities."
They call a friend to come bond them out and the friend calls back and asks if the two girls are still there, and the clerk, not recognizing the names the caller gave, paused.. grinned, and said "yeah they are here, come on down." She calls the officer backto the desk and says "get ready to hook up someone for interfering with police business." So when the caller arrives at the station, she is arrested on the spot. Then the bonding company representative shows up and he knows both shoplifters. Instead ofbeing stupid and misleading the police, the bond rep tells the officer who the two girls are, where they live, and all that good stuff. Come to find out, one of them had two prior offenses, which this made her third, which made it a felony. I signed the misdemeanorcharges on the one female and went to investigations downtown. I sat down at investigations at approximately 8:30p.m. and at 10:00p.m. I was still there. Luckily there was a TV there and the officer and I watched a football game. Around 10:15p.m., a black male isbrought into investigations for burglary. Upon searching him, investigators found $5,800.00 in his shoe. He claimed it belonged to him.
Well, when the victims called dispatch to report the burglary, they identified two black males as committing the crime. Police were only ableto locate the one until a phone call comes in and it is a guy wanting to bail out his friend that was arrested for burglary. He told the officerthat his friend's mom called and asked him to bail him out, but the subject never called anyone. So the officer tells the guy to come down to bailhim out.
When he shows up to bail out his friend, he matched the exact description of the other black male that committed the burglary. He was arrested on the spot. As for the $5,800.00, I don't know what happened with that, it was real money though.Finally at 11:00p.m. the investigator comes to me and says, "The computers are down and he cannot pull up the records of the shoplifter's convictions so you will just have to sign misdemeanor charges until they get it straight, then you cancome back and sign felony charges." Since I did not arrive home until midnight I was unable to spend Christmas Eve with my family and I also missed church. At least I spent Christmas Eve with some of my other favorite people, shoplifters.

01/04/2001

One sunday afternoon, I observed 2 females in our juniors dept. They had astroller with a baby in it. One of the females was placing items of clothinginto the bottom of the stroller and covering them with her jacket. Sureenough, they left the store without paying. I stopped them, identifiedmyself, and told them theyd have to come back into the store with me. Atthat time, the 20 year old female pushed me, and held onto my arms while the14 year old female began running with the stroller. To my surprise, theyboth began screaming "HELP! This man is trying to steal my baby!!!" Peoplerushed to help and discovered what was really going on, and then ended uphelping me detain them. When the police came, the 14 year old was chargedwith robbery, and the 20 year old was charged with contributing to thedelinquency of a minor, receiving stolen property, and inducing panic.

01/04/2001

Several years ago, I worked for _____ in north Toronto. One day, during a blizzard, I received a phone call from an electronicsassociate. The associate asked me to check on whether a model of computer was in stock and began reading off a number. The numberwas a _____ card number and I asked him to delay the customer, who was attempting to purchase a computer for $2,500.00. I checkedour system for the account status. Everything looked fine, except that the account originated out of Ottawa - a four hour driveaway. I turned the CCTV camera to the customer. The name on the account was a very Italian name and the customer was very clearlyWest African. The name clearly did not match the name. Concerned, I tried calling the account holder's work phone number, butonly received a strange fast busy tone. By this time, the suspect had completed the purchase and was waiting in the customerpickup area - he had been told we were having a hard time finding the computer in the warehouse. I finally called the operator inOttawa and asked for her to attempt an emergency breakthrough to the phone number. She stated that the phone number seemed to bedisabled. When I asked her if the phone prefix matched the particular branch of government the cardholder account listed as hisemployer, she stated "no way, wrong end of town for that number". By that time, a half hour had elapsed. I then called the Torontopolice and told them there was a fraud in progress; _____ Canada's rules and Canadian law do not allow us to arrest on probablecause. They dispatched a car and our receiver was able to delay the customer an additional 45 minutes(!) until police arrived - therewas a blizzard outside and there was about eight inches of snow on the roads. When the police arrived, the suspect walked away in thestore when he saw the Scout Car. I met the police and we intercepted the suspect at another exit. As the police approached the suspect,he bolted and the chase was on, through the store. Myself, two police officers, and the entire receiving department managed to knockover an entire department's worth of fixtures chasing the suspect as our boots were wet from being in the snow. The chase resumedoutside and the suspect was finally caught in the snow. In his wallet was ten fraudulently obtained credit cards and altered ID.In his car was four more computers from different retailers. I later learned that the suspect was part of a Nigerian Fraud Ring.He had stolen license plates on the car, which had been purchased with stolen cheques (checks to our Southern friends). In total,in two weeks after obtaining and altering a stolen drivers license, the suspect was able to obtain numerous credit cards and rackup over $250,000.00 in frauds in the Toronto area. The suspect plead guilty to numerous counts of Fraud Over $1,000 and receiveda sentence of two years less a day - the equivalent of a misdemeanour sentence for multiple felonies (our system is a little bitdifferent up here). To this day, I still snicker when someone says Crime Doesn't Pay, look what one member of a fraud ring(albeit a dumb member) can accomplish in two weeks!

12/30/2000

While employed by a Department store as an LPM I hired a guy right out of the Armed Services as a store Detective.He was certified in a week and was ready for LP duty. Being in a low income area, he came to work dressed as a "thug".Known for our "great" shoe trade-in program, I had him work the shoe department. While he was sitting on the stool tryingon shoes, a juvenile brought a pair of Fubu shoes over next to him and sat down. As I observed via CCTV and my Detectiveobserved while sitting next him, he ripped the tags off of the shoes and began to lace them up on his feet. My Detectivementioned how nice the shoes were and the subject stated " yeah, I'm about to roll-up outta this mutha with these". Needlessto say he walked out without paying and the look on his face was priceless when it was my "thug" Detective that apprehendedhim. It just goes to show....you never know....

12/30/2000

While working as Corporate LP Manager for 300 high fashion apparel storesacross the US, I got a phone tip from a store manager in Stamford, CT thatshe thought one of her assistants was stealing garments. She believed thisto be true because she had seen this Assistant wearing ONE garment that shedid not remember her buying. I was able to look at the Assistant's employeepurchase history and saw she had purchased nothing at all since her hire somemonths prior. The store manager also believed another associate must havebeen stealing with her, since they were friends. Since it was only a fewhours away, I decided to take a ride. When the Assistant came in to work, Iwas waiting to interview her in the office. She sat down, I gave her thetext book who we are what we do. No Response. I gave her the textbook, howwe do it. Still Nothing. I started down a laundry list of rationalizations.Now approximately 30 minutes into the interview, not only had she not said aword, she had not even MOVED A MUSCLE. This was an intelligent girl and Iwas starting to look for a way to back out. I used a little morerationalization and decided to throw one soft accusation out there to see ifit would stick. "So naturally our goal is to resolve this here, today. Wouldyou like to resolve this here today?" The first word out of her mouth thewhole time, "yes I would". I couldn't believe it! A tacit admission! Now Ihad a problem, I really had NOTHING and NO IDEA what she may have taken. SoI say to her, " the investigation has pretty much revealed everything to us.But I want to make sure you're being completely honest with us. Why don't youtake this pad and write down what you know you have taken so I can compare itto the information we have." She starts writing. Thirty minutes later, shehas a list of about $3,500.00 worth of garments she has at home, still withtags on them. She also rolls on her friend. In lieu of prosecution, I senther home to get my product. On her way out of the store, she encounters herfriend just coming in. Her friend proceeds to sit down in front of me andasks for a pad and pen. Without even asking her a single question, shebegins to write. Fifteen minutes later, another $1,500.00 worth of stuff.She goes home to get hers too. In all, 16 shopping bags full of stuff. Themoral? Trust your instincts in an interview and don't be afraid to ask thequestion. You might just be pleasantly surprised with the answer.

12/26/2000

The other night I had this subject just throwing our bigest sellingmerchandies on to the register. About 600.00 worth. then she pulled a checkbook out of a dirty purse that loked as though the check book was all she hadin it. I called the associate and told her to tell the subject that herterminal was having problems runing checks and that she would have to take itto customer service. were I could call the bank.The associate did and thesubject started with the usual this never happens to me. the associate made amistake an offered to call the bank for the subject to verify the funds. Wellthe subject grabed her check and bolted. Well one that got away I thought. Mygirlfriend came by at closing and we whent to a local superstore to do ourshopping for the week. Well guess who was right in front of us in line withabout five hundred in electronics. I left my girlfriend and found the Deputyon duty and let him know what had happened in my store. He had the cashierpull the check, and the subject started in with the same this never happensto me. then she started to try and leave but the Deputy grabed her. Fake IDand stolen checks. I got her in the end. And my boss let me claim the sixhundred for recovery.

12/16/2000

While working at _-____ a few years back as LP. We had a guy who would hit a couple of the local stores for Health and Beauty.The guy was a monster 6'5 and all muscle. We all knew who he was, and that he had just got out of federal prison for murder.We were all told to get the police first, then if we had to, handle him with caution. His MO was to walk to the Department, filla shirt that had the sleeves tied with aspirin and walk out. Anybody got in his way he just pummelled, then out to a waiting car.He Knocked out two of our guys and got away from two more, including me. On his second hit (that I knew of)