Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Post any interesting LP or security takedowns here.
Here is a compilation of clips, some from Target (sound is a bit dodgy) :

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Crap like this is what gives LP and security a bad rap. I did Loss Prevention fro Sears for 8 years and Wal*Mart for for 2. I had a total of 1,254 stops according my notebook. I am not a big guy nor bulky. You know how many times I had to get physical with a shoplifter?

TWICE!
a) Kid stole a BB gun and loaded it up and put in waistband before leaving. He was tackled from behind without warning, and once the gun was removed, we "chatted" briefly and he got up and walked, without cuffs back to the office.

b) Guy emptied over $200 worth of Playstation games in a lined bag. Stopped him at the door by blocking it. He kicked the other LP agent in the balls and then hit him in the head. I was behind him and "game on." He did get thrown through the plate glass window by me which knocked him out. When the police arrived, he had $8K in cash in his left sock, a ton of crack (packaged for sale) in his other sock, and three warrants.

So how come I only had 2 fights? These folks picture here were running up, grabing, and by looks, created a bad situation. How about one guy inside, one outside and stop them in the vestibule and TALK to them like HUMAN BEINGS! Seems to be a problem at this store for the LP guys. Lots of fights. That tells me they have no clue how to deal with people. Additionally, at the end of the day it is property they are trying to recover. What if the innocent customer walking by gets hurt too? These folks give a bad name to everyone in LP!

Crap like this is what gives LP and security a bad rap. I did Loss Prevention fro Sears for 8 years and Wal*Mart for for 2. I had a total of 1,254 stops according my notebook. I am not a big guy nor bulky. You know how many times I had to get physical with a shoplifter?

TWICE!
a) Kid stole a BB gun and loaded it up and put in waistband before leaving. He was tackled from behind without warning, and once the gun was removed, we "chatted" briefly and he got up and walked, without cuffs back to the office.

b) Guy emptied over $200 worth of Playstation games in a lined bag. Stopped him at the door by blocking it. He kicked the other LP agent in the balls and then hit him in the head. I was behind him and "game on." He did get thrown through the plate glass window by me which knocked him out. When the police arrived, he had $8K in cash in his left sock, a ton of crack (packaged for sale) in his other sock, and three warrants.

So how come I only had 2 fights? These folks picture here were running up, grabing, and by looks, created a bad situation. How about one guy inside, one outside and stop them in the vestibule and TALK to them like HUMAN BEINGS! Seems to be a problem at this store for the LP guys. Lots of fights. That tells me they have no clue how to deal with people. Additionally, at the end of the day it is property they are trying to recover. What if the innocent customer walking by gets hurt too? These folks give a bad name to everyone in LP!

+1 Joey,

I am currently working at Sears LP and while I enjoy the job I am not going to get into fights every freaking stop. So far I have done only about 12 stops, but all perps have peacefully returned to our office after we tell them "We are with loss Prev, you need to some back into Sears.

+1 Joey,

I am currently working at Sears LP and while I enjoy the job I am not going to get into fights every freaking stop. So far I have done only about 12 stops, but all perps have peacefully returned to our office after we tell them "We are with loss Prev, you need to some back into Sears.

When I left Sears, it was changing from "LP" to "AP" and took a much different approach. But shoplifters were still on the table, with a focus on merchandise recover. How thsoe POSFAT reports working out? I used to nail associates on the discount card thing all the time!!!

Im not sure what POSFAT is. (Only been working three weeks now)

What risk level was your store, sounds pretty high. Ours is at 11 right now but it is expected to jump to a 13 by the end of the year. Our whole LP department is getting an overhaul.

And I cna understand what you mean with changing from LP to AP. We are right next to the Merchandise Pick Up. The job is great and all but there are a bunch of times we are stuck doing one of our MANY other jobs and we have people coming in stealing right from underneath our noses. I feel like a jack of all trades, and a master of nothing. :D

Crap like this is what gives LP and security a bad rap. I did Loss Prevention fro Sears for 8 years and Wal*Mart for for 2. I had a total of 1,254 stops according my notebook. I am not a big guy nor bulky. You know how many times I had to get physical with a shoplifter?

So how come I only had 2 fights? These folks picture here were running up, grabing, and by looks, created a bad situation. How about one guy inside, one outside and stop them in the vestibule and TALK to them like HUMAN BEINGS! Seems to be a problem at this store for the LP guys. Lots of fights. That tells me they have no clue how to deal with people. Additionally, at the end of the day it is property they are trying to recover. What if the innocent customer walking by gets hurt too? These folks give a bad name to everyone in LP!

Out of all the places I worked LP, Target,K-mart, and mostly stores located on a plaza with an open parking lot in the front LP almost always seems to be aggressive, I guess because they fear the subjects will run off and won't be able to catch up.

When I started moving towards Macy's, Barney's New York a simple request to "stop and follow" was enough to get them to come back.
I haven't seen that type of takedown in any shopping malls or grocery stores where I worked security however.

Im not sure what POSFAT is. (Only been working three weeks now)
You'll see. Weekly reports on when/where discount card was used, PLU overides, Sears card use, etc.. Good place to use to start an internal case.


What risk level was your store, sounds pretty high. Ours is at 11 right now but it is expected to jump to a 13 by the end of the year. Our whole LP department is getting an overhaul.
We were around a 16.



And I cna understand what you mean with changing from LP to AP. We are right next to the Merchandise Pick Up. The job is great and all but there are a bunch of times we are stuck doing one of our MANY other jobs and we have people coming in stealing right from underneath our noses. I feel like a jack of all trades, and a master of nothing. :D
Loss Prevention was more CCTV, cathcing the shoplifter, prosecuting and doing bad check recoveries. Preventing Loss! Asset Protetcion was more of the protecting the assets. Go after shoplifters but focus on getting the merchandise back; Verifying merchandise pick-up items, making sure high value ityems are in teh cage and RIM and right, processing MMR's or misisng merchandies reports, and off course, work on internal cases: theft, plu overides, discount card abuse, and off course, added safety function to the AP department.

Also keep in mind my number may sound like a lot, but are not really! 1,254 total in ten years.

8 years at Sears: 1,062
--> That is about 132 a year, or 11 in a month. Figure I was gung-ho and in college and we had a staff of 10, so it was not uncommon for 3 of us to work open to close on Saturday & Sunday. We were all good friends. 11 stops a month? We could get 2 each Saturday and 1 on Sunday and that was with goofing off a lot! Sometimes we go so annoyed with them we woudl just toss them out before they started.

2 years at Wal*mart: 192
--> I worked here full-time, and alone. So I averaged 2 a week or 8 a month. Ok when all yor doing is shoplifters.

2 years at Wal*mart: 192
--> I worked here full-time, and alone. So I averaged 2 a week or 8 a month. Ok when all yor doing is shoplifters.

How was WalMart?

I enjoy Sears, but it is a good 35 minute drive there, and the pay is not good compared to every other store I looked at.

It's hard to tell if this was all at the same store or not, it could be compiled from stores all over the place. Target has some of the best cameras and security I've seen. They helped me make a case of a lifetime.

I don't have any problem with LP getting physical at all. It's better than Burlington Coat Factory who opens the door for shoplifters and tells them to have a good day. I shop at Target because of it. I'm sick of paying twice as much for everything to make up for all the loot stolen inside of these stores.

Got two apprehensions tonight.

Idiot decides to run from an off duty cop so off duty cop calls in foot pursuit. This is after I called the PD telling them I thought they would run.

5PM in the afternoon, so everyone comes. Kid runs throughout the mall and is apprehended about 20 minutes after disappearing. We nailed him for about 160 but he had a felonious amount of other stolen clothes. :)

Crap like this is what gives LP and security a bad rap. I did Loss Prevention fro Sears for 8 years and Wal*Mart for for 2. I had a total of 1,254 stops according my notebook. I am not a big guy nor bulky. You know how many times I had to get physical with a shoplifter?

TWICE!
a) Kid stole a BB gun and loaded it up and put in waistband before leaving. He was tackled from behind without warning, and once the gun was removed, we "chatted" briefly and he got up and walked, without cuffs back to the office.

b) Guy emptied over $200 worth of Playstation games in a lined bag. Stopped him at the door by blocking it. He kicked the other LP agent in the balls and then hit him in the head. I was behind him and "game on." He did get thrown through the plate glass window by me which knocked him out. When the police arrived, he had $8K in cash in his left sock, a ton of crack (packaged for sale) in his other sock, and three warrants.

So how come I only had 2 fights? These folks picture here were running up, grabing, and by looks, created a bad situation. How about one guy inside, one outside and stop them in the vestibule and TALK to them like HUMAN BEINGS! Seems to be a problem at this store for the LP guys. Lots of fights. That tells me they have no clue how to deal with people. Additionally, at the end of the day it is property they are trying to recover. What if the innocent customer walking by gets hurt too? These folks give a bad name to everyone in LP!

I can relate to your experience and agree with your assessment on why it worked. I did airport interdiction for three years in a large north eastern airport. Our normal way of operation was a two man unit. We freqently arrested felony violators one on two, two on two, and even two on three or four on a few occassions.

We always handled the situations the exact same way and I learned that a very calm and polite demeanor, often resulted in a very calm and polite compliance. We had the advantage of knowing that our subjects had been through airport security, and that their was only a very small (but not non-existent) chance they were armed. But, I was always amazed how little force we had to use on people who were being arrested for crimes they would go to prison for years for. The vast majority of the time, the pasengers walking around us had no idea what had happened.

How was WalMart?

I enjoy Sears, but it is a good 35 minute drive there, and the pay is not good compared to every other store I looked at.

SUCKED!


1 guy per store.
You make your own schedule at the beginning of the month.
You have to work at least one Saturday and one Sunday a month.
You have to work at least late one night a week.
You must "open" one day a week.
You cannot for any reason change your schedule! So if that family emergency pops up, your screwed.
They have a STRICT QUOTA! Do not make it, and in trouble and possibly fired!
Your boss is the Regional LP director who handles 4-5 stores. He is always in the field till he does a surprise visit on you.
You do not work for the store, but you work for corporate, yet they place you in a store where there is a store manager and 5 assistants, who all try to tell what you should be doing or they want you to do. Then you call your district boss, who states no, do what he says. Yet you never see him and see the store staff daily? Political nightmare!
They tell you to enforce other polices with all store employees (abusing breaks, having others punch in/out, holding high demand merchandise in back for purchase by staff (rather than customer) later in the day, etc.... But you are not allowed to enforce it with the store managers! I had a store manager who loved baseball and some baseball action figure was hot at the time and valuable. He had 7 employees open the carton, and pull out the valuable figure and he went up front and bought them all, before the store opened, screwing the public waiting outside.


I had enough of crap like that and was so happy to get hired by the Florida Highway Patrol I left without looking back.

I was the only LP Agent for a discount retailer (not WalMart) with 10 stores in the Phoenix area. I was the first LPA in six months and worked for a LP Manager, not the store managers. I gotta say, it was kinda difficult going from high profile uniformed security to plainclothed and skulking around in the clothing racks (done on more than one occasion).

Most of the time I could talk the people into coming back with me into the store as we could not stop them until they went outside. Once, however, the 16 year old didn't want to go so the fight was on. I wrestled him down to the ground, he got back up. Down again, and up again. Down again, this time with me on his back, and back up with a 200 pound monkey on his back! :eek: I didn't get him cuffed for another block and five minutes.

My second arrest went three blocks, through a restaurant, and finally ended on the lawn of an office complex. he didn't want to go either, but he wasn't as difficult as the other guy once I got my hands on him. He claimed to have needed the clothing for his court appearance which was to have taken place in an hour. Needless to say he didn't make it.

Fun times. :D

A joystick / pan / tilt / zoom camera room footage following shoplifters boobing merchandice. :D

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And the eventual apprehension

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yH7qJ1bcNWk&feature=related

joey, were you ever assaulted with a deadly weapon when you worked LP?

Ive been with Sears LP for 2 years and have had around 7 people who were intent on NOT COMING BACK TO THE OFFICE WITH ME.

I have learned its more about the approach and demeanor you project when confronting them.

CALM COOL CONFIDENT the three C's


It's also how you talk to them: for example, I say "we need to have your come back and "pay", "discuss", "talk" about the said merchandise.

Seems like alot of us in here did sears LP or is still doing it. I been workign in Sears for 1 year and 2 months now made LP Lead, I do this while I go to school, I wish the pay was better simply because we take a risk with each person and im 19 years old and still pay for my school books. lol I believe different citys should have different approches, I do LP work in Valley Stream, NY. You would think people were calm around this area, absoutly wrong most of the time we have a chase even if we have someone waiting outside while others follow him/her out.

Here is a "typical" shoplifter :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWxHwPd9b2c&feature=dir