Security camera video feed of shoplifter in action.
It’s a website that is audacious as it is bold and in your face! Some say it promotes shoplifting using the old “five finger discount” others maintain its free speech protected under the Constitution.
According to the website:
“The Art of Shoplifting is not published to encourage any person to commit any illegal act, but for purposes of informing discussion of the issues at hand and more appropriately to educate you with the psychology of shoplifters and the tactics used to succeed in their endeavors. Shoplifting is a topic that is practically relevant to many and it should therefore not become an exclusive craft confined to a small shoplifting elite. On the contrary, shoplifting is an art that deserves the widest possible dissemination. For your convenience we have printed below a step by step guide to shoplifting and how can one shoplift without getting caught.”
(Source:http://www.bombshock.com/theft/the_art_of_shoplifting.html)
Among advice it offers aspiring shoplifters:
“First – Always carry some money: “You should always have some money on you when intending to shoplift, because if you’ve got none, it’s rather hard to argue that to steal the item was a spontaneous decision…”
Second – Note video camera locations: “find where the video surveillance monitors are and who is watching them; often they are not even looking at them. See if you can get a glance at their monitor. Often it is one monitor hooked up to 20 cameras which changes sequentially (every 30 seconds or so). Other times it’s one guy in a room looking at 50 screens while reading the paper or glued to the box. These monitors are usually pretty small and have a wide aperture, showing more of the room but not enough detail to adequately see what you are up to.”
Third – “A blind-spot is a section of the store where you are barely visible and can thus feel free to both dump and collect stuff, without fear of being seen. Display units can make perfect blind-spots — they ensure security is confident they have their eye on you, when in fact they can only see your top half — at the same time they enable you to keep your eye on security. For these reasons, the best blind-spots are usually below the chest — around waist high. Blind-spots are good for loading into the lip of your jeans or into a jacket. Make sure your blind-spot is not under surveillance. Never hang around your blind-spot for too long. Most of all, be careful to never lead security to your blind-spot. A good method is to take everything you want to your blind-spot and collect it all later in one go, or better still get someone else to collect it for you. Getting someone else to collect for you can be a great system, particularly with exchanges — which I’ll come to later. If you are really pedantic, or you think that they are watching you, then load up, go to the toilets and pass the stuff under the wall/partition of the cubicle to a waiting friend in an adjoining cubicle and get them to leave with it.”
“This website is beyond irresponsible”, says F. Jenson of Charlotte, N.C. who works as a loss prevention specialist and advisor to major retailers.
“It’s an issue of free speech”, says S. Ingalls of Charlotte. “I don’t agree with it but it is what it is”, she said.
The economic impact of shoplifting can be devastating to small business.
It is also a huge problem for major retailers as you can imagine.
Retailers report that shoplifting has a significant effect on their bottom line, stating that about 0.6% of all inventory disappears to shoplifters. In 2001, it was claimed that shoplifting cost US retailers $25 million a day. Observers believe that industry shoplifting numbers are over half of by employee theft or fraud and the rest by patrons. Of course, if apprehended during the shoplifting the merchandise is generally recovered by the retailers and there is often no loss to the store owner when the merchandise is surrendered to the store by the suspects. In addition, in many states retailers have the right to recover civil damages to cover the cost of providing security.
According to a December 23, 2008 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dimperio’s Market, the only full service grocery store in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is closing because of shoplifters (see article: “Thieves cause Hazelwood grocery to give up” : http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08358/937017-85.stm#ixzz1n7TJ0xZk