at stores that have a “do not interfere with shoplifters” policy, are people able to just walk in, take whatever they want, and leave without paying; or are there repercussions at some point?
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I had a partner who worked at a store with this policy. The misconception seems to be that “do not interfere” means “do nothing”.
They were taught if they thought someone was trying to steal, to customer service the person to death. Essentially don’t leave their side, keep asking if they need help finding anything etc. If they left the store and you believed they might have stolen something, go out and get their license plate number. The general manager would then go through the security camera footage and see if they could find them stealing something on camera. If they did, they would turn it all over to the police.
The policy was there to prevent employees from directly confronting a thief. There is just no need to have employees put in that situation. Dealing with a thief is the job of the police.
It’s not “no repercussions” — it’s “No store policies that put the employees at risk so we can head off lawsuits by next of kin over an employee getting shot or stabbed trying to protect stuff that wholesales at $40.”
Store employees are blamed anyway for not doing enough to deter theft (even while severely understaffed to save more profits). They are required to watch, identify possible risks, give obsessive customer service (to show *we are watching you*) while talking up identifying points of that person (to show *we can identify you*). Like, “oh! That goes so well with your green eyes and blonde hair! … you remind me of (some other person) he’s also just a bit taller than me, he likes (that brand of shoes you’re wearing) too” etc.
One of my coworkers at Wal-Mart got promoted to loss prevention and I got a peek behind the curtain there. At least at big stores they gather video evidence of your crimes, up until the point your cumulative crime hits a certain felony checkpoint(I believe it was $1k), and then, one day. Surprise. Loss prevention will be meeting you at the door with the actual police. Basically they know who’s shoplifting, and keep an eye on them from the loss prevention office. If you’re not a ‘big ticket’ person they might try to make their presence known to dissuade you from shoplifting, and if they get the impression you’ll stop if they tell you to do so, they might try and take you in off a low amount. But they do try for repeat offender, juicy targets that they can take care of more permanently with police involvement and subsequent incarceration.
It’s not no repercussions. Just depends. If LP is there, they may intervene. If not, everything is still on camera. An associate won’t do anything to the shoplifter, but a report will be filed. They’ll either watch for habits, time of day somebody comes in, what departments, etc. and come in with LP to catch them in the act or they’ll just continue videoing until there’s enough evidence for a more serious charge. If you do it once or twice you may or may not have anything happen to you, but if you keep repeating you’ll probably suffer some consequence eventually. Also, if I see them going into a nearby store that DOES have LP that can intervene I may let them know to watch out so the person may end up getting arrested there.
You can leave sure. But they know what you took and how much it costs. When you hit the critical number (usually a felony level) guess whose notified and has an airtight case with video and price tags of everything that you stole?
The reaper is going to take its due. The police didn’t show up and arrest you for stealing a steak. They showed up and arrested you for stealing 50 steaks this year. Whose ready for their brand? You are now a felon even if prosecution decides probation is fair enough. Guess what jobs tend to hire ‘felony larceny’ convictions? Restaurants who need dishwashers. No position requiring money, trust, or anything else is now open to you because you thought the grocery store wasn’t tracking your petty thefts.
At lowes they kept track of the value someone stole and then at 500 when it was a felony they had an officer come down and get all the evidence
Almost every store has video surveillance now days. If they had a policy that the employee had to make an effort to stop the person and the employee got hurt or killed the potential lawsuit would cost them a lot more then whatever item was being taken.
I’m pretty sure stores will build a case against you, hand it over to authorities once a certain dollar threshold is met and then you’re hit with felonies.
Like most have said, police can get involved. I worked best buy for a bit and would cover loss prevention when they took their lunches. Those cameras are pretty good, can zoom in far. It’s actually pretty easy to see what customers are acting weird or suspicious, if a customer stages a product somewhere to make it easier to take later. We all had walkies so we could communicate who to look out for, or if we seen someone hide product. Somebody would then follow them, talk to them more, and then if they tried ti leave without paying, we would call police on them.
This is the opposite of your question but I was at a Savers and this dude said he forgot his money in his car and left some items but was walking out with a backpack on.
Security attempted to stop him and the wouldn’t hand over his back pack. The security guard then went outside and stole the dudes bike 😂.
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