It's no cinch to steal Christmas

Now that the holiday season has arrived, thoughts turn to Christmas shopping. For merchants, that means not only more merchandise to offer customers but more merchandise that might leave the store unpaid for.

Local store managers say they are trying to stay one step ahead of thieves. Some rely on technology while others depend on a more direct, personal approach.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department tracks the number of reported retail thefts but does not separate those that occur during the Christmas season, police spokesman Jason Selzer said. Police do know theft increases during the holiday shopping season.

"It's a crime of opportunity," Selzer said. "People come from miles and miles away just to shoplift."

Catching thieves is foremost on the minds of store managers. Most stores don't like to talk about their loss prevention policies because they don't want to give away information that could work against them. A sampling of store managers does show, however, that some are turning to high-tech solutions to confront the problem while others stick with tried-and-true personal efforts.

Selzer said both work well in tandem.

"Definitely technology helps for tracking," he said. "You also have to have someone on the floor who is going to be able to confront the persons and keep them there until police arrive."

Stores in Cape Girardeau are going to great lengths to protect their inventory.

"We have beefed up our staff in an effort to protect our assets for the holidays," said Rick Done, manager at Target in Cape Girardeau.

Gary McDowell at J.C. Penney in Westfield Shoppingtown West Park has installed a new camera system and has nearly doubled his security staff.

Steve Maxcy at Best Buy relies on technology to keep loss down. He did hire a few more people as much to handle the increased traffic in the store as for security. Maxcy said it's hard to steal the large items sold at Best Buy.

Thieves face another problem at Best Buy: "Most of our merchandise is identifiable. We know our merchandise," Maxcy said.

Best Buy uses metal identification tags on its goods, he said.

Rodney Bridges, owner of Garber's Men's Wear, relies on personal intervention over technology.

"We're very much aware of shoplifting, and all sales people are trained," Bridges said.

Garber's is a small independent store. After 32 years in business, Bridges said he and his staff know their customers by their first names and offer personal attention from the time they enter the store. The store has bells that ring when the front door opens. That alerts the sales people, who approach and engage the customer in conversation.

"That's a deterrent for shoplifters," Bridges said. "They want to be left alone. We are more in tune with that than most stores, where people wander in and out and nobody says anything to them."

Ways to steal

Most thefts in Cape Girardeau are what Selzer calls "sticky fingers." People shoplift items they either want for themselves or plan to sell to someone else. However, some thieves use other ways to steal. Selzer said police recently arrested a suspect at Wal-Mart who bought a computer, then returned to the store with the receipt from that sale. He picked up another computer at the store and tried to pass it off as the computer he bought in order to get a cash refund. The information on the receipt did not match the information on the computer, and the suspect was quickly apprehended.

Sales people are trained to spot similar fraudulent practices. In larger cities, teams of people will swarm into a store. One or two will distract the staff while the others take merchandise. The stores here say they have not had that situation, although McDowell said his employees were able to catch a group of people from another town who were defrauding about four J.C. Penney stores. They would steal leather coats at one store, then take them to another to get a refund.

Store managers have learned to avoid giving cash refunds without proof that the item was bought at their store. Target and Best Buy offer a gift receipt, a proof of purchase a customer can include with a gift without actually telling the recipient how much the item cost. Best Buy has holiday policies for returning items 14 and 30 days after Christmas. Target limits returns to 90 days. Done from Target said store policy is printed on a large sign over the customer service desk.

"If they don't have a receipt, they are not getting a refund," he said.

Penney's will give a cash refund or credit a customer's charge account only with a receipt. Without a receipt, the store will issue a gift card. McDowell added that the store's computer system is able to track items through the merchandise's bar code and can verify a purchase within a couple of minutes.

Garber's policy is strictly no cash refunds and no exchanges after 10 days.

Once a theft is discovered, Target and Best Buy say they judge each instance on its own merit before calling the police, depending on the size of the theft and whether the offender is a juvenile.

Garber's and Penney's say they prosecute everyone. Penney's will ban the offender from all J.C. Penney stores for life.

"We do that in front of the police so that if they come in again we can ask them to leave, and if they don't we can have them arrested for trespassing," McDowell said.

Garber's also takes a tough stand on theft. When he was a teenager, Bridges said, he worked in loss prevention for the former G.C. Murphy store. He said it was frustrating for him to catch someone stealing, then see the suspect get off with a slap on the wrist.

"It made me mad enough I told my boss at the time, 'I'm not doing this job if that's the way you're going to treat them,'" he said. "My philosophy here is if you get caught stealing a $3 pair of socks, that's stealing. We catch somebody shoplifting, they're going to court. I'm pretty heavy on that."

Selzer at the police department said police officers respond when stores call and usually follow the store's lead on whether to press charges with the prosecuting attorney's office. He said he can recall sending a report to the prosecutor for a tube of lipstick stolen from Penney's. The final decision on whether to take a case to court remains with the prosecutor based on various questions:

Is the offender a juvenile?

Is it a first-time offense?

Is the stolen merchandise worth more than $500?

Does the offender have a prior criminal history?

Even if a theft is for less than $500, if it's the suspect's third offense, the case goes to court, Selzer said.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160