Distraction theft
This type of theft often comes in waves of multiple incidents. Depending on the activity of criminal groups, multiple people work together. If conducted by a pair of thieves, one will create a distraction while another steals merchandise.
What is it?
A group of criminals will work together to overwhelm sales associates to the point where one of the criminals in the group is not attended to and gains access to merchandise. These groups may enter the store together and disperse, or they may enter separately. Although they don’t appear to be colluding, they have probably cased the targeted location numerous times and are co-ordinating a well-orchestrated effort.
The lengths these criminals will go to can be overly dramatic, too. They’ve been known to feign illnesses or appear frustrated over poor customer service and cause a disruption. What’s worse, children have also been used as pawns to create distractions for these thefts.
How do you prevent it?
Greeting every customer who enters your business and acknowledging their presence is a good start. Would-be criminals avoid this kind of focused attention and working with one individual at a time allows associates to focus all of their attention on one customer.
Also, prepare for an event where an unusual influx of individuals at your business occurs. Establishing pre-arranged code phrases can instantly alert every associate of this unusual situation and allow them to assist each other in effectively addressing the influx.
When interacting with customers, it is imperative to keep merchandise display showcases locked, even while you’re showing items. Further, never allow keys to be accessible to anyone but store associates
Sneak theft
Do your associates often show customers more than one item at a time? If they do, your business could be become a victim of sneak theft.
What is it?
Similar to a distraction theft, a would-be criminal trying to execute a sneak theft will attempt to overwhelm store associates, but in a non-threatening manner. Most often, the criminal, who usually acts alone, does this by trying on various pieces of merchandise and claiming they don’t like the fit, style, or gives some other excuse. Somewhere in the course of this process, the criminal will attempt to pocket some of the merchandise if they believe the associate is not attentive enough to notice.
Some criminals have compromised merchandise display showcase tops by lifting them and removing merchandise—sometimes within a couple of feet of the associate!
How do you prevent it?
The same merchandise display showcase restrictions applying to sneak thefts also apply to distraction thefts.In fact, adopting and following a policy of showing only one item at a time is even more important in this scenario.
This can be a difficult practice to follow, especially when an associate is wrestling with the possibility of closing a potentially large sale. Unfortunately, criminals know this and will use it to their advantage as they persuade associates into showing multiple items at once.
Since it’s difficult to resist this temptation, once a pending sale is close to being final, let all of your customers know your store policy.
