Theft prevention techniques to help protect your business

by emily_smibert | August 11, 2017 11:49 am

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By David J. Sexton

It is easy to get caught up in crimes against the jewellery industry featuring brazen smash-and-grab and rooftop burglary attacks, as they’re often highly publicized. However, they come at the expense of overlooking lower-profile thefts continuing to plague the jewellery industry, as well.

Year after year, the annual number of thefts reported to the Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) and Jewellers Vigilance Canada (JVC) remain staggering. Individual incidents may only represent a small dollar amount when compared to other types of crimes, but these losses add up fast. This is why it’s so important to understand what type of criminal behaviour is behind these potentially sizeable and frequent losses.

Carefully consider four types of theft tactics criminals use to target jewellery businesses and get in the habit of practicing appropriate preventative measures with your associates.

Grab-and-run theft

Data from JSA and JVC show these types of thefts are by far the most common. This is probable because they require more nerves than skill to commit.

What is it?
Criminals committing this type of crime will typically begin by walking into a jewellery store and appearing to browse the merchandise. They will likely move toward the most valuable merchandise on the showroom floor and ask to see a particular piece. From there, they simply run off with whatever they asked to view.

How do you prevent it?
An effective way to prevent a grab-and-run theft is to ask to see a customer’s ID before allowing them to try on merchandise, no matter what its value is. Once you’ve verified the ID is legitimate, retain it until the customer has returned the piece. Multitasking can be risky as some grab-and-run attempts feature suspects taking merchandise directly from the hands of sales associates before the ID is deemed legitimate.

This is a high-risk endeavour for criminals to execute, and those who are inexperienced with grab-and-run thefts may appear nervous or fidgety. Make sure any incidents are documented and shared, so everyone is aware and can respond if they occur again.

When merchandise is being shown, under no circumstances should more than one piece be shown at a time. If a customer is adamant about comparing two pieces side by side, put one on yourself and let the customer compare. Never have more than two pieces out of your showcases at once though.

 

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.

 

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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.

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Switch theft

Arguably the most skillful theft for criminals to pull off, this method is still one to keep an eye out for because if it does occur, it can be extremely costly.

What is it?
Sophisticated criminals have been known to switch real items with fakes from time to time. This crime requires a lot of skill and a steady sleight of hand to accomplish, and has been especially effective when loose diamonds are targeted.

Switch artists have been known to visit their target and establish some degree of rapport with an associate, as well as inquire knowledge about merchandise they will switch. This makes it possible for them to return, switch merchandise undetected, and not have it be noticed until after they have left the store.

How do you prevent it?
Other than remaining vigilant, when showing loose diamonds use a locked tweezer, and carefully observe customers in any loose stone showing situation. Remember to always examine loose diamonds using a loupe before and after someone else has handled each stone.

This is the most surefire way to verify a switch has not taken place.  Assure your customers this practice is common in the jewellery trade and a procedure your insurer requires you to follow in these situations.

Conducting private showings in a designated room or area in your business can also enhance your protection against a switch artist. These areas should have both covert and overt surveillance cameras to capture every angle possible and to let potential criminals know they’re being monitored.

Your goal as a business should be to minimize the threats of not only these versions of theft, but also high-profile robberies and burglaries.

It takes a good amount of effort to have the correct physical, electronic, and procedural security in place for a well-rounded defense against such a diverse set of crimes, but your diligence is worth it.

David J. Sexton, CPCU, is vice-president of loss prevention consulting at Jewelers Mutual Insurance Co., in the United States. A graduate of the University
of Wisconsin, Sexton serves on the Underwriters’ Laboratories’ (UL) Security Systems Council, where he is a corporate member of the insurance category. He also sits on the board of directors for Jewellers Vigilance Canada (JVC), and worked on the Central Station Alarm Association’s (CSAA’s) Insurance Liaison Committee that assisted in the development of the UL burglar alarm modular certificate program and revised UL standard. Comments and questions can be sent to lossprevention@jminsure.com.

For resources regarding safety and security when carrying or working with jewellery, visit JewelersMutual.com. Jewelers Mutual Insurance Co., is the only company specializing exclusively in jewellery insurance in the United States and Canada. It is licensed in all 50 states and Canada.

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