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This is counterintuitive; that having an effective loss prevention strategy results in being labeled a nuisance?
Are you sure it's not that they "could" be considered a nuisance based on the amount of "calls for service", (when just looking at the numbers)?
HD is not contributing to the crime rate; it's a commercial/retail property & employer, open to the public during posted business hours & they have more than just a right but almost an obligation, to ensure the safety of employees, customers & minimize property loss. I think this is typically considered as a specific category of calls for service called "proactive policing".
When I hear "nuisance" I think of: Parks with a history of homeless or drug activity, places that serve alcohol with frequent allegations of violations, areas known for streetwalker/prostitution activity ... & yeah; Walmart.
I'm not sure this would be a good idea for a city council to consider ... The city might "need" HD more than HD needs them.
I have a good friend that sits on a local city council, they have an upcoming vote on whether to label the Home Depot a 'nuisance business'.
I just heard about this, but did some searching online and it does appear this particular Home Depot catches shoplifters sometimes multiple times per day, police are always being sent here to pick them up and officially charge them. Just looking thru the city arrest records, this home depot and a few other retail stores seem to take up a lot of police resources. Another store that sells higher end makeup in the same area in one week called for police over shoplifting, a whooping 24 times!! But its only a handful of businesses that have this problem.
Whats strange about this, a Lowes stores is only about 4 blocks away from this HD and apparently its rare for them to call for police over shoplifting.
The city council member I know is voting for the label, but I think his opinion of home depot in general was pretty low, even before this came up, so it should be interesting to see what happens. In the past, once a business gets this label, its not long before the city shuts them down, usually though in the past, its always been smaller businesses, never huge companies like Home depot.
Hm. It's not Home Depo - or the business that is getting the shoplifters, that is the problem.
It's the Shoplifters! The Businesses are the victim here - they are being robbed. And your city council wants to victimize them again????? Talk about adding insult to injury!
Where in America can a city council close down a business because it has too many shoplifters?
That is all messed up if it's true...and doesn't sound like Capitalism or the American way to me.
Clean up the crime infested neighborhoods, sure...lock up the criminals, yes.
But attack the poor legitimate business that is being robbed????? No, if the city council is doing it's job
then it needs to go after the shoplifters not the victim.
I have a good friend that sits on a local city council, they have an upcoming vote on whether to label the Home Depot a 'nuisance business'.
I just heard about this, but did some searching online and it does appear this particular Home Depot catches shoplifters sometimes multiple times per day, police are always being sent here to pick them up and officially charge them. Just looking thru the city arrest records, this home depot and a few other retail stores seem to take up a lot of police resources. Another store that sells higher end makeup in the same area in one week called for police over shoplifting, a whooping 24 times!! But its only a handful of businesses that have this problem.
Whats strange about this, a Lowes stores is only about 4 blocks away from this HD and apparently its rare for them to call for police over shoplifting.
The city council member I know is voting for the label, but I think his opinion of home depot in general was pretty low, even before this came up, so it should be interesting to see what happens. In the past, once a business gets this label, its not long before the city shuts them down, usually though in the past, its always been smaller businesses, never huge companies like Home depot.
Well, OP? Name the town. Otherwise I call "troll".
I worked for a Home Depot and had to go through many hours of training. Among other things, they told us:
- if you spot someone shoplifting, never follow or chase them; just call store security.
- the store is loaded with video cameras and a security guy whose full time job is to catch thieves. He's very good at it, otherwise they wouldn't waste the $60K/year on his salary.
- let the police handle law enforcement.
- some of the worst offenders are contractors and tradesmen. You'd think it would be some kind of inner city thugs, but in reality, it's the pros who know what's valuable.
Shoplifting is one thing but there are scammers with all kinds of ingenious tricks to steal money -- steal an item then return it for cash or store credit using a stolen or copied receipt, for example. This has forced the store to step up its inventory tracking and scanning technology. It's a cat-and-mouse game.
The one thing about HD, Lowes etc. is that a lot of their inventory is pretty large and would be hard to just cart out of the store unnoticed. The employees at the front are trained to spot people trying to walk out without paying; you'd have to be pretty clever, or pretty stupid, to think you can get away with it.
Of course, some do get away with it anyway, but they're being caught on video, and employees often do spot them but let them go for the aforementioned reasons.
Our Home Depot is loaded with employees. I don't think understaffed is a prob here anyway.
Seems to me that no matter how many times they call if someone is stealing... they should get arrested. Period.
I think maybe the cops are understaffed.
The local Police union is probably applying pressure since they fail to "Hire" off duty cops for security.
That could be it. Places in Minneapolis where I worked required clubs, etc, to hire police for security.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubbleT
How does hiring security reduce the number of calls to police? Typically police are only called after a shoplifter is apprehended so that charges can be filed. Sounds like this particular store is already aggressively going after the shoplifting problem and the local police are not happy about having to respond over what they consider petty crimes. Would the better alternative be for HD to just turn a blind eye to the shoplfiters?
Stick a few more orange aprons on the floor to keep an eye out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blisterpeanuts
Shoplifting is one thing but there are scammers with all kinds of ingenious tricks to steal money -- steal an item then return it for cash or store credit using a stolen or copied receipt, for example. This has forced the store to step up its inventory tracking and scanning technology. It's a cat-and-mouse game.
The one thing about HD, Lowes etc. is that a lot of their inventory is pretty large and would be hard to just cart out of the store unnoticed. The employees at the front are trained to spot people trying to walk out without paying; you'd have to be pretty clever, or pretty stupid, to think you can get away with it.
Of course, some do get away with it anyway, but they're being caught on video, and employees often do spot them but let them go for the aforementioned reasons.
My buddy used to work at Home Depot and some days his job was to watch over copper pipe fittings, because people would stuff their pockets with them.
A week or two ago, I was looking for Sharkbite brand fittings...They aren't cheap, and although the store showed 12 of the one I needed in stock, the box was empty.
I worked in retail. The store had a "write off" threshold when it came to theft. It was still cheaper to let stuff walk out the door than to hire and pay more staff.
I can see how someone would think a store is a nuisance for continually calling the cops. Until you engage your brain and realize that they are actually catching criminals and handing them over with all of the police work already done several times a day. And I'd venture to say that at least some of these people probably also have warrants for other crimes. They should be giving Home Depot a medal! If it's costing them too much money to do all this work, perhaps they can lean on their local courts to start fining them a higher amount, to pay for it all.
I just heard about this, but did some searching online and it does appear this particular Home Depot catches shoplifters sometimes multiple times per day, police are always being sent here to pick them up and officially charge them. Just looking thru the city arrest records, this home depot and a few other retail stores seem to take up a lot of police resources. Another store that sells higher end makeup in the same area in one week called for police over shoplifting, a whooping 24 times!! But its only a handful of businesses that have this problem.
Whats strange about this, a Lowes stores is only about 4 blocks away from this HD and apparently its rare for them to call for police over shoplifting.
What's strange about this? Home Depot is catching the shoplifters and Lowes isn't. It's that simple. Don't think for a second that Lowes doesn't have a theft problem. This seriously has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard a council vote on.
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