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On the take (continued)

BY CHRIS WRIGHT

At a Victoria’s Secret in Braintree recently, shoplifters made off with almost $6000 worth of lingerie. A couple of months earlier, at the same store, a man reportedly fled with thousands of dollars in bras — not, we may assume, for his own personal use. While such professional shoplifters — or "boosters" — exist, the vast majority are more like Jamie, lifting a little here, a little there. But it’s the accretion of small losses, not the whopping ones, that most seriously affect the retail industry. According to Shoplifters Alternative, there are 23 million shoplifters in the US, 27 percent of whom are habitual. If these figures are to be believed, that means there are about six million Jamies at large — a fact which, understandably, causes a fair amount of hand-wringing in the retail industry.

By some counts, shoplifting costs American retailers $10 billion a year. Many put the figure higher. Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, estimates that stores in this state alone lose $1 billion in merchandise a year. "There’s a feeling out there that shoplifting is a victimless crime, that it isn’t a big deal," he says. "In reality, it is. It’s a huge issue." And it’s getting bigger.

"All the indications are that shoplifting is going up, and going up for several reasons," says McGoey. "The obvious one is the economy. People are out of work. Savings accounts are exhausted. Some people who wouldn’t have shoplifted before are feeling more pressure, or the need, to steal. Shoplifting has been down for the past 10 years, and we’re just hitting a time in the cycle when, after having been down-down-down, things are starting to go up-up-up."

And it’s not just shoplifting hotspots like the Galleria and Downtown Crossing that are feeling the pinch. Christopher Bruce, a public-safety officer with the Danvers Police Department and the president of the Massachusetts Association of Crime Analysts, says Danvers is seeing a mini explosion in retail theft, noting that "2002 is shaping up to be a heavy shoplifting year. We had 93 incidents during the first four months of this year, compared to 50 in the same period of 2001. If incidents continue at this rate, we’ll have 310 by the end of the year — an 86 percent increase." And yet, as Bruce points out, the statistical quirks associated with the crime mean that an increase in incidents could simply reflect a higher arrest rate. In other words, when it comes to shoplifting, more could very well mean less.

In recent years, the anti-theft technology available to retailers has improved dramatically. Stores — from CVS and Tower Records to Neiman Marcus — employ all manner of tag-and-alarm systems, electronic article-surveillance systems, acousto-magnetic systems. There is technology in development that will enable manufacturers to implant security tags into merchandise in the factory. And why not? After all, when you’re dealing with a crime for which public disapprobation seems to be the main deterrent, the jarring beeeeeep! that heralds the removal of a tagged item from a store should be a very effective deterrent indeed. Yet only two percent of shoplifters say they are deterred by electronic sensors, while 15.5 percent say they are deterred by store detectives.

"There’s a lot of technology out there that we can use to stop shoplifters," says Jon Hurst, "but it isn’t foolproof. The professional shoplifters will get around the technology. The best way to prevent shoplifting and catch shoplifters is to have eyes and ears, well-trained and dedicated employees."

According to some, however, well-trained and dedicated store detectives are a rare breed — which isn’t surprising when you consider that many are paid as little as $6.50 an hour. "This kind of work is an awesome responsibility," says Charles Sennewald. "And I’m not sure retailers have risen to the level of training that’s really required."

While "awesome" might be too strong a word, being a store detective certainly has its responsibilities. For starters, there’s the matter of identifying who is doing the stealing — not to mention the where, when, what, and how. "You have to be a voyeur," says Chris McGoey. "Your business is watching, and you learn a lot about human nature. Someone walks through the door and you can predict whether they’re going to steal or not, or even what they’re going to steal. It’s one of those things: you know it when you see it."

Easy for him to say — McGoey honed his detective skills over 13 years, during which time, he says, he made upwards of 1500 arrests. For less-well-trained store detectives — or, for that matter, cashiers, who often find themselves serving as stopgap security personnel — identifying a shoplifter can be a formidable task indeed. Shoplifters don’t wear masks or carry bags with swag written on them. They vary in age, sex, ethnicity, and social status. As McGoey says, "I’ve arrested a priest before." And who, really, would want to arrest a priest only to discover he or she has made a slight mistake? Or, worse yet, an attorney. "Attempts to physically detain and arrest shoplifters are not without risk," writes Sennewald. "[A] merchant has the legal risk of being sued if they do it incorrectly." In other words, if you spot someone stealing a shirt, tackle him, and break his wrist in the process, you could really end up losing your shirt.

Among professional store detectives, the cardinal rule is: thou shalt not fight. "I’ve never once rolled around on the ground," McGoey says. "The moment the shoplifter sets foot outside, you stand in front of him with a badge in his face. You let him know there’s not going to be a struggle. You don’t let him see daylight, and you don’t let him get out into the parking lot, where there’s going to be a fight-or-flight reaction. That’s where people get hurt. People have been killed."

And then, McGoey continues, there’s the emotional drama to contend with. "I’ve seen people piss their pants," he says. "They’ll be saying that they didn’t mean to do it, ‘Let me pay for it.’ Everybody has a problem or a circumstance that made them do it. They’ll plead with you to let them go — ‘I just lost my job. I’ve got kids at home.’ I’ve heard thousands of reasons — and some of them, if they are true, you think, ‘Boy, shouldn’t this person get a break? Their life is a shambles.’ Someone might be on the brink of depression — I don’t know. The bottom line is, the store lost money. The result is still the same."

If I ever did get caught stealing a pair of socks, I’d want someone like Charles Sennewald to do the catching. "Shoplifters are not bad people," he says. "They’re not crooks, they’re just people, like you and me. When I was a kid I got caught. I learned a lesson. I would ask you: have you ever taken something?"

Well, yes. As a child, I was a prolific, prodigious shoplifter. At the height of my career, I had action figures bursting from my bedroom closet, Matchbox cars cluttering my sock drawers, trouser pockets bulging with compasses, key chains, pen knives, and candy bars. It was great. All that stuff. But while something-for-nothing played a part in my shoplifting exploits, there was also something else, something about the act itself. It was terrifying in the way that skydiving or bungee jumping is terrifying. It was fun.

"A lot of times there’s a rush associated with stealing," says Lisa Kozey of Shoplifters Alternative. "The more people get away with it, the more excited they become." Kozey says she’d love to talk to Winona Ryder — who, if she is guilty, couldn’t possibly have stolen out of need. As Jamie puts it, "Dude, she can’t afford those clothes?!" But then, Jamie himself is not entirely immune to the allure of stealing for stealing’s sake. "I’ve taken baby wipes because I had dirty hands," he says, "when I could have just washed them in the sink. I once took some antifreeze when I already had three bottles."

Though Jamie strongly denies that he shoplifts for "shits and giggles," he does allow that there is a certain "thrill" to the act. "I would relate it to hunting, animalistic hunting," he says. "The item’s the prey and you have to be smart about how you get it. You have to shut everything out and let intuition take over. I don’t know if ‘fun’ is the word, but it’s almost natural, like yelling at your boss or having sex. If you go to a supermarket and pay, then there’s not much hunting there."

As far as Kozey is concerned, Jamie is an addict — as surely as if he were shooting up every day, or drinking a gallon of vodka. "Ask him how many times a month he shoplifts," she says. "Ask him if he’s seeing a counselor or seeking therapy." She continues, "It’s not just about being needy or greedy. It’s a problem. For some, it’s a maladaptive way of dealing with other stresses in one’s life. It’s an addictive behavior. People don’t have drinking problems because they like the taste, and shoplifters don’t steal because they want things. Most of the time, they don’t even use what they steal."

To be sure, during my own brief foray into the world of shoplifting, I amassed dozens of items that could have been of no use to me whatsoever: a pressure gauge for car tires; lipsticks; a gadget to read the mileage on maps; a cuddly stuffed carrot; a large pair of novelty sunglasses; and countless batteries. I never stopped to ask myself why I was stealing these things — I just kept stealing them. Until I got caught. After that, I hung up my many-pocketed parka for good.

As for Jamie, he hasn’t been caught yet. Not quite. "Recently I was in a convenience store, and I took this packet of cheese," he recalls. "After I took it, I saw one of the guys looking at me. I put it back on the shelf, and as I was walking out the guy said, ‘Give me the cheese.’ I said, ‘What cheese?’ " As he was facing off against his "nemesis," Jamie had an epiphany: "I thought, ‘Shit, this kind of sucks.’ "

He continues: "I’m going to take a break for a while. You should never get too cocky. The moment you feel sure of yourself is the moment you get nabbed." At this point, the phone line deteriorates, until it sounds as though Jamie’s talking into a tin can.

"I gotta go steal a new phone cord," he says. "This shit’s all cracked up."

Chris Wright can be reached at cwright[a]phx.com

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Issue Date: July 18 - 25, 2002
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