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Retail Theft Detectors and False Alarms?
NichardRixon asks: "All too often I set off the 'shoplifter alarm' when leaving a major department store in my area, after purchasing OTC medicine. Even though I make a point of watching the cashier 'clear' the boxes, it is evidently an imprecise process. As often as not the alarm goes off as I leave, and the security person wants to look through my bag and compare what's found with my reciept. People passing by give me the evil eye, evidently assuming that I've been caught stealing.
This has happened so so many times that my new policy is to refuse to stop for the search, telling the gaurd that they will have to tackle me, and of course they just let me go.
Shouldn't stores be required to use more reliable equipment?" What's worse is that there are many retailers that are just plain apathetic to the alarm. What's the point of having these detectors if all they are is continuing source of false alarms? What good will they be when they catch a real theft in progress and no one reacts properly because of their questionable history?
"It happened to my wife the other day, however, and she felt as though she had no choice but to wait several minutes, embarassingly on display to other shoppers, for the arrival of the manager.
I was wondering if other Slashdot readers have been having similar experiences and if so, how they deal with them."
A deterrant. Retailers don't care if they alarms are reliable; they use them to deter many of the casual wannabe shoplifters out there. And apparently they work, because the big retailers with analysts out the wazoo use them.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
From my experience, the vast majority of the time the alarm goes off, it's etiher due to something not being demagnetized properly or something I'm carrying on me. I've never really felt that people have assumed I've done something wrong because almost everybody has had such a thing happen to them. AS far as perfecting it, if I were a retailer, I'd rather have it get an extra 99 people out of a thousand who were innocent but also get the one person who was actually stealing something than not go off. False positives for it tend to be rather minor as far as I have ever seen.
Don't you hate pants?
When this happens to me (*every* time I go to Home Depot, by the way), I just just walk away purposefully, ignoring the cries of "Sir! Sir! You set off the alarm". I don't make eye contact, I don't speed up or slow down. Just ignore. It feels good when you finally reach that Zen-like state of perfect ignoring.
:-)
I made the mistake of stopping once and had to sit there while they wasted my time rooting through all my bags. And yes, it's a waste of *my* time--It's not my duty to give them peace of mind. I guarantee they won't go out of their way to give *me* peace of mind.
This is the same way I handle the bozos at the end of the Fry's line that insist on checking eveyone's bag. I just scoot on past and ignore everything they say. The Fry's guys won't chase you though; The Home Depot people do.
-David
There. Now go play some cool javascript games!
I agree with your solution of just keep on walking. Thankfully the Fourth Amendment protects us in the USA from illegal search and seizure.
-1: flamebait should really be -1: inciteful
I agree that you should complain, repeatedly, and in writing to the management/owners. However, at the same point, at no time did I agree to be held against my will and/or searched simply because some buzzer and a flashing light went off while I was exiting the store. If the store feels that I have shoplifted, they are perfectly free to either place my under citizen's arrest, or more likely, call the police and report it. However, since they will be able to provide no proof (I guarantee I didn't steal anything) and very little in the way of evidence, I highly doubt the police will even respond.
Do you have a FOB for your car? For whatever reason certain key FOB's set these things off. I wonder if it's your keys and not the OTC medicine that is setting it off.
Is it maybe some kind of insurance policy that is cheaper if they have these anti-theft things? I too have noticed how most store employees don't even pay attention when they go off. The customers get far more upset than the employees do.
:-)
There was a time awhile back when I used to set these things off almost everywhere I went. Eventually I started to remove one item each time I went to the store. First it was my keys, then my cell phone. The alarm would still go off. Then I tried leaving my wallet in the car and just carry in the cash I needed. Lo and behold, the alarm didn't go off! So after some careful investigation I found that my wallet still had the anti-theft sticker tucked inside an unused pocket. What was strange about this is that the alarm problem had only started recently even though the wallet had been with me for years.
After thinking about it a bit, I determined that the problem had to be caused by either one of two likely possibilities (or a combination of them). The most likely explanation is that the old security key card I had had was blocking the anti-theft device. I didn't connect to the two immediately, but the problem of the alarms going off began to occur about the time I turned that badge in. The other possible explanation is that somehow the anti-theft device was re-activated. I'm not even sure if that's possible or not, but I had the wallet before I got the job that required the security key card and never had any problem going through those detectors.
In any case, after removing the old anti-theft sticker, I've not had any problems with those devices. So if you're one of those who keeps setting them off, you might have a look for something like this.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
If it bothers you too much after you paid for the merchandise and the alarm goes off and you are stopped by the security people, do this - After they are done searching for those items on your receipt, you tell them that now you would like to return those items as you have no desire to take them home after the embarrassment caused to you.
This is very old news so I'm not worried about the ramifications of releasing this knowledge, nevertheless I shall be anonymous...
1) Go to Wal-Mart
2) Walk up to the electronics check out desk or automotive counter desk and pull a plastic bag off of the rack.
3) Walk into the games section and pull out one (1) copy of Trivial Persuit
4) Place Trivial Persuit in bag.
5) Walk out of store.
5b) If woman is checking receipts, walk out with larger crowd of people and let them get snagged as you walk by. Ignore anyone saying "Sir.. sir.."
6) Get struck by lightning. Wal-Mart is on God's side, so you must assume that the converse it true.
Direct away from face when opening.
See, that's the difference between Red and Blue states.
Blue state resident: "Good sir, under what authority would you be apprehending me?"
Red state resident: "Son, did you know this is a right-to-carry state?"
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Physical contact is considered battery, not assault. The Fry's employee committed battery against the customer, which was met with force. The customer was within his rights to respond with reasonable force.
I live in Michigan and have a concealed carry permit. While taking the training course for the permit we were told that sometimes your concealed weapon could set off in store alarms.
.357
I always wondered what would happen if they asked me if I was hiding and I lifted my shirt to reveal my
Legally my weapon must stay concealed, but if they really want to know...
-Tolerate my intolerance
A friend of mine ran into the same issue at a Best Buy, IIRC. They were trying to block his exit, so he demanded to see a manager, who insisted that he allow them to search him and lift his shirt. He told them to call the cops. When the manager told him that it wasn't necessary, my friend, who likes screwing with people, told him exactly why he wouldn't lift his shirt.
"If I show you what is under my shirt, some authorities might consider it brandishing a weapon."
They let him go.
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