I received this email from a visitor of this website:
Firstly, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your site. It's both informative and entertaining, and it's so refreshing to see someone who enjoys their work - too often people look down on their own jobs, which really makes you wonder how they feel about themselves as people. I saw it all the time in retail - people were almost embarrassed of who they were, and so they eventually became someone to be embarrassed of. You have such a good attitude; I'd have loved to work with you when I was a store manager. The only suggestion I could even think of is that some of the colors make the text hard to read because they're so bright, but that's a very minor issue - by and large, your site is excellent.
Unfortunately, I stumbled onto your site in less than desireable circumstances. I've never shoplifted, having worked in retail management for three years (I finally saved enough money to send myself to college, where I am now.) As I managed a high-volume store, I was in close contact with several undercover LP agents who surveilled my store almost daily, and I saw a lot of shoplifters get caught. I used to regale my younger sister with the more humorous stories about the stupider thieves - but apparently that wasn't enough of a deterrent: she was caught stealing a $20 pair of sunglasses today from a department store. She is 20 years old, so she's not a minor. She has not, to my knowledge, ever stolen anything before, and she doesn't even know why she did it today. At least she remembered one important thing I always stressed - she cooperated fully, didn't lie or try to get away, and was very apologetic. So they are making her pay a civil fine but aren't pressing charge
s (obviously, she's also banned from the store.) The security guard even told her that she was the most pleasant shoplifter he'd ever had to deal with, which is comforting under the circumstances - at least she only made one mistake, and not four or five, I guess.
So I have a question for you, because I'm so disappointed in my sister and simultaneously embarrassed for myself that I can't even bring myself to ask any of the LP people I know. If she signed all the paperwork and pays the civil fine, does that mean she isn't technically "arrested" for shoplifting? Or will she have to check the "yes" box on every job application for the rest of her life? (All for a $20 pair of sunglasses! I could kill the girl!) She has been scared straight - TERRIFIED straight, more like it - and she's worried that she's messed up her whole life. So if the store doesn't press criminal charges has she officially not been convicted of a crime, even if she admits to stealing and pays the civil fines? What sort of mark does this leave on her record? I'm sure you're very busy and I'll understand completely if you don't find time to get back to me, but any response you can give me would be very much appreciated. There's no time constraint, as this isn't
the sort of thing that's going away anytime soon...or ever. ;)
Also, I wanted to let you know that what you said about the hardest part of your job really struck a chord with me. I think that was the most difficult part of retail - the constant need to stay detached as a manager despite spending 80 hours a week with my employees. I always hated firing my own employees for theft - if the amount in question was small enough, home office security would make us do the whole thing ourselves without the benefit of an LP officer there to assist, they would just have a security agent on the phone the whole time for liability purposes. Every time, after I'd walked the employee out, I had to take a break and cry - my feelings were SO HURT, but I still missed them, and I didn't know whether to be more sad or angry. You seem like a good LP officer - I like your attitude about things like that. Thanks again for such a great site, and keep up the good work.
- Alex
This is my reply to Alex:
Hi Alex--
Wow, this a long and detailed email that you sent me and I cannot thank you enough for all of the wonderful comments that you gave me and my site. I am always happy to offer my assistance to people who have concerns about this type of thing. It sounds like you made a great store manager and a great big sister.
Thank you for the comment on the text of my site. I always concentrated on making it "pretty" and may have overlooked the readability factor. I will consider a different approach of possibly removing the "bold" feature from my text to make it easier to read.
First of all, I don't think that you have anything to be embarassed about. These kinds of things happen all the time. We try to steer our family in the correct direction, but we cannot be with them 24/7 and they sometimes make poor decisions on their own. If I was one of the LP people that you knew and you told me this story, I would not look down on you or your family. This is just a lesson learned.
Regarding why she shoplifted: Your little sister probably just fell victim to the "opportunist" shoplifting category. That is, she probably just saw the sunglasses and saw no salespeople and just decided that she could get away with it and didn't really think about the consequences or what would happen if she got caught. It's really not as off the wall as it seems. They say that these shoplifters account for about 75% of total shoplifting losses, but I am sure you know that given your retail experience.
To answer the BIG QUESTION: Obviously you know that I wasn't there and don't know what was said, but I am pretty confident with the answer that I am giving you here. You didn't mention anything about the police getting involved and so therefor, as long as she didn't receive a summons to court, from the police, and obviously wasn't placed under arrest then she is "off the hook" on criminal charges. I do this to shoplifters all the time who steal small items and don't have previous shoplifting records with the company. That sounds like what happened in this case. She was apprehended for the purpose of recovering the property. The dollar amount of the recovery is not really worth the time to spend on court and prosecution costs, and she did not resist or give them any problems (which also worked to her benefit) so she was, instead, banned from company property and released. She may have even been offered the right to purchase the merchandise as well.
In shoplifting cases, there are 2 types of paperwork filed. Store Paperwork and Police Paperwork. Store Paperwork is kept on file so that we know who we apprehended and the dollar amount. This is kept on file for at least 7 years and is used in the event that a shoplifter comes back and tries to sue. Another use for store paperwork is to identify that person if they should ever return to the property once they were banned from the property. If they return, the store can pull that paperwork and say "hey, we caught this person here before and we want them arrested for Trespassing". Police Paerwork is the paperwork that your sister would need to be concerned with. That means that she is officially under arrest. Store Security cannot officially arrest somebody or summon them to court. All they can do is surrender that person to the police for arrest purposes.
So, what all of my incoherent babbling means is that your sister shouldn't be concerned with anything as long the police were not involved and she doesn't have a summons to appear. Most likely the store just banned her from the property and cut her loose. And she has no reason to tell any future employers of this occurrence.
Regarding the Civil part of this. This is called Civil Demand. The store has the right to request money from a person who has shoplifted to help to offset the cost of paying security people and installing anti theft devices. In Illinois, that amount is $100.00 to $1,000.00. Most likely with the first offense, she will just be asked to pay $100.00 or $200.00. She will probably be contacted by a civil demand agency or laywer requesting payment. My suggestion is to pay it. She already admitted to it and if she tries to fight it, she will just end up in a Civil Dispute with the company that she will most likely lose.
Regarding your sister, it sounds like she learned a valuable lesson and can probably breathe a sigh of relief that it's all over for her. And I am sure that she will never do anything like this again. She is lucky to have a big sister like you that takes the time to try and steer her in the right direction and even takes the time to write this long email seeking answers.
I will probably post this email on my website and remove your personal information and email address so other people can learn about this. Thank you for taking the time to write me and feel free to write back any time.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Owner/Webmaster of LPSPY.com
