Holidays Mean Increased Theft at Local Stores

The holiday season isn’t just for giving.

The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is also a time of greed for shoplifters and larcenous employees who traditionally increase their activities in Ventura County’s retail stores, authorities and store personnel say.

“Any time there’s a Christmas season, you’re going to have people who will shoplift because they want things and can’t afford them,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chris Lathrop said.

But business owners and managers say they are fighting crime with increased security forces, new alarm systems and programs encouraging employees to report larcenous peers.

Authorities estimated that shoplifting increases by about 35% during the holiday season. And while it is difficult to track exact losses, they said they believe that employee theft also increases.

Indeed, employees are believed to be responsible for 70% of the merchandise losses, or “shrinkage,” suffered each year in the nation’s stores, Lathrop said.

In 1989, U.S. stores lost an estimated $40 billion due to shoplifting and employee theft, according to the Small Business Advancement Institute in Medford, Ore.

Lathrop, who heads the crime prevention bureau in Thousand Oaks, said the urge to steal may be fueled if employees believe their store is not treating them well.

A frequent scam is to hide a product in the trash, then volunteer to take the garbage out. When the goods are outside the store, the employee hides them in his car and then returns to work, Lathrop said.

Employees assigned to unpack shipments may under-report the number of items that arrive in a package and keep the extras.

They may develop kickback schemes with delivery people or suppliers. And if a customer forgets to ask for a receipt, they may pocket cash and never ring up the purchase, Lathrop said.

Sometimes, employees have deals with friends whom they allow to purchase goods with bad credit cards or stolen checks, said Sgt. Bob Anderson of the Ventura Police Department.

Anderson said he recently cited a top-level manager at JC Penney in the Buenaventura Mall on suspicion of stealing hundreds of dollars of clothing over many months. The employee allegedly concealed the merchandise inside her purse, Anderson said.

“The incidence of theft I think would shock people,” Anderson said.

However, some retailers deny the problem, Lathrop said.

Last year, 20 employees from the Sheriff’s Department managed to shoplift $8,000 worth of merchandise in about three hours from The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks.

The department conducted the exercise to impress upon store owners the ease of shoplifting.

Earlier this month, Lathrop said, he sent out 500 flyers advertising Sheriff’s Department seminars telling merchants and employees how to cut down on merchandise losses.

But only five merchants showed up for the five seminars, he said.

“I believe it is apathy combined with a feeling that the theft isn’t happening at their store,” Lathrop said.

However, shrinkage is critical to a store’s viability, especially if the store is smaller, he said.

Larger stores often have teams of security personnel who go undercover, pretending to browse while actually watching for illicit activity. Many also have sophisticated camera systems hidden throughout the store, he said.

JC Penney Co. in the Buenaventura Mall has increased its security force to watch for shoplifters during the holiday season, Manager Jim Word said.

He said employee theft probably increases during this time as the store supplements its 160 permanent employees with about 40 part-time workers for the holiday shopping crunch.

Word said full-time employees, who have profit-sharing plans or get stock as part of their retirement packages, watch the newer employees for signs of theft because they feel that any losses come out of their earnings.

In October, the Target store on Vineyard Avenue in Oxnard installed a new alarm system to combat merchandise loss, store manager Norm Grow said. The alarm goes off when merchandise that has not been scanned during checkout is taken through a door.

“In a normal holiday season, we would probably see more shrinkage,” Grow said. “This year, you’re seeing less because of the new alarm system.”

Four months ago, the Mervyn’s department store on Saviers Road in Oxnard assigned employees to stand by two entrances to greet every customer in an effort to deter thieves who run into a store, grab merchandise and jump into a getaway car, said Jason Contreras, a Mervyn’s investigator. The only entrance to the store not patrolled is the one into the Centerpoint Mall, where security guards might easily catch a shoplifter.