TexasCHLforum.com

KD5NRH wrote:

jimlongley wrote:I was roundly scolded for taking the picture, that's against some rule somewhere,

Yeah, one of the things that keeps me in my current job is that I am no longer willing to work for any company that makes effectively documenting the questionable (or unquestionably nefarious) activities of their people more of an offense than the activities themselves. Had one security job that tried to can me for getting about 50 photos of damage from a truck hitting the gate, fence and retaining wall (including all the identifiers and matching damage on the truck, with measurements showing that all the damage matched up perfectly) until the client told them that those photos upped their claim payout by more than it saved them to have security, so if that was going to be a problem, they wouldn't need our company anymore.

When the security company changed the rules to make mere possession of a personal camera on client property a violation of policy, the client wrote up fairly creative $1/year time-limited leases for all camera equipment owned by security officers, so when we were on duty, our personal cameras became client equipment until the guard left the property. (Also had the nice side benefit of clarifying that they were liable for any damage or theft that happened in reasonable use for their benefit. That was comforting since I kept a nice DSLR with a 300mm zoom lens in the car to save having to follow people to get license plates.)

IIRC, one of the guards actually made the client give him his dollar each year, too

ROFL!

For a long time I carried my personal camera in my pocket, but shortly after that incident I started to leave it at home. I wasn't told much more than it was against policy, and the LP person could not produce the policy. He did have them on multiple videos, I just had the great frontal shot of the van peeling out of the lane it was parked in with full face shots of the driver and passenger.

------

RoyGBiv wrote:In theory, I don't have any problem with Walmart (or any other store) wanting to check my receipt. In theory.
Theft is a real problem. It drives up the cost of goods for all of us. If receipt checking catches thieves, it's a small inconvenience.

If...

If I just finished paying for my purchases and walk directly to the exit, how is it that the receipt checker is going to do any better at preventing theft than the cashier who just physically touched everything the receipt checker is looking at? If I stole something, and got it past the cashier, the receipt checker is going to find it?

That's security theater of the highest order. IMO.

I can see the value of this at places like COSTCO. There's so much mixing of folks and goods between the registers and the doors (food area) and the fact that nothing is bagged (easy to toss in a stolen item), it really doesn't bother me that COSTCO wants to count my items and check my receipt. It does bother me to have to wait on line again to exit the store.

As for store security.... again... the store has a need to prevent theft. If I was stopped by LP, and they wanted to search or detain me, I would ask them to call the police. I would absolutely not allow anyone to search me or sequester me in a back room. But, I'm happy to stand quietly in a public place while the police are called.

Now, get off my lawn!

I quit Sam's Club partly because of their receipt check policy and station. I bought a bunch of items and noted the gas price inside the store, so I went and got gas. When I got to the gas station the price had gone up 3 cents, so I went back in (through the entrance) to object to the price difference and then started to exit through the exit when the "screener" attempted to stop me for skipping the line and not showing a receipt. After a short confrontation with him I arrived outside to find the manager I had complained to outside changing the sign. I took a picture, it had not been changed yet, and then turned around to go back in to the customer service desk when the screener attempted to stop me for entering through the exit. I pointed out that I was trying to get back to the service desk to finish my complaint before they finished changing the sign. Eventually they decided to stop fighting me about the 48 cents and I cut up my membership card and left it sitting on the desk.

In my relatively few years in retail, I have seen and "participated" in several tracking and detentions of thieves. Our "Loss Prevention" people are district level and wander from store to store looking for the obvious signs, which we are taught too. A few years ago a person, already acting a little strange, walked into my appliance department and loaded up on refrigerator water filters. Multiple filters of several different brands at close to $50.00 each.

By "acting strange" I mean that he came into the store, wearing baggy clothes not quite appropriate to the weather, grabbed a basket, walked right to the filters, did not make eye contact, made no reply to queries as to how I could help him. Without prior knowledge which, in my experience, rarely exists, nobody walks right to the filter even if that's the only thing they are there for, most of the time they don't even know which filter they need, so they ask for help or at least welcome it when it is offered.

Nobody buys more than two water filters.

Nobody buys several different brands of filter (they are not cross compatible.)

And then with his basket full of filters he made a beeline for the back of the store where he might not be observed. I gave my co-worker a signal and we started following this guy, anticipating his moves and waiting just around the corner when he turned, and asking him if he needed any help. We "followed" him right to the front of the store (it took about ten minutes) where, unable to put the filters in his clothes, he dumped the basket, ran out the door, and jumped into a waiting car which sped off.

We reported the activity to our LP person who was not in the store at the time, and he asked if we got the license plate number, whereupon I produced a little camera that I had in my pocket, with a nice flash picture of the vehicle with the two miscreants in it. I was roundly scolded for taking the picture, that's against some rule somewhere, but my co-worker and I were given an award for practicing excellent customer service.

Then there was the hispanic kid who stuffed a bunch of tools, big ones (hammers, wrenches, other stuff that size) into his sweatpants, to the extent that he clanked when he walked. LP guy was in the store and we just pointed to the kid, who he stopped at the door, and then handcuffed to wait for the police to arrive.

-----

I could go on with others.

Our LP people used to carry badges but they do not anymore, although most of them carry handcuffs. I have only seen the cuffs used a couple of times, usually when the BG is being combative or has tried to run.