Oregon daily emerald., April 02, 1987, Page 4, Image 4

mIR TODd V
haircut *12.95
Includes 5hampoo, Conditioning and Precision Cut
Special Sale Days
Monday and Thursday v
*10 95 \A\
™ VIH3 rvt -
^ Professional
100% satisfaction guaranteed
561 C. 13th (<*mss from Max's)
Open Saturdays
485-4422
Tree Parking
A joyously funny revue by the
noted humorist that probes
into the assorted mishaps of
urban living.
" . .chemically pure, perfectly
proportioned, out of its mind
and devastatingly funny."
—New York Times
7:30 p.m. Mar. 27, 28
April 2, 3, 4
2:00 p.m. Mar. 29
6:30 p.m. April 1
Special prices for week
days and matinee. To
gel your tickets call the
Mult Center box office
687-3000.
ORT is supported in /urt by the fuf>ene Arts foundation
Police investigate
student's fall from
dorm's third floor
No criminal activity is
suspected in an investiga
tion that started when a
University student fell
from the third floor of
Tingle Dormitory on
Tuesday night, said Sgt.
Chuck Tilby of the Eugene
Police Department.
Peter Mckenzie
Frangos, an 18-year-old
University freshman, is in
critical condition in the
intensive care unit at
Sacred Heart General
Hospital, officials said.
Frangos. who lives in
Room 302 Tingle, fell
from the dorm's third
floor window Tuesday at
9:45 p.m. According to
Tilby, Frangos was ap
parently attempting to
climb from one room to
another when the acci
dent occurred.
DEATH
A Certain
Appointment
But what happens then?
Crisis in Search of
Spiritual Truth
A one-hour comparison study
of world religions and super
natural experience.
TONIGHT 8:00 p.m.
Cable Channel 34
The pregnancy test for your
eyes only.
Private, portable, and easy to read, e.p.t. Plus'*
can tell you if you’re pregnant in as fast as
10 minutes. And in 30 minutes if you’re not.
You can use it as soon as one day after a
missed period, e.p.t. Plus, a fast and easy
way to know for sure.
Page 4
C 1987 Warner-U
Security0"nwdfrom—
pretty good at what we do,”
Williams said. “It's always
challenging when you have
new security people coming in.
but we have enjoyed a tremen
dous reputation for getting good
people to come work at the
bookstore.”
Williams said almost every
security guard who has worked
for the bookstore has moved on
into law enforcement. Current
ly, several former bookstore
security personnel are Eugene
police officers, “and getting on
the Eugene police force is very
difficult,” Williams said.
Eugene Police Sgt. Tim Mc
Carthy said the bookstore’s pro
gram is excellent because “they
have probably the best training
for their security people — the
most diligent and disciplined
training of anybody we ever
come in contact with. Their pro
cedures are fine-tuned, time
tested and court-tested.”
Members of the bookstore’s
security staff wear plainclothes
and pretend to be average shop
pers. According to one of the
store’s undercover guards, who
must remain anonymous
because of job security, a good
security guard is characterized
as having four qualities: in
conspicuousness. intuitiveness,
alertness and a desire to do the
job well.
Another guard, under the
pseudonym “Kodi,” described
a good security guard as one
who maintains ‘‘commitment to
the job, stamina to get through
the boring and frustrating
periods, and definitely the
honesty and ethics which the
job stands for.”
The extent to which shoplif
ting is a problem is difficult to
measure, Williams said.
“I’ve been here since 1972,
and the bookstore started a
security program around 1968.
We’ve basically seen an even
flow of shoplifting ever since.
There hasn’t been a single year
with a significant number of
people who shoplift,” he said.
Security guards at the
bookstore must consider all
who walk through the doors as
potential shoplifters. Although
Williams says there is no profile
of a typical shoplifter, he listed
two common characteristics:
Almost all are college students,
and almost all have enough
money on them to pay for what
they steal.
The latter of the two struck
Williams as being highly
unusual years ago. but no
longer.
“You would think people
would steal more for
need.... But typically, it’s
more spontaneous when people
steal. I’m not so sure it’s
premeditated," he said. ”1 do
know that, almost without ex
ception, people have enough
money to pay for what they
take, even if on their person
they don’t have the money.”
According to Kodi, people
steal for many reasons, from be
ing short on cash to being
hungry.
“Very rarely do you get a per
son who is a true klep
tomaniac,” Kodi said. “But
there are those who steal purely
for fun.”
Another guard. “Harry,” said
probably only about 5 percent
or less of shoplifters steal
because they need to. He said
most steal because they think it
is easier than purchasing the
item.
In recent years, bookstore
security has begun to combat
shoplifting of a different sort —
theft of merchandise intended
to be sold for drug money.
“We're starting to see more
people taking higher ticket
items, perhaps doing some
things that are kind of irrational
as far as what they’re doing and
how they're doing it," Williams
said, concluding the influence
of drugs exists by questioning
suspects and from observing
theft of expensive items such as
telephones and rental VCRs.
“Typically in the past, people
would not strive to take things
out of our electronics depart
ment, but we’re finding that
there’s a larger percentage than
in the past that are doing just
that. Maybe it’s for their own
personal use, but there’s also a
realization that it’s probably for
resale,” Williams said.
“Some of them whom we’ve
apprehended over the past few
years have been known to have
drug problems. There are
records which indicate that’s a
problem for them,” Williams
said, adding he thinks drug
users’ habits almost force them
to steal, “and the bookstore
isn’t immune from them com
ing here.”
According to Dan Barkovic,
city attorney with Harrang,
Long, Watkinson and Arnold of
Eugene, a lot of University
students shoplift, “but I don’t
see a lot of those people stealing
to support drug habits.
Primarily transients and
fringe citizens in Eugene
shoplift for drug money,
Barkovic said. “We frequently
see a lot of theft of cartons of
cigarettes that people resell to
use for drug money,” he said.
Barkovic said although a lot
of the shoplifting complaints
filed result with the suspects
pleading guilty before the case
goes to trail, upwards of 100
complaints for suspects 18 and
older are prepared each month,
“of which maybe 10 percent
eventually come to trial.”
He added the penalties for a
first-time shoplifting offense
usually include a fine of about
$350 and one year of probation
as well as possible community
service. For repeat offenders, a
jail term and longer probation
are standard parts of the
sentence.
Williams, however, remains
rather congenial toward those
caught stealing from the
bookstore. “I would say the
people who steal from us are
good people. They're not your
hardened criminals. They pro
bably steal more spontaneously
than they do premeditatively."
Williams suggests one reason
that University students choose
to shoplift may stem from a lack
of accountability while growing
up, compounded by the
freedom gained when a teen
ager leaves high school and
enters college.
“They (student shoplifters)
don’t really feel they’ve been
held accountable, and there’s a
tendency to believe nothing
will happen... (they believe)
either, ‘1 won’t get caught’ or ‘If
1 do get caught, I’ll probably be
let go.’ ”
These attitudes turn into
myths, as the bookstore is
known for consistent prosecu
tion of shoplifters.
“We evaluate every single
case on its merits,” Williams
explained. “In essence, we pro
secute every case that we know
meets the criteria of probable
cause and intent beyond a
reasonable doubt.”
Using those two ingredients,
Turn to Security, Page 5