family Weekly I March 17,1963
year in Alexander's New York stores, 3,500 were
teen-agers! Twenty-seven hundred were 12 to 16,
about seven out of ten of them girls. Macy's,
with department stores across the country, re
ports that since World War II teen-age shoplift
ing has greatly increased, with girls in the major
ity. The women's division of the Detroit police
reports that among female shoplifters, 14-year- .
olds outnumber all other ages. Shillito's, a lead
ing department store in Cincinnati, keeps all
its shoplifting cases on IBM cards and has
precise statistics: 78.2 out of every 100 shoplift
ers are under 1845 girls to every 33 boys.
Shoplifting "clubs," which will not take in a
member until he or she has stolen something,
have cropped up, too. Several years ago the arrest
of two sisters, 13 and 15, uncovered one in Miami.
In Oklahoma City, a woman detective broke up
a club composed of girls from several high schools.
.They began by swiping school supplies, then
moved on to the downtown stores. One club re
quired shoplifting of at least $25 worth of
merchandise, another specified cashmere sweat
ers. These club activities account for only a tiny
fraction of juvenile shoplifting. But most ex
perienced store-protection experts agree that girl
shoplifters are apt to steal in pairs, occasionally
in groups of three or four. Boys usually work
alone. Mothers and daughters will shoplift to-
staples 137 to 60. William F. Alexander, one of
the nation's top protection men, has reported:
"In one city that I surveyed, I found that some
50 percent of those apprehended represented the
better-fed, better-clothed, and better-housed."
Still another false image: that the typical shop
lifter is a person suddenly overwhelmed by an
irresistible impulse. A protection expert says:
"I don't believe in 'impulse stealing,' not when a
woman goes about it so craftily and the impulse
lasts long enough for her to go from counter to
counter and even from floor to floor." Most wom
en caught shoplifting will first proclaim inno
cence "I didn't know I had it" or "It fell into
my bag." When that alibi is demolished, shell
say, "I don't know why I did it"
There 18 statistical evidence that most shop
lifting is a calculated operation. For example,
an Oakland study of 205 supermarket shoplifters
revealed that 118 took two or more items 33 took
five or more apiece.
Moreover, even among those classified as one
item shoplifters, there were many who had taken
three steaks or two cartons of cigarettes or six
packages of candy.
Most shoplifters use the old standard tech
niques the amateur Bimply secreting items under
coats or in pockets and handbags, the pros em-
by having the sleeve around a record sealed.
Huge Bums are also being poured into mech
anical countermeasures. Many stores are equip
ping their detectives with radios so that they can
be dispatched quickly to trouble areas. The de
tectives dress and act like regular customers.
In self-service stores they even push carts around.
Men attach the radios to their belts where they
can't be seen; women carry them in handbags.
Some of our largest department stores (for
instance, Hudson's in Detroit, one of the nation's
biggest-volume single stores) are now using tele
vision cameras to spot shoplifters. Also, elaborate
systems of mirrors are being installed in many
stores so management can watch strategic areas
like counters selling such shoplifter favorites
as cosmetics, costume jewelry, gloves, and nylons.
Many stores mount their mirrors so as to make it
obvious to shoplifters that they are being watched
because prevention is far more desirable than
detection and apprehension.
Some stores also use the two-way mirror. It's
a normal-looking glass on the customer's side, a
see-through glass for detectives on the other side.
Recently at one department store I watched
through one covering a men's fitting room the
view was perfect. The next day a detective using
that same mirror caught a man putting on a
$29.95 pair of ski pants, then putting his own
Newest Crime Wave
By
DON
WHARTON
housewife, or teen-ager you saw the other day at the supermarket or department store
gether, but fathers and sons almost never. The
clubs are rare, but the gang spirit is widespread,
including the treatment of shoplifting as a
"sport," something "smart," hidden from parents
but bragged about to schoolmates.
There are several misconceptions about shop
lifters. Most prevalent is the notion that a great
proportion are kleptomaniacs. Actually, the com
pulsive shoplifter is rare. Experienced observ
ers estimate that kleptomaniacs account for not
more than 1 percent of shoplifting losses. Be
tween 15 percent' and 20 percent are caused by
professionals who make a living shoplifting
they convert the merchandise into cash through
"fences." The remainder, at least 80 percent of
the losses, are attributed to the so-called "ama
teurs" (two-thirds of them women), many of
whom shoplift so regularly that they might be
termed "semi pros."
Another misconception is that the amateurs
come mainly from lower economic groups and
steal from need. The fact is they come from all
economic strata, usually carry considerable cash,
often have charge accounts, normally steal lux
uries. From Oakland, Calif., comes an analysis of
197 apprehensions: 56 involved professors, doc
tors, teachers, engineers, salesmen, office workers,
military officers, and the wives of such. When
their thefts were classified, luxuries outranked
ploying special belts for holding items on hangers,
large bloomers for storing a dozen or more stolen
skirts, sweaters, and blouses. A long-time favor
ite with pros of both sexes is the "booster box."
It looks like a newly wrapped purchase but has
a hinged bottom which springs open to receive
merchandise, then snaps shut Abercrombie &
Fitch, the New York specialty store, reports that
the newest thing in booster boxes is one made "
out of an attache case.
Shoplifters are quick to find new and ingenious
ways to take advantage of new products and new
packaging. For instance, when cereal boxes were
introduced with the new easy-open, easy-close
tops, shoplifters began dumping the contents and
slipping in two or three cartons of cigarettes.
When supermarkets began selling frozen pizza ,
pies, shoplifters began using them for hiding
phonograph records.
It was to combat shoplifters that firms began
mounting small items (for example, lipsticks and
razor blades) on outsized cardboards. It made a
large bulky package out of a tiny one, but shop
lifters then began twisting the merchandise off
the mounting board. The answer was the "blister
pack" or "skin pack" with board and all covered
by a tough transparent plastic. Another shop
lifting technique is slipping two phonograph rec
ords into one sleeve. But this has been countered
trousers over them. The shoplifter was a $12,000-a-year
man, had $90 in his billfold, and claimed
he didn't realize he had the ski pants on.
In many cities retailers are holding shoplift
ing clinics and pooling their know-how. Many
people do not realize how great the chances are
that they will be caught Also, many have the mis
conception that before apprehending a shoplifter
management must wait for him to leave the
store. That's not so. Forty-six states now have
laws permitting in-store apprehension. A 47th,
California, has court rulings to that effect
In Oakland, Calif., the retailers have persuaded
the police to set up a central file index carrying
the names of all apprehended shoplifters, whether
prosecuted or not The result is that when a shop
lifter puts in the usual claim that this is "my
first time," the Oakland retailer can simply pick
up his phone and check with the central index.
Store managers report that very often just
the motion of reaching for the phone causes the
self-proclaimed first-timer to admit he's lying.
Similar central files are being set up quietly in
a few other cities Cincinnati, for example. The
central file is no panacea, but it does illustrate
the aggressive action required to halt the shop
lifting increase which burdens stores heavily,
raises prices for honest customers, and schools
so many youngsters for careers in crime.
Family Weekly, Man 17, INI