January 6-12, 2005

naked city

Been Caught Stealing

Illustration By: Jeffrey Bouchard

A peek into the Christmastime criminal mind.

by Andrew Parks

Nothing says "Merry Christmas!" or "Mazel Tov!" like the collected works of Daddy Mack and Mack Daddy. Especially when they're purchased with a five-finger discount.

"The opportunity to swipe a Kris Kross CD is just too good to pass up, I guess," says Repo Records owner Dan Repo. Sad but true, his story: Small-time crooks looted bits of Repo's bargain bin this holiday season, and pilfered album art from empty cases (those burned Death Cab For Cutie CD-Rs need liner notes, after all).

Do you hear what we hear? It's the echoes of that cursed Christmas spirit, which recently brought out the desperate, petty thief in those with long gift lists and little money.

"Society has these expectations, that you have to give [gifts], but a percentage of people don't have the resources," says Charles A. Sennewald, a longtime security management consultant and author of Effective Security Management (Butterworth-Heinemann). People steal out of necessity, he says. "Everyone does it: mom, dad and the schoolteacher. It's too bad we have that societal demand, but it's there."

"When money is an issue, people see it as their right to steal," adds a manager at Pearl Art & Craft Supplies who wished to remain anonymous. The South Street store was another victim of sticky-fingered Santas. In its case, Pearl was freed of mildly expensive markers, pens and other phallic instruments of expression that fit snugly down people's pants. Hip/hoochie clothing store Guacamole was also pillaged a few times, despite its fortress-like system of bag checks, exit alarms, hidden cameras and eagle-eyed Pacific Sun-esque employees.

"I wouldn't say [theft] happens a lot, but people definitely try," says Jon Hunt, one of Guacamole's managers.

Hunt says the store sometimes finds orphaned security tags, a telltale sign of shoplifters who may have succeeded at cramming Converse kicks or articles of Dollhouse denim down a billowy blouse or oversized hoodie.

Such amateurish attempts at seasonal thievery are nothing new. Bridget Pizzo, owner of vintage-minded Greasy Waitress, recalls two incidents from last Christmas. One girl kindly asked her to grab an item off a rack, and stole a handmade bag while her back was turned. Another pair of ladies worked her "tag-team style, a la Kids," and made off with an armful of inventory.

No wonder she now runs the store — sans overhead and shoplifters — via the Web.

But not everyone is getting swiped or swindled. Foster's Urban Homeware, Spaceboy Records and trendy women's clothing boutique Vagabond are among the Philly shops that claim to be virtually theft-free. All three credit their clientele for the clean record.

"Surprisingly, it isn't something that occurs here," says Larry Lantz, co-owner of Foster's, which stocks such steal-me items as op art stationery, handmade buttons and Parasite Pals paraphernalia. "Our staff does a good job overseeing things and it isn't an issue with our customer base."

Major chains such as Target, Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble (gotta love the suited Beanie Sigel-looking character stationed at the Rittenhouse Square entrance) do have an issue with their customer base, though. They face it head-on with two terrible words.

"We have zero tolerance in regards to shoplifting," says Sharon Weber, Wal-Mart's mouthpiece for loss prevention and security issues, of the chain's procedures.

So Wal-Mart hates shoplifters as much as it does George Carlin, in the same way Repo tires of South Street hoodlums. Yet little changes from season to season. Sennewald says shoplifting is a cyclical problem, as outlined in his controversial book Shoplifters vs. Retailers: The Rights of Both (New Century Press).

"People succumb to temptation because it seems so easy to do," he says. "You've got electronic article surveillance tags, cameras and more people, and they still can't bring this thing under control because there's this sense of, "Who would ever know?'"

Sennewald founded his security consulting practice back in 1979, when mirror lenses and exploding ink tags were nonexistent. He claims to have developed the first concept of loss prevention, used at the Broadway Department Store. The idea was to intimidate prospective shoplifters by dressing store detectives in loud red blazers and golden badges rather than secret shopper clothing. Arrests for shoplifting went down, as did inventory losses. Sennewald says stores would encounter less shoplifting today if they took this approach.

"The prevailing attitude today is hook 'em and book 'em," explains Sennewald. "Everyone loves to make arrests. I don't know if we ever really addressed the problem, aside from throwing more resources at it. And I don't know if we ever will."