Posted on 01/26/2015 4:01:52 PM PST by SMGFan
Many consumers don’t like it when stores check their receipts on the way out of the building, claiming it treats all shoppers like shoplifting suspects. But a trio of scammers had no problem showing their receipt at Lowe’s, running a multi-state shoplifting/return scheme for several months.
According to WAVE3, the men would start out from their home base in the Danville, KY, area and then drive the 90-ish miles to Southern Indiana, swiping stuff from various Lowe’s stores along the way.
But this wasn’t a simple matter of walking out of the store with power tools and hoping no one would notice. No, it actually involved someone first making a legitimate purchase of some pricey equipment
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
In that case, take the receipt home and scan it. Find the same type paper they use for receipts, and print as many as you would like. All too easy.
I commonly use Home Depots (HD) that are just outside the NYC limits and receipt checking is common. Lowes does not have the penetration that HD has in these areas, so maybe it is the clientele that frequents a particular store that dictates whether there is security present at the exit or not.
Aha! You must be part of this gang.
Was at Costco today. They do that also.
Nope. Just with some minimal computer knowledge, a scanner/printer, and the right paper, virtually ANY kind of document can be produced. Easier than photoshop gurus producing images, because this is just dealing with text most of the time. The key is just to get the right paper.
Get a document. Scan it into an image. Edit the image to make any desired changes... Print. You got yourself a new document of your liking.
I’ve never personally done anything like this myself. I’m just a computer guy that COULD do such things if I wanted to, and realize the potential for mischief.
That’s why when you get a prescription, it’s done on that ‘security paper’. Funny though, you can buy that stuff online from many sources. LOL
Good point.
Of course I don’t understand how they could just go directly to the door without anyone noticing they hadn’t gone through a checkout line.
I worked at the local Home Depot after getting laid off. I was there full-time for a year or so and then continued part-time after getting back into my regular gig. We were getting hit 3 or 4 times a week, the majority were white, trailer park meth addicts. Some tried being sneaky about it and some would just grab a couple of higher end cordless drills under each arm and run out the door. The HD policy is to not be a hero, let them go and if you happen to catch a license plate number then great.
I stood there one evening with the cashier in the garden center. Business was slow and we were standing there facing the parking lot. It was dark but we heard somebody running down the front apron of the store from the main door toward the garden center. It was dark but when he emerged from the shadows, we saw this crack addict huffing and puffing with a Dewalt drill under each arm, heading for an idling car waiting just beyond the street lights. The cashier said, “Oh, my God, he’s stealing those drills! Grab him!”
I watched him go by within arms reach and looked at her and laughed as I pointed to my chest, “$9.25 an hour, baby. Find another hero.”
Anyhow, as there are a number of HDs and Lowes in the area, the managers began alerting each other after a store was robbed and descriptions of the thieves were pretty consistant from store to store.
But we did have a pretty creative and sneaky gentleman known to everyone as Spiderman. It took a while but they finally caught him. He looked like an outdoor worker (construction or farming) in his late forties to early fifties, clean-cut graying hair, trim build and pretty athletically fit. Fit in a spry and agile way.
Spiderman would walk in the store wearing a short jacket and head to the power tools and sometimes to the electrical department (for some of the more expensive electrician tools), grab a few items and head to lumber where he would turn up an aisle and promptly disappear. A few weeks later one of the lumber associates, while packing down a stack of lumber with the forklift, would find the discarded packaging which contained the shoplifting sensors. The key being that the packaging isn’t discovered until the security tapes have been written over a time or two or the footage is lost among a few hundred hours of tape.
The last few times before he was finally caught, we actually zeroed in on Spiderman when he walked in the door and followed him from a little distance and lost him in the lumber aisle again. He would jump behind the stacks of lumber and climb up through the sprinkler voids between the aisles to the top rack. One guy saw him going into the racks and when we looked all around and on top... nothing. Somehow he managed to get across to another rack, two aisles over, shed the packaging and stuff everything in his jacket, casually hop down and head out the door. One of the associates (after we had lost him) spotted him 10 minutes later walking to his pick-up at the far end of the parking lot. The associate got his license plate and a description of the truck and the HD security team caught him at another store a week later.
Oh, by the way?... if you’re ever greeted by multiple associates on after the other to the point of being obnoxious? You are a suspected shoplifter. It’s called tag-teaming. They want you to know without accusing you, that they are watching your every move. :-)
“Oh, by the way?... if you’re ever greeted by multiple associates —————”
—
I wish-—I’m usually looking for one. :-)
.
B.J.'s has done that for years.
“I’ve NEVER seen anyone check a customer’s receipt leaving Home Depot or Lowe’s....Only at Sam’s....”
There are ‘checkers’ at the exits of Lowe’s, Home Depot and Wal-Mart here in Texas.
I have never been stopped by a checker so that I think that there may be some profiling in the mix. I’m 71. Maybe they look suspiciously only at young/er people?
Or fewer items on each receipt, and return it to the store they bought it at.
Also done here in California at many stores like Costco. On your way out, they mark the receipt so it can't be reused. And to return items, you are given a sticker upon entering with an item and sent immediately to the return desk.
Haha! So true. They will cut hours early in the week (Monday thru Thursday) if their numbers are down and often some departments wouldn’t have anybody scheduled so they ask an associate from a neighboring department to cover. They track store sales and department sales daily. Some managers will even check two or three times a day and cut hours accordingly. There is a running quarterly competition between stores in the districts and the managers get some pretty nice bonuses if their store finishes on top. The associate bonuses, after taxes, eh, not so much. Maybe a couple of tanks of gas.
But walk into HD wearing a heavy coat in 80 degree weather and you’ll find an associate real quick. ;-)
I happen to detest all shopping and am lucky enough to be able to purchase most of what I want.(I bought a brand new car in my lunch hour).
I went to HD to look at,and order hardwood flooring for my condo. They had one clerk who was very busy with another customer. I could find no one else.
I left and went elsewhere. I would have been an extremely quick sale.
.
They sell the saw they didn’t return for a discounted price on eBay or craigslist.
Going into the same store repeatedly will get you noticed quickly. You would have to make a ton of trips to the same store to accumulate the amount of cash these guys did. Go to multiple different stores and you appear to be just another customer. It’s a very common tactic for Organized Retail Crime (ORC) groups. I’ve also known some of these groups to create their own receipts rather than purchasing an item to get one.
Not a good idea. I found out to my chagrin after I was burgled a couple of years ago that the insurance company wanted copies of receipts for my stolen items before they would re-imburse me for them on my replacement value insurance policy. It seems the Obama economy has fostered a new form of insurance scam. . . victims inflate what was stolen and the insurers demand proof you've actually purchased the item, no matter how long ago you bought the item or how small the purchase. My burglary involved $12,000 of Blueray disks. . . and who keeps receipts for under $20 purchases? As a result, the insurance company instead of reimbursing me for $12 grand, only paid off under five grand!
Scum.
About a year ago I bought a new cordless drill that had the wrong chuck size for my business needs. Upon discovering my mistake, I took the drill back into the store to the return desk to have the purchase re-credited to my debit card.
The clerk took my receipt and looked it over, then asked me to hold on a moment as she called the store manager on the in-house phone. The manager strolls up after a minute or two and begins grilling me about the exact details of my purchase. He wanted to know who in the store had seen me return with the item.
Seems I came back in through the wrong entrance, so no one took notice of me carrying a brand new drill INTO the store. In fact, I had actually walked right by the store security guard and one of their head cashiers, both of whom looked right at me as I passed by - though neither one could recall seeing me only a few minutes later.
I couldn’t believe how this was developing. I mean, I’m a very dark skinned fella with a cowboy hat on. Something you don’t see every day. How on earth did the guard and the cashier both fail to note someone that unusual carrying an expensive item INTO the store?
Anyhow, I guess my surprise convinced the manager that I didn’t just walk back into the store with a receipt, then pick up a new drill off the shelf to rip them off.
People who write anti-virus software have written a lot of viruses.
Not that hard to combat if you got a little common sense and the person giving you the refund isn’t in on the scam. Especially if that employee is one that’s very hard to fire.
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