Shoplifting, Larceny, Robbery, Theft Barcode Switching / Sell Back - Getting Very Paranoid

[BMan04]

I have performed the old barcode switch a number of times at self check-outs and the guilt is becoming too much. I would buy the item for a much lower price then return the item without the receipt for store credit. I never re-sold the gift cards, I would just purchase other items at normal price OR would re-do the scam. I am retiring from this stupid, stupid game and never return. My question centers around leaving behind bread crumbs that will eventually catch up to me. Each time I did this, I either paid via Credit Card or Store Credit that I'm sure is linked to my license. In addition, I am obviously on some sort of camera or my car in the parking lot is being monitored.

So my question is...For all of the people who are caught doing this, are they caught because they did it one too many times and physically got caught in the act? OR - do these large retail chains have monitoring systems within the computers that trace this sort of activity and can sniff you out even when your not physically doing it. Since I am never going to do this again, I am worried of the latter.

I am just worried that since each time I return the item for store credit, I have to give them my license. Therefore it would seem that they have record of me returning the same item X number of times without a receipt. Obviously to anyone looking this would throw up red flags.

And just to clarify, this store does not limit the number of times in a given year you can return items without a receipt.

I know I made mistakes and feel terrible for them.

Thank you in advance.

 

[thelawjournal]

This can be discovered in many ways. Just because you were not caught so far does not mean your out of the woods. Many large retailers have anaylist that do nothing but search for oddties. When they find these oddities they communicate with the Store's LP Manager who conduct an investigation. If this investigation uncovers wrong doing then the LP Manager can take action to stop, prevent or, even prosectute the person(s) comitting the theft. You left a "HUGE" paper trial that will need right to you! Your best action at this point is to stop stealing and hope and pray the aforementioned investigation never takes place

 

[BMan04]

I appreciate the feedback. I'm taking the advise...I'm done for good.

I know this is an impossible question to answer but you seem to have a lot of experience in these types of situations. Just shoting from the hip, what would you say the chances of this being undiscoverd? At the end of the day, the impact to the store was about $500 - $600 in increments of $30 over the course of a year or so.

As I stated earlier, this particular company does not limit the number of times you can return something without a receipt...at least for the amount that I was dealing with.

Any guess would be helpful...good, bad, or ugly.

Thanks again.

 

[thelawjournal]

It would be unfair to guess and, thats what it would be. If you have no contact from Police. Lawyers or, store after about 90 days from last theft you are probably safe. Keep in mind if someone else does something similar and gets caught they could uncover your wrong doing while looking into other issue

 

[BMan04]

Fair enough, thanks again.

And by the way, thank you for this site. It is a comfort to ask questions of this nature and get some honest feedback. I'm sure you are mostly dealing with scared individuals that are for the most part good but have just made some stupid, stupid mistakes, like me.

 

[thelawjournal]

Thank you. If you feel this site has helped you at all please tell others and post something in our testimonial section

 

[Guest]

You have every reason to be paranoid! You have caused the store a huge lost, possible felony theft. This will not go unnoticed. Here are likely senerios.

. LPM conducts his normal audits and stat collection for week, month etc. He should notice the oddities that are your thefts. He will investigate. This is time consuming and can take months. He will need to research everything related to you and thefts. He may need to go back far into old transactions. This may mean he must find paperwork for anythng not in system anymore. Then weed through what he has and see what related to you. what is theft. what can he prove. He must then take all this to his DLPM who must approve any action LPM takes, such as filing Police report

. An LP Analylist, if retailer has one, will send a monthly report to LPM on this report will be any transactions the Analylist found strange. The LPM must then investigate all these flagged transactions and report back to both DLPM and Analylist. If anything is found then act accordingly

. LPM investigate other matters and stumbles across your transactions. He finds them odd and investigates. Now you might think thius unlikely but its not. Here is a case I had. I had a cashier taking items off floor marking them as returns and issuing giftcard. the dummy used the giftcards herself! These Giftcards have numbers and can be tracked easily. Now while i was investigating this case I ran across another cashier doing same thing!! I was watching video footage of orignal case and saw this other cashier do samething! I ha dno clue yet she was doing this. She ha donly done it the one time. Had I not been investigating other case I might have never caught her or caught after thousands walked out door!

In short you will need to look over your should for next few months and hope and pray the thefts are not found

 

[BMan04]

^^^^
Thank you for your comments, it sounds like you yourself was or are part of the LP team.

If so, then what exactly is the FIRST red flag they are looking for? I can't imagine it is the purchases I've made. Just because I've purchase X number of the same item, is that a cause for concern?

So all I can think the only thing that catches their eyes are the returns I've made. So they see that I've returned Item Y a number of times without a receipt.

Any way...I'm definately not setting foot inside the store for a LONG time and hopefully things will wash over.

Thanks again.

 

[thelawjournal]

I can tell you this much. Each LP teams treats their investigations and how they uncover theft differently. I will further say it would not be in their favor to say how they uncover theft