RETAIL SECURITY/LOSS PREVENTION NEWS ROUND-UP BY; RICK MCCANN www.privateofficer.com

Retail Security/ Loss Prevention News Round-Up by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

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LAKEWOOD CO. TEENS CAUGHT SHOPLIFTING COUGH SYRUP Police responded to King Soopers at 7984 W. Alameda Ave. at 3:38 p.m. Oct. 26 on a report of teenagers attempting to steal cough syrup. Using security cameras, loss prevention officers watched the two boys, a 15-year-old from Englewood and an 18-year-old from Lakewood, conceal several boxes of Robitussin and attempt to leave the store. When the officers confronted the boys, the 15-year tried to get away and kicked the officers. He was handcuffed after a brief struggle with officers and store employees. Police found four boxes of Robitussin in the 15-year-old's pockets. He was arrested on suspicion of robbery and booked at the police station. The 18-year-old was given a summons on suspicion of shoplifting and released.

MILLVILLE N.J. -- Eugene Mitchell Jr., 45, of North High Street, was arrested Wednesday for shoplifting after he tried to conceal four containers of CDs from the North 2nd Street Walmart in his pants. The containers of CDs were worth $22 each. He was released on his own recognizance.

JEFFERSON COUNTY, N.Y. -- State police break up a major shoplifting ring in Jefferson County. The arrests are the result of an eight month investigation at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in LeRay and the Wal-Mart in Watertown.Authorities arrested a total of 13 people on charges ranging from larceny to possession of stolen property.

ROUZERVILLE VA - Two Waynesboro men are in Franklin County Jail, one of them on drug charges, after they allegedly tried to steal a computer, DVDs and CDs from Wal-Mart at 12751 Washington Township Blvd.Michael Ernst Brown, 25, of 12075 Hess Ave. was committed to the jail in lieu of $100,000 bond, and Robert Lee Bennett, 57, of 27 Cleveland Ave. was jailed on $50,000 bond, police said.The incident occurred at 5:12 Sunday night, according to a news release from Washington Township police.
Brown, who police said had a large amount of cash and cocaine on him, became disruptive while being searched at the police station and had to be subdued with a TASER stun gun, according to the report.He was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit theft, two counts of retail theft, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence, possession of cocaine, possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia according to police.Bennett was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit theft and retail theft.Both men were arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Richard Alloway, Pleasant Hall

Georgetown MD. An 18-year-old Ocean View woman was arrested for allegedly shoplifting at the Georgetown Wal-Mart.Kendra P. Kachel is alleged to have removed several items from display and put them into her purse. She then attempted to leave the store without paying for the items. When she was approached by store personnel, she pushed them and attempted to run out of the store. Kachel was charged with robbery 2nd degree; she was released on an unsecured bond.
In a separate incident at the Wal-Mart, 36-year-old Howard W. Bowman of Bridgeville was arrested after store personnel observed him placing items inside his coat and walk out of the store without paying for them. Bowman was charged with shoplifting and released on a criminal summons.

FLORENCE — A Southampton man was charged Tuesday in the theft of about $800 worth of merchandise from a drugstore, police said.Timothy Haas, 30, was arrested at a motel in Lumberton after an investigation into the theft of shampoo, aspirin and heartburn medication from the Rite Aid store on Route 130 on Oct. 25, police said.Several of the stolen items were recovered from Haas’ motel room during the arrest, police said.Haas was charged with shoplifting and lodged in Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly on $20,000 bail, police said.

WHITE PLAINS N.Y. - A security officer from The Westchester mall and employees from two mall stores were arrested on multiple felony charges Tuesday, accused of using stolen credit cards to buy gift cards.Otis Jackson, 24, of 4 Windsor Terrace, White Plains; Gerald Joseph, 23, of 168 N. Lawn Ave., Elmsford; and Anthony Jesus Perez, 26, of the Bronx were picked up at the 125 Westchester Ave. mall Tuesday afternoon. All are charged with felony counts of second-degree forgery, third-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. They’re also all charged with fifth-degree conspiracy, a misdemeanor.Detective Lt. Eric Fischer said Jackson, a mall security guard, is accused of bringing stolen credit cards to the Foot Locker store, where Joseph works, and Lady Foot Locker, where Perez works. Joseph and Perez, who police say knew the cards were stolen, put them through to purchase a total of $3,900 worth of gift cards Oct. 25, authorities said. The scheme was discovered by one of the store managers.Bail and court information was not available.

HOUSTON TX. It may be necessary for them and convenient for contractors, but day laborers who wait outside a southwest Houston Home Depot say they’ve been running into trouble with the store’s security guards.On any given day, there are about 100 men who gather in the store’s parking lot, looking for work.The day laborers claim security guards hired by the store to patrol the parking lot have been running them off the property, sometimes physically shoving them off the sidewalks.Some of the laborers even claim they’ve been sprayed with pepper spray.
One worker said a guard pulled him off of a contractor’s truck after he’d already been hired.“Home Depot decided to take a hard-line attitude towards the day laborers because of the chaotic nature of hiring day laborers on their property,” immigrant rights activist Maria Jimenez said.Activists admit some of the fault lies the laborers who run to cars as they roll into the lot. They say they want the store to designate an appropriate waiting area for the workers, as long as the alleged harassment stops.In a statement, Home Depot acknowledged the laborer’s complaints but said they are only looking out for their customers.“In the interest of safety and convenience, along with feedback we receive from our customers, we maintain our non-solicitation policy to keep people from loitering on our property.”

Mesa AZ. A woman was arrested in connection with the theft of more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from 11 Arizona Mills stores, police said. Angela Thomas, 46, was arrested after getting away from the mall's loss prevention staff when she was suspected of shoplifting, booking reports show. Police said Thomas took empty bags into 11 stores that day and shoplifted from all of them. Tempe police found Thomas across the street from the mall after she fled the mall's staff.She was arrested at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on suspicion of shoplifting on the 4600 block of South Priest Drive, near U. S. 60.

Alamogordo N.M. Shoplifters of every age, lifting goods from belts to gasoline, were picked up by police over the weekend.Friday's shoplifting list, according to Alamogordo Department of Public Safety police logs, includes a young man and an old man.Patrick Grande, 75, of Deming, was issued a non-traffic citation for shoplifting Friday, according to the logs. He paid for $20 worth of gas, then allegedly pumped $38 in gas without paying to make up the difference. He is to appear in Municipal Court.Also in the logs, Joshua Oglesby, 27, of 1302 1/2 Michigan Ave., was arrested Friday for shoplifting at Lowe's Pay and Save. Oglesby allegedly concealed steaks on his person and tried to leave the store without paying for them. He was released on an unsecured bond to appear in Municipal Court.While tending to the alleged steak lifter, police found Kelly Vargas, 29, also of 1302 1/2 Michigan Ave., at the store with Oglesby. Logs state DPS gave Vargas a non-traffic citation for trespassing. She had, on another occasion, been issued an order not to trespass at Lowe's."They were together," DPS Sgt. Hal Alton said of Vargas and Oglesby. "She'd been previously warned not to be at Lowe's, I don't know why."Like Oglesby, Vargas is to appear in Municipal Court.Saturday also saw its share of shoplifting action as two 14-year-old girls were referred to the Juvenile Probation and Parole office for it. According to logs, the girls allegedly attempted to remove two belts from Wal-Mart without paying for them.Both girls were released to their parents pending notification by JPPO.

FLINT TWP. MI. - Police have arrested a suspect in the Oct. 22 and Oct. 24 attacks on female shoppers at the Genesee Valley and Courtland Center shopping malls.Flint Township police Sgt. Gene DuBuc said officers from Burton, Flint Township and the Flint Area Narcotics Group took an individual into custody in connection with all three incidents about 8:30 p.m. Monday.Details about when and where the arrest occurred were not immediately available this morning.
The Genesee Valley attack occurred about 5 p.m. Oct. 24, when a Montrose woman, 26, was assaulted and her car stolen in the parking lot outside the J.C. Penney store.The suspect punched her in the face and head several times before shoving her inside her car, but she was able to slide out the other side of the vehicle and run back into the store. She was treated for minor injuries at Hurley Medical Center.The woman's vehicle was recovered the next morning at Courtland Center shopping mall in Burton, where police later learned another female shopper had been abducted in her own vehicle about an hour after the Genesee Valley attack.In that case, the victim was driven to a remote location and raped, then driven back to the Flint area.A similar attack occurred two days earlier at Courtland Center, when a man matching the same general description forcibly abducted and raped a female shopper as she walked to her car outside the mall's food court about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22.Police from all three agencies are preparing a joint statement on additional details of the ongoing investigation.

VINELAND N.J. Police arrested Brian Carey, 23, of Chew Avenue, Franklinville for shoplifting merchandise totaling $341.84 at 7 p.m. Friday at Rite Aid in the 500 block of East Landis Avenue.--
Police arrested Michelle Hernandez, 23, of South Third Street for shoplifting three girdles, valued at $96.50, at Boscov’s in Cumberland Mall on Saturday afternoon.

ATHENS OH. Two people are facing felony charges Wednesday afternoon after police say they shoplifted a hefty amount of merchandise from an area shopping center.Athen's city police say Tuesday, a Walmart security guard witnessed two women and a young boy leaving the store without paying for their items.When stopped by the security guard, the suspects, Teresa Estep, Serena Craig-Cooper and the young boy were found with more than sixteen hundred dollars worth of stolen merchandise on them.Estep and Craig-Cooper are charged with felony theft.They are both out of the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail on bond.The juvenile could also face charges for his involvement in the crime.

Topeka KS. Police officers responding to a report of a shoplifting arrested a woman in connection with drug offenses.Police spokeswoman Kristi Pankratz said officers responded at about 8:40 p.m. Monday to Wal-Mart, 1301 S.W. 37th St., regarding a shoplifter.
Pankratz said the person attempted to leave the store without paying for items and was approached by a store loss prevention officer, who then notified police. Responding officers then found drug paraphernalia on the person.Maryolita Adams, 38, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Jail in connection with theft, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of crack cocaine.

HOUSTON TX. - An off-duty Fort Bend County sheriff's deputy working security for West Oaks Mall fired his weapon twice at a motorist who apparently attempted to run over him Sunday evening after being ordered to stop.Police are looking for the driver, who escaped along with two other suspected shoplifters.Glen Duran, a deputy assigned to the county jail, was called by store clerks after three men were caught shoplifting at the Macy's store just before 6 p.m., said Victor Senties, spokesman for the Houston Police Department. The three suspects had been followed by security personnel inside the store where they were reportedly seen going from department to department, throwing items over their shoulders. As the suspects were leaving the store, Duran was summoned and followed them into the parking lot.Reports said when he ordered the men not to get into their car, they jumped in and the driver put the car in reverse in an attempt to hit the deputy, who fired two shots at the fleeing vehicle.No one was apparently hit by the bullets, said police, as the suspects fled.

PORTSMOUTH N.H. A shoplifter pled guilty and requested that the court transport her to a methadone clinic during her thirty incarceration. Megan Glidden made the unusual request Friday in court and the judge answered that he would think about it and let her know within a week