User:Tom Fearer

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[edit] Generalized Overview

Basically my only contributions to this site so far has been expanding the (Loss Prevention) article, moving Common Shoping Scams to the Shoplifting stub and the NASCAR stub on Dave Marcis. The reason I wrote the Loss Prevention artice is because there isn't a lot of LP information out on the net. It seems to me that a lot of higher ups in the Loss Prevention industry want to suppress information, or that is the opinion that I've come to. The response to the Loss Prevention stub has been great. Sonoma College in California now uses it as a reference in their security classes. All the contributions to the stub thus far have been greatly appreciated and hope even more of my peers will add to the information already avaliable. If you have a further in depth question I'd be happy to answer it, my email address is tomfearer@yahoo.com.

I recently made several additions to the Shoplifting stub. It contains much of same shoplifting information as the Loss Prevention does statistical wise. I moved the Common Shoplifting Scams to the Shoplifting stub and further expanded on them. Shoplifting is a esential part of Loss Prevention so therefore I left the necessary stuff in the LP stub. I would be interested in seeing a couple of shoplifters add to the Shoplifting stub so we can all see things from their perspective. That may seem odd coming from a Loss Prevention investigator, but people are people and are going to do what their going to do.

As far as my personal background goes, I orginate from the Detroit area. I currently reside in Phoenix Arizona which, I can you tell from first hand experience is an infinitely better place to live. Its nice to actually live a place that doesn't have 20 abandoned buildings on every city block. Unlike some users I won't regail you with a bunch of BS about overblown high school sports glory. That said, I do enjoy all forms of sports and I am a fan of every Detroit team. My other interests include studying criminal law and automotive engineering.

[edit] Loss Prevention Background

I started my Loss Prevention career at Target when I was still in my teens. Having no knowledge of probable cause and reasonable suspicion at the time made things very difficult. I intially struggled to find shoplifters during my first three months. That said, the first shoplifter I ever caught happened to have a six inch knife and fought with the police. Oddly enough I've only had one other fighter during the duration of my career.

After about three months I started to see how losses were occuring. I started to see the scams that shoplifters were using to get merchandise out of the store. The most prevelant of which was a scam I dubbed Shopping Cart Magic (see Shoplifting). In addition I quickly became known for detecting check, credit card fraud, and elimating operational losses. For two years in fact I led my district in merchandise recovered and lower the shrinkage precentage one year at the store I was working at by .5%. Some of the employees started to call me by the somewhat unfortuate nickname Mr. Pain as things progressed.

I really didn't develop a sense for internal theft until I caught by best friend attempting to steal a Ding King Set. My friend worked in the store Garden Center and apparently was going to pull dents out of his Toyota Supra (some friend huh?). After that internal theft sort of became second nature, in my opinion it is the most interesting part of LP investigations in my opinion.

At for working for Target for three years I decided to move amid the frusteration of trying to advance for a lengthy time. My stop in my Loss Prevention career was at Dillard's. Dillard's is simply put it was an interesting place to work. The way Dillard's LP program is set up is very similar to how the industry used to be 30 years ago. Most companies won't let you use every legal avenue available to arrest shoplifters and employees. Dillard's had loose policies on such things as consent searches which, often made for a great deal of fun. Although I enjoyed my time at Dillard's more than I did at Target, I left after a year and half because I thought it had turned into a dead end.

A lot of LP people on all levels like to let pin their ears back and let people steal and rather not promote deterence. The problem with this is that they often waste a lot of time on small dollar items and often make many false arrests. From my prespective I've burned out on the idea that I have to bust every single shoplifter no matter the circumstances sometime ago. Unfortuatly this view is still very prevelant in the LP industry today and often has dangerous consequences for indivdual LP investigators and employees. I would cite the quota system of Target as a prime example. Target's quota system doesn't adjust itself for the crime level in the neighborhood of a particular store. As a consequence, a store located next to a retirement community is expected to arrest the same amount of shoplifters as a store next to the projects. Retailers need to understand there is more at stake in taking away somebody's freedom then there is for making a sale.

Currently I'm a LP supervisor for a major US retailer. I've always enjoyed working with store employees, fellow LP personel, and people just with interest in learning about the industry. I've always enjoyed my career, its been difficult at times but the mental and physical challange has been worth the effort to this point.