Police, stores on the lookout for thieves - so should you

A crime wave sweeps the nation every holiday season when stores are packed with spirited shoppers and homes are left unattended.

Starting the Friday after Thanksgiving and continuing past Christmas Day, opportunists steal from bustling stores, parked cars and empty houses at record rates.

This year, the Bristol Virginia Police Department wants to educate city residents on preventive measures. Retail stores, meanwhile, are beefing up surveillance to keep their merchandise safe from shoplifters.

Bristol Virginia Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliff said seasonal crime is impossible to predict, so consumers should keep merchandise out of view and in car trunks and keep homes looking like they’re occupied.

"People who break into houses go for easy targets," he said. "They don’t want a confrontation."

This year, Ratcliff’s department introduced THEFT, Totally Hide Everything From Thieves, a program aimed at increasing awareness of the problem. Officers will patrol parking lots for cars packed with visible goods, Ratcliff said, and leave notes on windshields cautioning folks to hide their gifts.

The retail industry bears the heaviest burden. Each day, $35 million of merchandise is lost, according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention. It estimates that shoplifters are caught on average once for every 49 offenses and that 27 million people, or one in 11, shoplift on a regular basis.

Shoplifting offenders are not limited to any demographic. A great majority are adults with men and women committing the crime equally.

At Belk department store in the Bristol Mall, the loss prevention manager, who is not named because of store policy, oversees the issue.

"Shoplifting has always been a problem. It has for years and it continues," he said. "I anticipate it being a bigger problem this year."

Belk employees are trained on what to look for. For example, they should be suspicious of a person wearing a heavy coat on a warm day, or someone who has meandered for a while yet carries no bag.

In addition, all merchandise is tagged to set off a buzzer at store exits, while security cameras survey the store at all times.
"We prosecute everyone," he said. "That’s our policy, which helps to deter shoplifters."

Patrick Bailey, owner of Mountain Aire Music on State Street, said he uses "extreme customer service" to prevent shoplifting.

"We talk to every customer who comes in the store," he said.

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