Shoplifting

Laura22 said:

There's NOTHING they can do? Why couldn't they have dragged the teenagers back in the store and asked them to show their receipts?

Some of those stores, like World of Disney, are so crazy with people darting all over the place they must lose thousands of dollars in merchandise from shoplifters.

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According to company policy, if a castmember does not actually see the "customer" steal...there is not much we can do. We can't accuse them of stealing. We learn certain steps that we must follow. If we do see a "customer" steal and head for the door without any attempt to pay, then we have a right there to check their bags. This is for the Disney Store...not quite sure how much different it is for Resort castmembers. But probably not too different.

I never understood why people would do this ...

I was at property control one day talking to the CM outside and she said some guy tried to steal one of those bouncy balls (which are priced at 25 cents there) and another CM saw him and he was terminated. He worked at Disney for a long time and he gave it all up for a 25 cent piece of rubber.

Nick said:

I never understood why people would do this ...

I was at property control one day talking to the CM outside and she said some guy tried to steal one of those bouncy balls (which are priced at 25 cents there) and another CM saw him and he was terminated. He worked at Disney for a long time and he gave it all up for a 25 cent piece of rubber.

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Unfortunately, some people are just plain stupid (I rarely say stupid, so when I say it I really mean it.)

Nick said:

I never understood why people would do this ...

I was at property control one day talking to the CM outside and she said some guy tried to steal one of those bouncy balls (which are priced at 25 cents there) and another CM saw him and he was terminated. He worked at Disney for a long time and he gave it all up for a 25 cent piece of rubber.

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How did they terminate him? Firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair? :animwink:

Man, if I saw someone trying to steal from one of the shops at Disney I'd try to "accidentally" impede their progress, hopefully causing them to fall flat on their face. CMs would come over to make sure the person was okay and hopefully notice the unpaid merchandise at that point. lol

SirNim said:

Yes.

Big,

bulging,


POCKETS... to put all their stolen merchandise in!

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Too FUNNY!!!!:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


But, seriously, I had a college roommate who shoplifted a lot. She did it just to see if she could get away with it. It's the thrill of it, I guess. I've never even thougth about trying it anywhere, and Disney would be the LAST place!!! It is very sad. This is a game to them. Maybe they are spoil OR didn't ever get anything. Maybe they get no attention from their parents OR maybe they got too much. I guess there is no "typical" shoplifter.

BTW..I did get my roomy in trouble. I just couldn't live with myself if I hadn't said something.

Unless it is actually seen, word of mouth will only go so far; unfortunately. Several of the shops have CM's floating around (such as World of Disney) to increase exposure, but there is a factor of expected theft, an issue that practically every company plans.

Some of the stores have security tags on the merchandise, but these are around for 'show' and discouragement, but none of them are actually active. There are no working door sensors, either.

In addition, some CM's, particularly in Guest Services, are educated on conterfeit money, but are actually told not to decline it, but rather to accept it. The apparent belief is to not deny the guest. It makes sense when maintaining the magic, but from the monetary aspect, it is rather unfortunate.

But you all are right...of you are paying for thing the right way then you are paying in some way for the people who ran off with it...

OK, I can't hold back from this one, I'm REALLY mad right now. :fork: Why would anyone EVER consider doing such a thing? As for the two girls at ToT, and the man at Epcot, how could they have not afforded to buy the merchandise if they had to pay to get into the park? I know there isn't much Disney can do because of the magical sense of it and guests are never confronted unless it is known and seen by them. It's sad and unfortunate that people have to resort to stealing to getting what they want. They know they are going to a place, why not save up and buy it when they can. It's not like the items are going anywhere (unless they are all shoplifted then :lol: ). I just can't fathom anyone doing this, ESPECIALLY at WDW. Isn't this supposed to be the greatest place on earth where magic lives? UGHHH....I'm so mad at these people right now. If I see anyone even attempt to steal when I am there on Friday through Tuesday, they won't be too happy. I will seriously get in their way and cause a scene. Oh yeah, I'll get pictures of that too! Speaking of pictures, what if someone took a digital picture of someone stealing and showed it to the CM, can they do anything about it then?

Well... don´t be so certain that you are going to get away with it if the CM doesn´t see you... the person shopping next to you could be a 'mistery shopper' an undercover security guard from Disney. They will immediately show the badge and you would be on the way to jail, yes, Disney doesn´t really get a soft heart for shoplifting, no matter how little the cost of the item is. As stated before, they 'terminate' you (fire you) and sue you. In the case of internationals (and I bet College Program too), you have to be out of the housing complex in less than 24 hours, before 11am the next day of your theft.
Imagine packing ALL your stuff in one night, and finding a place to stay for a while because you have a court appointment to adress sometime ahead... not easy... I saw it happen to a girl, Disney doesn´t joke about it.


(On a related note, a CM friend of mine ended up reporting to security, a guest who she thought was 'harrasing' her because he was always around her location. The 'guest' was in reality, a security guard! It was so funny... needless to say, he switched positions, his face was getting too familiar already. LOL )

Maria said:

Imagine packing ALL your stuff in one night, and finding a place to stay for a while because you have a court appointment to adress sometime ahead...

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Well, *if* there is a court appointment as a result of an alleged crime, the defendant could easily (and probably should) hire an attorney to appear in his/her place. Many judges actually prefer that the defendant not appear in the preliminary stages to help speed up the process.

Speaking of stealing, Disney steals from every guest by charging them $7 to park their car in direct Florida sun and heat for a day. For $7 they ought to wash everyone's car too. :lookaroun :lookaroun :lookaroun

Also, the truth is that while someone might assume that what they're seeing is stealing, there's always the possibility that it might not be. It's easy to jump to the most obvious conclusion, but that doesn't always make it true.

Take the t-shirt "theft," for example. Suppose the gentleman purchased the wrong size shirts. He returns them to the cash register, and the CM at the register takes them back and instructs the guest to go to the shelf and take the correct sizes. You never know. We shouldn't rush to point the finger. Disney knows that people steal. They have professionals analyze the cost benefit of various options. They could install security sensors, video cameras, staff the cameras, etc. It's simply not worth it. (For casino's in Las Vegas, it IS worth it.) If it was as easy as telling a CM that you saw something, just imagine all the immature people (teens) who would go around saying they saw innocent people stealing just to cause trouble.

People see what appears to be stealing a lot at Disney simply because of the huge volume of merchandise and shoppers that they serve. Let's assume 5% of merchandise is shoplifted. 5% of 756,219 products at WDW is A LOT more than 5% of 3,472 products at a store in your local mall.

Guests don't shoplift, customers do. :lookaroun

Timekeeper

I'm sure...no, I *hope* that shoplifting is a minor issue at WDW compared to your local shopping mall, so that's why there are fewer measures to stop it.

After all, the majority of folks at the parks are there to have fun. In recent years, I think the big culprits may be people who live near the parks and visit every so often so they can acquire stuff to sell online. Most people don't know that park-only merchandise can be purchased by phone, so they turn to Internet "dealers".

It just goes to show you that no matter where you go,you will encounter trash. On two different trips to AK, in the bathroom, there was some piece of crap mother spanking the h--l out of their kids. Both times I reported it as soon as I left the restroom and both times the CM's apologized but said there was nothing they could do about it. I know it's off the topic of shoplifting, but that really upset me.

There really isn't anything that you can do when a parent spanks their child. I myself was disciplined in this regard and there always was that looming threat that if I did something wrong, the punishment would hurt, not be a "time-out". (C'mon, when I was a kid, I had a desk in my room. No TV, no video games, no computer. If you send a kid to their room these days, they actually enjoy being there, what's the punishment in that?)

I think a lot of the problems with kids acting the way they do these days is:
1 - parents work too much and don't spend time with their kids
2 - kids don't get punished harshly enough. Taking away a teen's charging priveleges is not a punishment

I'm surprised no one else mentioned the "foxes". I worked Main Street Ops one summer and had lots of time to just wander around the shops and stuff. I noticed this one older gentlemen in the stores all the time. He knew I realized something was up and when I finally talked to him, he told me he worked for Disney. He was dressed like a tourist and even wore a disney cap. His job was to walk around the shops and watch for theft. He told me that he only watches peoples hands. If he saw someone stealing, he would wait until they left the store and then escort them to security.

Obviously they can't have enough people to watch all the stores.

When I read "foxes" I thought you were going to mention the older folks (silver foxes as I have heard seniors be referenced as) profiled in the Seinfeld episode where Jerry's uncle steals batteries from the bookstore and Jerry rats him out to save George. :lol:

To quote uncle Leo, "I'm old, I'm confused!!"

:lol:

Why

Laura22 said:

There's NOTHING they can do? Why couldn't they have dragged the teenagers back in the store and asked them to show their receipts?

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As a former retail employee. I can tell you why they cannot bring them back into the store and question them. The reasoning is that technically they can , but when they leave the doors of the store, they are as good as free because IF they were to be brought back in and not have stolen anything, you'd have a lawsuit on your hands for harrassment and surely something with public humiliation. It's not a risk most companies are willing to take. At J.C. Penny the policy was, if they left the door, they were gone. So security would try at all costs to get them before they exit.

I hate shoplifters!!! As far as the disney store is concerned we have to see the person take the item, know what the item is, etc. We can't run after them (Although I've tried- I once chased a guy who stole over 25 Snow White DVDs right in front of our eyes!!). Disney is more concerned about the safety of the cast member if there should be a problem. If a person is going to steal they will find a way. I love the fact that people will even steal the empty DVD cases from the store (HAHAHAHA). We missed making our year because our shrinkage was so bad. It's those you least likely suspect. Watch out for the baby strollers, some people don't return what is mistakenly put in the carriage by a tot!!

phlydude said:

There really isn't anything that you can do when a parent spanks their child. I myself was disciplined in this regard and there always was that looming threat that if I did something wrong, the punishment would hurt, not be a "time-out". (C'mon, when I was a kid, I had a desk in my room. No TV, no video games, no computer. If you send a kid to their room these days, they actually enjoy being there, what's the punishment in that?)

I think a lot of the problems with kids acting the way they do these days is:
1 - parents work too much and don't spend time with their kids
2 - kids don't get punished harshly enough. Taking away a teen's charging priveleges is not a punishment

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You just have to know your kid and what's important to him/her. I've kept my vow to never spank my son, but a few years ago, as a for instance, I did remove every single toy from his room for a spell. There are many ways to get a child's attention that do not involve violence.

but when they leave the doors of the store, they are as good as free

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That doesn't even make sense though, because you haven't actually STOLEN something until you've walked out the door without paying for it.

I'd love to be one of those undercover people!