Theft Prevention, Why Did I Get Beeped AT?

[team222badbrad]

Last week while visiting my brother in Kansas, I happened to walk into a store with him and his brother-in-law. Upon entering the store the theft prevention device went off. At first I was not sure what set it off or which one of us set us off.

Again while leaving the store the theft device went off again. We did not think much of it at the time, because we just thought something was wrong with the device. I have gone into several stores since that day.

Just yesterday I walked into a video rental store and that annoying little buzzer went off, again the theft prevention device. This still had me pondering what caused me to set it off because now I knew; I had set the previous alarm off.

All I had on me was some pens, a Sharpie, and my wallet, the usual.

After arriving home, several hours later, I sat down reached into my pocket to get a pen and I felt something strange irritating my leg.

Come to find out two of the three pairs of pants I recently bought at Old Navy had theft prevention tags hidden inside.

Just something funny I thought I would share!

[KenWittlief]

since you walked out of two stores, setting the alarm off, and no one confronted you

the system does not seem to be very useful - whats the point?

our local library has a system I dont understand. They put green cards in the books when you leave. If they DONT put the green card in the book, the alarm (supposively) goes off. I have no idea how that is possible?!

The green card looks like a piece of card stock.

[Brandon Martus]

I once had a theft prevention device in my wallet. I don't know if someone was playing a joke on me, or if it was in there since I bought it, but it finally got to me after going off in Best Buy, Rite Aid, CVS, or anywhere else with those systems. It went off as I entered a Rite Aid, and I gave the cashier a look (as in "hey, when it goes off as I leave, don't be overly suspicious"). It went off as I left, nobody was in the store, so I asked if I could run some tests using their security system, and she had no problems. So I emptied my pockets on the counter and finally narrowed it down to my wallet. Once I got into the car, I emptied it out and tucked way deep in one of the folds of the wallet was the tag. I don't know why it never went off at first, maybe the security systems were off or malfunctioning.

[KyleGilbert45]

I also noticed this "anti-theft" device in new pairs of Old Navy jeans a few weeks ago when I bought a pair. Working in the retail security business in my free time, I can tell you that these specific tags are pretty worthless as they can easiler be cut out or defeated with any type of foil/metal lined bag. One thing I've learned is that no matter what the item, if someone wants it bad enough they will go to almost any lengths to get it.

[Katie Reynolds]

Funny this should come up - I was just at Target and the alarm beeped when I walked through the door (and again when I walked out). Perplexed, I checked my pockets, purse, wallet, jeans ... no security tags. I took off my coat, which I've had for a year now, and noticed a tag on the inside that said, "Remove before wear".

Strange that it hadn't set anything off before, don't you think?

[lukevanoort]

Y'know, this gives me an idea of an excellent prank to pull on my older brother. Anyway, I've never had this happen to me, but I wear shorts year round, so there aren't any folds or such in them for a security tag to hide in, however when my brother and I were leaving Home Depot with the compound miter saw we got my Dad the security system did go off, but that was because the register/barcode scanner screwed up.

[Greg Needel]

good story for this thread. I was in the target by my house in Maryland a few years ago eating a pretzel at their little food shop when a family walked out of the store. The alarm went off and the security guard went and stopped them and went through their bags. After a few mins they found nothing but as they went to leave again the alarm went off again. The security guard went back up to them asking to search the purse of the woman. She let the guard yet they still found nothing. The went to leave and it still went off so the guard asked all the members of the family to go out individually. One by one they went out and the alarm went off when the youngest son went through. The mother checked his pockets...nothing. Well it turns out the child had stepped on one of the sticky tags and it was on the bottom of his shoe. The family was probably only held up for like 15 mins of this but i was thinking at the time how funny this was, and now i have some relevant place to share my story.

[Bcahn836]

At staples we have these little "easy tags" that go on anything and everything worth stealing. Anyway we get these little tags in sheets, one day a fellow employee thought it would be funny to put them down so others would step on them and get them stuck on the bottom of people's shoes. So every 10 mins the anti theft thingy at the door would go off. It got annoying after while although it was quite amusing, the guy almost got fired over it.

[Cuog]

Hilariously those little security devices(the ones that look like a giant stamp at least) can boost your cell phone signal, I have one without the center section where the RF thingymajig is stored removed and placed in my cell phone so where i normally got 2 or 3 bars i was getting 4 or 5 its pretty neat.

[team222badbrad]

Here is some information on the tags I found in my jeans.

Shoplifting Tags

Upon looking inside the rented DVD's they have the exact same type of tags.

Oddly enough they say "Be Kind Please Rewind", no joke!

I can just imagine walking into Old Navy with those same jeans on and the alarm going off, that would be bad. Sir, were is the receipt for those jeans you have on?

I am also curious as to how the tag became reactivated?

Did I get to close to a scanner/enabler when checking out?

If it did become enabled inside a store, apparently it did not set off the alarm.

[KenWittlief]

One of the best practical jokes Ive ever heard:

when a friend of mine was in college he use to study with a group of 4 other guys at the university library. Once, when one of them went to look for a book, he grabbed a book off the shelf and stuffed it in the bottom of the kids backpack.

When they walked out the alarm went off, and this 18 year old girl calls them all back to the check out desk. I wont say what the title of the book was (to avoid offending anyone - use your imagination :^) but when the girl pulled the book from his bag and told him "its ok, you can check this out and nobody will know" he just about died from embarassment

and the rest of the guys just about died laughing!

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

I once had a theft prevention device in my wallet.
...

I had the same thing happen to me with a new wallet a few years back.

[Gamer930]

Once when walking out of our School Library I got beeped at. One of the Staff walked up to me and asked "Do you have a cell phone on you?" (we were aloud to have them on us as long as they weren't on). I told her yes I did (I never go anywhere without it). Upon further investigation they had a problem with the alarms not picking up stolen books if they were really hidden in your backpack so they turned up the sensitivity and the cell phones started tripping it off.

This seems wierd because it didn't beep at me on the way in but it did on the way out and you have to walk through the same door and same detectors.

[Jill1022]

I work at Suncoast in our mall (a movie store) and we have the anti-theft devices by our door. If someone beeps as they walk in and we arent really busy we'll try to find the thing that made them beep and demagnetize it. Usually its a cd or game from another store.

But sometimes the employees think its funny to tag each other with the little stickers and laugh as they walk out and set off the alarms.

[sure_smile]

Originally Posted by Gamer930

Once when walking out of our School Library I got beeped at. One of the Staff walked up to me and asked "Do you have a cell phone on you?" (we were aloud to have them on us as long as they weren't on). I told her yes I did (I never go anywhere without it). Upon further investigation they had a problem with the alarms not picking up stolen books if they were really hidden in your backpack so they turned up the sensitivity and the cell phones started tripping it off.

This seems wierd because it didn't beep at me on the way in but it did on the way out and you have to walk through the same door and same detectors.

my cell phone always seems to trip the alarm at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore...but what i do now is just hold my phone up as i go through the detector things, and usually that works.