Business owners discover ways to combat shoplifting

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — How can merchants fight an increasing problem of shoplifting?
    That was the focus of an informal meeting of about a dozen local merchants June 21 at the Houlton Higher Education Center.
    “The Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce recognizes the problems store owners have with shoplifting and employee theft,” said Jane Torres, executive director for the chamber. “We felt that it was important to offer a venue where we can get together and discuss this growing problem.”
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
SHOPLIFTING SEMINAR — Local merchants attended a seminar on preventing shoplifting. Giving their presentation are, from left, Jane Torres, executive director for the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commmerce; Walt Huffman, Marden’s loss prevention expert; and Butch Asselin, Houlton chief of police.
    To spearhead the meeting, the chamber brought in Walt Huffman, loss prevention expert for Marden’s chain of stores in the state, as well as Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin.
    Huffman, a former law enforcement officer, said shoplifting was not limited to just the “big box” stores.
    “Most of the time, the big box stores have fairly elaborate video systems, policies and procedures for dealing with shoplifters,” he said. “It’s the small merchant who has three or four employees, often related to one another. Those are the people who often have the least amount of information or resources to deal with this problem.”
    Those smaller businesses often simply ignore the problem of shoplifters, he said, because they are not equipped with the knowledge of how to prevent instances from happening or go through with prosecution of cases after the fact.
    “If a small business gets hit often enough, it can put you out of business,” Huffman said. “Smaller, family-type businesses generally operate on a month-to-month basis.”
    Huffman said today’s criminals have an effective way of communicating with one another.
    “The bad people meet Friday nights at parties,” Huffman said. “They talk about things like what stores can be hit? Who is buying stuff that is stolen? Who are the security officers? The same people meet again on Saturday, hopefully in jail.”
    Participants were presented with a handout, which detailed how a storeowner can effectively detain a shoplifter; how to handle bad check cases; and what they can expect when it comes to prosecuting a person.
    Huffman said there is a very distinct difference between a robbery and a burglary. With a robbery, there is typically an aggressor confronting a store employee seeking money. Those instances typically involve a real, or perceived, threat to the employee’s safety. Shoplifting cases fall under the burglary category and typically do not involve hostile situations, but could elevate to that level when a person is caught and confronted.
    “The bottom line is, there is nothing that you have in your stores that is worth an employee or customer getting hurt over,” Huffman said.
    Asselin presented the group with a sampling of police calls his department had received over the past two years that involved shoplifting or burglaries. He noted that shoplifting and thefts were on the rise in Houlton. He said shoplifting or theft cases amounted to 19 out of 225 reported thefts in Houlton from June 2010 to June 2011 (8.4 percent). That figure rose to 27 out of 192 cases (14 percent) from June 2011 to June 2012.
    “There was an increase, but these types of events are underreported,” he said. “Does it (shoplifting) happen in Houlton? Of course it does.”
    The chief said there is a common misconception about who is committing shoplifting crimes in the area.
    “We tend to stereotype shoplifters as kids or low-income individuals, but that is not the case at all,” he said. “I have seen doctors, lawyers, hospital administrators, right on down to the kid that is on welfare.”
    Shoplifters from Canada are also on the rise, Asselin said, which poses greater challenges to prosecute, especially if the person is not arrested at the time of the incident. Employee theft is another area major avenue for stolen goods.
    He said the best way storeowners could help themselves was by installing video cameras in their businesses to aid in prosecuting criminals.
    Asselin said shoplifting is an exception to the rule of police having to see an offense happen in front of them before they can take action. Police can arrest a shoplifter based on testimony given to them by store clerks or storeowners.
    The class of crime depends on the value of the item or items taken.
    “Generally, we are talking about Class A offenses,” Asselin said. “That’s because generally the items stolen are less than $500.”
    Asselin said store owners/clerks may legally detain an individual for up to 30 minutes. During that time, he suggested, it was a good idea for businesses to take a picture of the individual so police have an image to go by. He also said it was a good idea to have a trespass notice served on the individual to prohibit the person from returning to the store.