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Yeah...we were robbed today.

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  • Yeah...we were robbed today.

    I've been working temp at F.Hinds the jewellers for the past month, and apart from the mouldy watch straps, the old lady with her hair crawling with nits that everyone hid from, writing 'BOLLOCKS!!' with cleaning solution on the 'non-tarnish silver' picture frames, our manager who loves to bitch at customers behind their backs and the sheer awesomeness of fingering all that glinty goodness, it's been problem-free.

    Today was my last day!! It started off well, I found a £10 next to a bin on my way in and it was just more cleaning for me. I generally get to serve towards the end of the day when there's no cleaning for me to do. Now here's how it works - you look in the window, see the thing you want, then go tell us and we'll get it for you. If it's over £100 or diamonds I can't sell it, but most other things, go for it.

    So here we go. We were very busy, the 5 members of staff were all selling stuff and other people were waiting. I took a trio of...foreign...I think they were Indian or Pakistani, or at least some language that I can't understand in the slightest - pleasant enough, and eventually with some miming and showing I figured they wanted to look at the men's gold rings. OK, so I take out the pad and they have a nose.

    The woman was looking for the biggest ring we had, and this at 3 cm long was it but it was too short!! She had a look at some others on the pad, asking questions I couldn't understand - I kept smiling and rattling off the nice points about said rings. Somewhere along the line I think she showed she had ##so much money to spend, showing me a fan of £20 notes. Then one of her two gentleman acquaintances wanted to see too, so I put the pad on the back counter and went to see what HE wanted, and fetched it.

    On my way back Mr D (manager) mentioned to me that there was now a gap in that first pad. The price ticket was underneath it; a £50 gold ring had GONE.

    Well, what do you expect when these people are flustering one so much? It's obvious there's a language barrier, we don't sell the rings thou wanteth, and bombarding me with foreign questions and waving cash at me is distracting me enough to take my eyes off the pad for a second. On the third pad I had to show these three, they picked at the ones in the corners and I refused to look up this time - they sounded angry I wasn't looking at their faces - but oh noes!! There's another blank space. I seriously didn't see this ring being taken AT ALL!!! So I said: "Hey, can you put that BACK please!!!!" and the second man (they all looked at a pad in order) looked like he 'humphed' and pulled off a ring he wore that still had our tag on it!! Foiled, mate...but only one out of two.

    Mr D filled out a form to send to Home Office, and I didn't know if he was upset with me or not - he's a hard man to read, and all my coworkers said they didn't envy me in my position. I don't want to sound horrible, but it seriously looked like these three were highly practiced in this kind of thing.
    "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

  • #2
    seriously looked like these three were highly practiced in this kind of thing.
    sounds like they most likely are...

    sorry that happened but it could have been a lot worse...at least no one was hurt or anything like that..
    I don't go in for ancient wisdom
    I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
    It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

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    • #3
      I don't think an armed attempt would've worked - we're in a small mall and it's security is good, plus you can't break jewellers' window glass. The way we're warned about in training is mostly snatch-and-grab, not armed - though they do say to just go along with them if they succeed and make you go fetch stuff - but distraction and sleight-of-hand wasn't really included.

      It could have been worse, £50 is like nothing. The silver stock is never bothered with, and even though we have lots of expensive items on the walls (£180 clocks!!) it's D stock - Diamonds - that has its own security measures. One pad has the 1ct and above stones, they're the general target if ever (even though those rocks are fragging UGLY and full of inclusions!!!) and the second-most expensive thing in the whole shop needs a forklift to move - it's a grandfather long-case clock.
      "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

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      • #4
        A £50 ring probably cost the company £25. It's upsetting when it happens to you, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad.

        Do you not have the place absolutely covered in CCTV?

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        • #5
          Quoth smellystudent View Post
          A £50 ring probably cost the company £25. It's upsetting when it happens to you, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad.
          More likely the cost to the shop was closer to (L)17. (ok, I don't know how to make a pound sign on this 'merican keyboard!)

          But yes, distraction is probably the most common method for shoplifting small, expensive items. I'm really surprised it was not included in your basic training.

          It's highly unlikely that you will have to pay for the stolen merchandise, and the powers that be should understand that this will happen from time to time. Don't let it get to you too much.
          Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end.

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          • #6
            Sorry to hear that, hope everything turns out ok!
            No longer a flight atttendant!

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            • #7
              What you need

              Is fakes. One of the major jewelery chains here in Canada has nothing but fakes on display. The gold is all gold plated and the diamonds are some other crystal.

              They use the same equipment used to make the real thing, so what you see is what you will get if you buy something, but anyone who steals a display item is in for a surprise when they try to sell it elsewhere. Also since all the jewelery stores know about these store fakes, if you try to sell them elsewhere there is a good chance the police will be waiting for you as you leave the store.

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              • #8
                Quoth Primer View Post
                More likely the cost to the shop was closer to (L)17. (ok, I don't know how to make a pound sign on this 'merican keyboard!)
                Control-C and Control-V works

                Rapscallion

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                • #9
                  £

                  On a "colony" computer keyboard:

                  Press the ALT key, then type 156 on the side keypad and release the ALT key.

                  (The 'extended' code, which I think is pretty limited):
                  http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/inf...iles/ascii.htm

                  ANd I hope the peolpe who stole the ring are caught!
                  Quote Dalesys:
                  ... as in "Ifn thet dawg comes at me, Ima gonna shutz ma panz!"

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth SongsOfDragons View Post
                    Mr D filled out a form to send to Home Office, and I didn't know if he was upset with me or not - he's a hard man to read, and all my coworkers said they didn't envy me in my position.
                    Sounds like they were attempting something similar to a quick-change scam, something that your manager shouldn't be angry at you for, as there are people out there who are extremely skilled at pulling that scam off. It's not your fault you didn't catch on to what they were doing.
                    "I call murder on that!"

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth earl colby pottinger View Post
                      Is fakes. One of the major jewelery chains here in Canada has nothing but fakes on display. The gold is all gold plated and the diamonds are some other crystal.

                      They use the same equipment used to make the real thing, so what you see is what you will get if you buy something, but anyone who steals a display item is in for a surprise when they try to sell it elsewhere. Also since all the jewelery stores know about these store fakes, if you try to sell them elsewhere there is a good chance the police will be waiting for you as you leave the store.
                      Ahhh...thing is, we do sell gold-plated and crystal jewellery, on the other side of the window from the big stuff. Plus we are a rather small store, and it's hard enough going out to find the boxes for any figurines the customer wants than having to go and find the 'real' stock from a myriad of off code numbers. It's a good idea but I don't think F.Hinds has the ways to pull it off.

                      Plus how can you fake watches? Some of those we sell are £300.

                      Quoth Primer View Post
                      But yes, distraction is probably the most common method for shoplifting small, expensive items. I'm really surprised it was not included in your basic training.
                      Now you mention it, I am too...we covered the more 'snatch and grab and leg it' method.

                      And CCTV - I don't think we have it.
                      Last edited by SongsOfDragons; 08-26-2007, 04:58 PM. Reason: adding quote
                      "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth SongsOfDragons View Post
                        Plus how can you fake watches? Some of those we sell are £300.
                        They do it all the time in China.

                        But seriously. I don't understand why the manufacturers don't make dummies for their ADs. They could glue the hands to the dial, replace the movement with a hunk of lead, put in a cheap plastic crystal, and partially saw through a lug or two.
                        Proud to be a Walmart virgin.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          That's a fairly common tactic for thieves. Come in a group, have one or two distract the salesperson while the rest steal.

                          As a rule, I am immediately suspicious when a group of people came into my store and approach me. About 7 times out of 10, they do indeed turn out to be scam artists and are trying to overwhelm me into giving them something for free by bombarding me with questions and nasty comments from all sides. Call me crazy, but I've always somehow managed to buy a computer/DVD player/game system/cell phone without an entourage of 5 friends in tow.

                          Sometimes, I have to sit back and admire a theif's ingenuity. I never would have thought of hiding an external hard drive or some other small, expensive peice of computer equipment inside a paper shredder box, then having the casheir scan the shredder, pay for it and walking out of the store with my stolen hard drive scot-free.
                          A smile is just a grimace that's been edited for public consumption. -- Tony Cochran

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                          • #14
                            I have seen cashiers open boxes that people could hide other merch in. Some customers seem shocked that people would actually steal.

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                            • #15
                              I have people at the jewelry counter almost daily (minus the foreign language part) who like to try to distract me and rip us off. They want to see something from nearly every case, all of which are locked separately, and then get pissed when I take away the ring/pendant/chain they are currently holding before moving on to the next case to show them something else.

                              I believe this tactic worked on me once when I first started working at the jewelry counter. The thing is, I was so flustered and confused by what the SC was saying and doing that I'm still not sure to this day if he made off with an expensive ring or not.
                              Retail Haiku:
                              Depression sets in.
                              The hellhole is calling me ~
                              I don't want to go.

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