Ever Been Frisked By A Security Guard?

[tony ingram]

As a lot of you good people clearly know where the Law stands on this, you will doubtless know that the security staff will try and weasel your name and addrress out of you before the Police arrive:


----this is so they can send you threatening letters demanding money from them for stealing from their shop [often sent through a bully-boy cowboy solicitor seperate company.]

'Civil Court Prosecution,' seperate from the Police pressing charges.


You are not obliged to give the store staff your name or address , even if you are a thief.


Just sayin'.....,.,

This is absolute rubbish. In twelve years in the business working for several companies I never once heard of any such practices being employed.

[starscape]

Gets offended by a guard saying 'excuse me', putting a hand on his shoulder, explaining why, then profusely apologising. Wonder how Walter the Softy would have reacted in the same circumstances?

[felneymike]

Once in a club in Lincoln, there had been some incident a few days before and they were checking random people for knives. I wasn't too upset by that, I was more angry later on when I went to a pub gig and got thrown out for blowing my nose in the toilets, they thought the sound had been something else! Oh well, it was my last day in the city.

Oh and every single time going into the arena at the Download Festival this year. Which was a lot, as I got the flu at it and had to keep going back to the tent for medicines.

[starscape]

Once in a club in Lincoln, there had been some incident a few days before and they were checking random people for knives. I wasn't too upset by that, I was more angry later on when I went to a pub gig and got thrown out for blowing my nose in the toilets, they thought the sound had been something else! Oh well, it was my last day in the city.

Oh and every single time going into the arena at the Download Festival this year. Which was a lot, as I got the flu at it and had to keep going back to the tent for medicines.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

As a lot of you good people clearly know where the Law stands on this, you will doubtless know that the security staff will try and weasel your name and addrress out of you before the Police arrive:


----this is so they can send you threatening letters demanding money from them for stealing from their shop [often sent through a bully-boy cowboy solicitor seperate company.]

'Civil Court Prosecution,' seperate from the Police pressing charges.


You are not obliged to give the store staff your name or address , even if you are a thief.


Just sayin'.....,.,

This is absolute rubbish. In twelve years in the business working for several companies I never once heard of any such practices being employed.

With all due respect, Tone, I knew someone who this actually happened to, and they showed me the threatening letters from 'solicitors' demanding cash.... [they never stumped up, but apparantly some people do, whether they have stolen or not]:maybe the Law is different here in Scotland, or it's a more recent ploy from the stores since you were employed in this field? I have no reason to make this up. The Solicitors letter had an English postmark, incidentally: although a web search revealed them to be 'bully-boy tacticians, best simply ignored'.


The Law itself should be enough to punish wrong-doers in my view, or the shop should reject police action, but they are hypocrites who still do not have the courage of their own convictions to prosecute completely independently from the police.

Here in Scotland at least, some of the stores clearly put up signs dettering shoplifting, saying they will prosecute in the civil courts 'for our protection and security'.

I don't know if the Police approve of this practice or not, the 'solicitors' send a booklet explaining why this action is seperate from Police action. To be fair, I don't actually blame the stores for trying this, as the Law is pretty feeble, with many shoplifters getting away Scot-free, or a pitiful fine .

They send a second letter demanding a higher 'covering fee' then threaten Civil Action , although they never bothered pursuing this in the case of my amigo.

[Raven]

This is absolute rubbish. In twelve years in the business working for several companies I never once heard of any such practices being employed.

ISPY is absolutely right. Look up RLP.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18595023

"RLP is the biggest firm involved in the civil recovery business which has developed over the past decade or so.
Shops, stores and supermarkets employ the firms to sue shoplifters, or alleged shoplifters, for compensation.
Typically letters are sent to the alleged thieves, even if they have not been prosecuted, demanding they pay compensation to the retailers, or face being taken to court.
It is a line of business in which the civil recovery firms are estimated, since 1998, to have threatened legal action against 750,000 people."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12132543
'High Street shops take justice into their own hands' (Flustered man accidentally puts a cable worth £19.98 into a box with a tag of £18.16, underpays by £1.82 and receives a letter demanding £137.50.).


http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/d ... ters-fines?
Big retailers force suspected shoplifters to pay hefty fines
"The consumer group (Citizens Advice) says people accused of shoplifting are increasingly receiving letters demanding large sums of money in "compensation", and being threatened with court action if they don't pay up. The demands for damages, typically for £150, are being sent in cases where criminal charges are rarely brought, and in many when the police have not even been called.

Letters are often sent weeks after the incident, when the person thought the matter had been resolved. They take no account of the fact that the recipient denies the allegation, or that the matter was a result of genuine error while using a self-service checkout."

[matrix]

I think this is a good time to thank Raven, with the help of Rab, for his support of DavidKW.

Raven has made intelligent factual statements to counter comments made by some members, one who was even in the industry.
David has had to put up with subjective remarks from some members who clearly do not understand the situation, being told he was overeacting, and to get over it, easy to say if you are distanced from the event.

Davidkw 1-Non supporters 0!

[tony ingram]

I think this is a good time to thank Raven, with the help of Rab, for his support of DavidKW.

Raven has made intelligent factual statements to counter comments made by some members, one who was even in the industry.
David has had to put up with subjective remarks from some members who clearly do not understand the situation, being told he was overeacting, and to get over it, easy to say if you are distanced from the event.

Davidkw 1-Non supporters 0!

You can put whatever spin on it you choose, but I'm still firmly on the side of the guard trying to do the job he's paid to do. It seems stores should have no right to protect their own interests, in the eyes of some people on here, just in case someone overreacts to being stopped. I'm disappointed at finding such an attitude apparently prevailing here, but sadly not entirely surprised given the some of the experiences I had while in the business myself. The customer, it seems, still expects to be always considered right-even when they're wrong.

[starscape]

I am so offended! Today I was on the train and the inspector asked me if I had a ticket. I was made to feel like a criminal. He had absolutely no reason to believe I hadnt bought my ticket. I showed the ticket to him to prove I have paid my way. He never even apologised. The inspector should not try to imply that anyone is getting an unpaid for journey unless he has actually seen that person jump over the barriers.

I have never been so frisked! Goodbye cruel world.



And I thought matrix spoke really harshly in implying I was wrong. I want mummy and marshmallows.

[matrix]

C'mon lads you're overreacting there a bit, get over it.

[starscape]

Dont you frisk me

[tony ingram]

I am so offended! Today I was on the train and the inspector asked me if I had a ticket. I was made to feel like a criminal. He had absolutely no reason to believe I hadnt bought my ticket. I showed the ticket to him to prove I have paid my way. He never even apologised. The inspector should not try to imply that anyone is getting an unpaid for journey unless he has actually seen that person jump over the barriers.

I have never been so frisked! Goodbye cruel world.



And I thought matrix spoke really harshly in implying I was wrong. I want mummy and marshmallows.

"Unless he has actually seen that person jump over the barriers"? What a disgraceful thing to say! Jumping over the barriers is not evidence that someone has not bought a ticket-he might simply be in training for the next Olympics and using whatever makeshift hurdles are to hand.

[Hard Truths]

I don't get what all the mockery is about. An innocent civilian was harrassed without notice by an overzealous security guard who should have been fired. I can certainly understand why he would think someone rushing out a shop without buying anything is a shoplifter. What he should have done is just tell him as he was leaving: "Sorry, mate, I need to check your bag to prove you're not a shoplifter. I don't think you are, but it's customary to do that with someone who's rushing out of a shop without buying anything" or words along those lines. None of this "sudden heavy hand upon shoulder from behind" nonsense. The "Scuse me, mate" doesn't exactly help his case either. I can totally understand why David was traumatised.

It makes total sense that he shock he got from what the security guard actually did would still be with him by the time he came home - it definitely would for me if I was in that situation. And it didn't seem to last long for him either - by the end of page 2 of this very thread the fear had been overtaken by anger at the guard's completely unprofessional behaviour. And although I'm no expert on what people on internet forums think, I'm fairly certain, judging by how David seemed to be coping fairly well while still in shock, that the rage wasn't eating him up all the time, he just thought about it occasionally and was each time irritated by the amateur behaviour of someone who is employed by a massive chain of shops to do a job that doesn't have to be so disturbing. That's all there seems to be to it, from my perspective at least. Completely natural.

[tony ingram]

And from my perspective it was still a complete overreaction to a man doing the job he was paid to do in a perfectly reasonable manner. Anyone "traumatised" by an incident like that has clearly led a far too sheltered life. The fact that you actually believe a man should have been deprived of his livelihood for such a trivial thing frankly disgusts me. Have some sense of proportion, for God's sake.

[Sweeny Toddler]

I must have been about 13 maybe and it was one of the first times I was allowed into town on my own. It was late morning/early afternoon and I sauntered into HMV to see what they had. The shop was pretty empty and I got talking to the security guard, I stood and talked to him for a good few minutes. Quite a while. Then I went and had a look round. I remember picking a 5 pack of blank tapes out of a basket in the middle of the floor, having a look at them and then putting them back.

Anyhoo when I walked out the shop 5 minutes later the same security guard stopped me and asked to see inside my jacket. Sure I said, a little confused. Then when he started looking in my bag I clicked, what the $@&$% I said, what are you doing, I was chatting away with you, having a laugh next thing I know your rifling through my stuff, what gives?

Oh you were bending over the tape basket with your jacket unzipped I thought you might be putting the tapes down your jacket. One minute we'd been chatting away next minute he's accusing me of being a thief. I remember calling him all the names under the sun as I walked out of the shop feeling cheated and wronged but for the first time truly knowing the meaning of the phrase sadder but wiser