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10 FEDA News & Views E &A Restaurant Supply's showroom is typical of many in the indus- try. There's an oversized front counter area and chairs to accom- modate large transactions; multiple aisles brimming with product, and a few troubling blind spots nestled throughout its 100,000-square-foot showroom/ware- house space. In security expert Scott McDonald's eyes, that equates to easy pickings for shoplifters and organized retail crime (ORC) gangs. As the CEO of the firm Monument Security, he's been involved in sti- fling those efforts for more than 20 years, first as a member of the local sheriff's department before becom- ing a private investigator and even- tually acquiring Sacramento-based Monument Security with his dad in 1995. The firm specializes in providing loss prevention and con- sulting services for retail stores and private companies throughout the country. Noteworthy busts include helping police in North Texas uncover a massive fencing operation that amassed more than $300,000 worth of stolen goods. "ORC is huge," says McDonald, who also co-hosts the Food Network's new show "Thieves, Inc.," with fellow loss prevention expert Connie Ribble. "Years ago, people would go in, steal and sell to a middle man or someone else. That's how they made money, getting 25 cents on the dollar. Then it went to 20 cents on the dollar because of competition. Today all of that's changed. ORC is on Protecting Your Business Against Theft Ribble and McDonald steal like the pros. Most eye-opening moment for E&A after the show? Watching Ribble shove a $450 blender—box and all—inside a harness under her skirt and waddle out of the store. "It was quite shocking to see how professional boosters target a store, load up and get out with a lot of stuff," says Green. "Real-time wise, she did it all in less than 10 seconds." In total, the pair managed to walk away with $1,205 worth of prod- uct, ranging from chef's clothes and knives to odds and ends like mea- suring spoons, an ice cream scoop and pewter plates. And even though everyone entering the store was required to sign a release stating that they were being filmed, there was a handful of people caught tak- ing product during the taping of the show. Two—a pair of men obviously working as a team—purchased a set of trash cans but didn't pay for the $100 thermometers they pocketed. A perpetual thorn in the side that didn't make the show: three custom- ers who helped themselves to a few low-ticket items, assuming they were entitled to a few freebies. "Happens all of the time," says Green. "They come in and take a ladle or an extra spoon and throw it in the box while we're writ- ing up an order. Several years ago, we began taking the product and ringing it up behind the counter so no one could just toss additional items in a bag. Our counter is over four feet high, so you can't really see over it." That was one of the chinks in the By Stacy Ward, Managing Editor fedastacy@verizon.net the rise because people no longer have to go through a middle man. Instead, they can just take the product and list it on Craig's List or eBay." And small businesses like E&A in Plainfield, N.J., are attractive targets. Just ask the distributor's Vice President Joel Green, who's had his own encoun- ter with ORC. "About a year ago, this one group came in and took about nine tabletop juicers," he says. Although, after participating in an episode of "Thieves, Inc.," even he was surprised how easy it was to lift product from his store. "We do a lot of business with the Food Network, especially for their stu- dio cooking show, so they asked us if we wanted to be on the show," says Green. The premise of "Thieves, Inc.," is to show how vulnerable most stores really are when it comes to theft and then provide low-cost solutions to prevent future losses. Unbeknownst to employ- ees, cameras are installed afterhours to catch shoplifters during the day and film One of the keys to curtailing theft is to make it more difficult to take massive amounts of product in a short period of time. Locked peg hooks are an inconvenience but they prevent someone from pulling a handful of product off the shelf. Security Expert Scott McDonald