[mbpnursy]

EVERYONE: PLEASE READ THIS POST. ALSO: WATCH THE TODAY SHOW VIDEO IN THE LINK & ALSO TONIGHT THE SPECIAL ABOUT THIS SUBJECT.
The Today Show - Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, Al Roker, Natalie Morales - News, Celebrities, Recipes, Video, Tips and Advice, Entertainment and Live Concerts -- MSNBC.com- MSNBC.com


YOU JUST MAY WITNESS THIS HAPPENING WHILE YOU ARE IN A STORE, JUST AS SEMICOLON DID IN WALGREENS LAST WK.

BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS & TAKE ACTION!!! Notify store personell, etc. Get out that cell phone & use it when you should!!
This is one of the reasons why prices of items increase, & we honest people all pay that price!

It's called "Boosting" here's a link from this morning's NBC's Today show, scroll on the videos offered, then click on "Hunting down professional thieves" It's a video, so the particular video cannot be copied/pasted.

Also: There is a special on @ 10 pm ET tonight about this. This story/video was run Twice on the show this monring, w the 2nd. time a little different than the first. NOW: unsure if Tonight or Sun. night the story will be run on Dateline, & the preview on their homepg. doesn't mention if for Fri. & no mention made for Sun. night's topic.
ALSO: do NOT buy goods, especially baby formula & personal items, off of eBay. That is where these goods that have been "boosted" are being sold!!

AND: don't buy BABY FORMULA OFF EBAY!! That baby formula that you got such a good deal on @ eBay, just may have been in someone's scorching, HOT trunk for 2 days or more. The video even showed 2 women grabbing & emptying the shelf of canned baby formula into a cart, then wheeling the cart right out of the store. This looked like WM.
It's in that video, as either the Walgreen's or Target specialist speaks about this in particular.
And I'm sure they will mention it in that special tonight, as well as unless you Personally know the eBay seller, DO NOT BUY THESE ITEMS OFF OF EBAY. IT IS ALMOST 99% CERTAIN THAT YOU ARE BUYING STOLEN GOODS.

It appears that this is a Reeeeaaaallllly BIG problem for Target & Walgreens, as loss prevention/theft recovery specialists were on the show from both those companies speaking about this costly subject.
AND: they showed a Huge Warehouse FULL of stolen/boosted goods that Walgreens has recoverd & tagged for prosecution of those thieves.

Razors, toothbrushes, dvds: being wiped off store shelves. In the 2nd time the boosting story was run on the Today show this morning, a WM employee was shown Unlocking Razors for a customer to purchase. OMG, they are locking up toothbrushs & razors in stores to prevent theft!!!!

My dh said: now it makes sense why in our sparsley populated U.P. WM stores, sections of shelves & whole sections of items on the shelf @ WM are empty. These boosters are coming from either down below (Mich.'s Lower Peninsula) or Green Bay, WI area or other high populated areas, & getting away w this! Law enforcement up here just is not set up to handle this type of thing in our area.

It was mentioned that one seller on eBay was making $5,000 a week reselling these stollen personal items.

It is not done just by mom/pop outfits they said, but more often large groups of people come into a store & start dumping items into carts. These groups can be as large as 40-50 people, & quite often illegal immigrants are paid a buck ($1) a box for the items they boost & turn over to the ring leader.
The piece even showed 2 women grabbing & emptying the shelf of canned baby formula into a cart, then wheeling the cart right out of the store!!! This looked like WM.

PS: SPREAD THE NEWS ABOUT BOOSTING!! My posts under the main forum for ea. of the stores mentioned was removed & deemed "News", which I already beat the moderator at by posting it here. BUT: I am afraid THOUSANDS of AFCers will NOT read this post in the "News" section, as THOUSANDS of AFCers do NOT scroll down & read the "News", they IMMEDIATELY scroll down to the store area or somewhere else, Bypassing the "News" section. So please help the other AFCers & store shoppers. Thanks.

[fsc]

The link?

[NoahsMomma]

please

[mbpnursy]

OK, link fixed. For some reason, that link will not come through when you copy/paste to different forums.

[joshmamabear]

that is so sad.

its not only WM now not taking back formula returns, all stores refuse formula returns. now I understand why. I wouldn't buy formula off ebay or craigslist or any coupon auction forum either. I'm too paranoid of how these were handled/stored.

[NoahsMomma]

Today Show Video Player


after the commercial it comes up with my link. Great post thanks.....

[twinners]

No wonder Walgreens & Target workers follow us around the stores ~ they probably think we are "boosting".

Did they say the special was on tonight? Cause I thought I heard him say Sunday night.

[NoahsMomma]

It will be on Sunday night at 10:00 pm EST

[mbpnursy]

Originally Posted by twinners

No wonder Walgreens & Target workers follow us around the stores ~ they probably think we are "boosting".

Did they say the special was on tonight? Cause I thought I heard him say Sunday night.

NO, TONIGHT!!!! Here's the Link w the current NBC schedule:
TV Network for Primetime, Daytime and Late Night Television Shows - NBC Official Site

BUT: the preview for tonight's story on Dateline's website show is going to show about the stock broker who swindled people then faked his death.

So, I don't know now, they may run the Boosting story as a short piece tonight, or Possibly the other PP is correct: Sunday. Can't get the preview to come up for Sun.


I'll watch Fri. & Sun. night, just in case.
That's why they ran the piece this morning, to give a preview of tonight's show, AND they put the ad in Bold Letters: Tonight, Special, 10pm ET. The ad was aired AFTER the piece ran, so it will NOT be mentioned in the video clip.
AND: Your thoughts were my 2nd. thought, behind #1 thought: what semicolon was witness to in Wags last wk. Check out her post regarding the store being robbed while she was in it. Now it makes sense to me, as I couldn't figure out why would you want to steal everyday personal items off a pharmacy's store shelves, while the REALLY GOOD stuff to steal is the narcotics behind the pharmacist's counter.
Yep, I 2nd. your motion: that is probably why we couponers are followed around the store, ESPECIALLY when we have FULL CARTS!!
Now It All Makes Sense, especially when semicolon mentioned taking razors & kleenex. These are personal items that are being boosted & resold on auction sites.

PS: SPREAD THE NEWS ABOUT BOOSTING!! My posts under the main forum for ea. of the stores mentioned was removed & deemed "News", which I already beat the moderator at by posting it here. BUT: I am afraid THOUSANDS of AFCers will NOT read this post in the "News" section, as THOUSANDS of AFCers do NOT scroll down & read the "News", they IMMEDIATELY scroll down to the store area or somewhere else, Bypassing the "News" section. So please help the other AFCers & store shoppers. Thanks.

[Kmchamplin]

Thanks for the post in here. It is very informative as is the video. Though I have known about this for years and have seen it happen. Small time boosters, know that they can walk out of Walmart with under $24 in merchandise without having the security go after them. They just go in and out all day long without being prosecuted.

WE took off ALL the duplicate posts because it clogs up the boards. If you want, you can have a link in your siggy about this post.

[doubledee4]

I once had someone come to my lane as a cashier at Target with a cart full of boxes of toothpaste, told me he had 130 tubes, I looked at his cart, and started to move things around, he kept insisting I could take his word for it, I didn't need to count them. I called for assistance and we decided to take a few minutes and count them since he had a variety and we after all had to "kkep the inventory straight" turned out he had 717 tubes of toothpaste! He acted shocked, Wow, I thought there was only 130 there, I only want that many, he had a small store, so he claimed...

[Kmchamplin]

Ummm that is a HUGE difference in how many he thought he had. Good for you for catching him in his act.

[mbpnursy]

Originally Posted by Kmchamplin

WE took off ALL the duplicate posts because it clogs up the boards. If you want, you can have a link in your siggy about this post.

I don't know how to do that. Can someone point me in the right direction??? Thank you.

[Semicolon]

I saw this piece on the Today Show today. It was mesmerizing. I can't believe what the poor store in San Francisco has to do... even their toothbrushes are under lock and key!!! I hope it comes on Dateline soon, I would love to see it. Thanks for the post mbpnursy!

[tootsie roll]

I also saw this clip on the Today Show this morning. I knew about shoplifters, but this is a whole new level of stealing. They even mentioned that some of these organized groups will recruit immigrants to steal large amounts of products, and pay them per stolen item.

[joshmamabear]

toothbrushes under lock and key?

it would be embarrassing if they put condoms and K-Y jellies under lock and key. then, you have to ask for assistance to buy some. I'd rather not buy any

[abigirl]

I noticed a bunch of products in Walgreens had stickers that said something along the line of "this product is for sale at Walgeens only" - now I understand why.

I can't believe people would do that! It seems like every day there is another reason not to buy from ebay

[marchfree]

What is our world coming to? very scary to think about how this will continue.

[Kmchamplin]

Originally Posted by mbpnursy

I don't know how to do that. Can someone point me in the right direction??? Thank you.

You just go to your user CP and click on "edit signature". Then copy and past the link in there.

[Alexdur85]

Wow.. Great Post!! You learn something new everyday!

[klarsen117]

How sad. And we pay the price, literally.

[budgiebirdy]

People do this with everything, not just personal items. I used to work at Dillard's, and people would steal the Tommy Hilfiger and Pendleton clothing items left and right. It was ridiculous. We would put out a whole new rack of Hilfiger, and come back from our lunch and all but like 2 would be GONE! These people are professionals and come in in groups. Two people might distract you and "ask for your help," and meanwhile there's a couple of other people moving things in the corner and shoving it in large shopping bags behind the racks. Not even locking up the leather did any good. These people CUT THE ROPES on the leathers that were locked down!!

I'd say that anytime you buy ANY new merchandise off of Ebay, you run the risk of buying stolen goods.

[patbruck]

I guess I'm having trouble understanding how someone could walk out of a store with a whole cartload of unpaid mdse, without anyone noticing a thing. Sorry, but what does that say about the store's loss prevention system? For the amount of money the retail giants stick into high-end camera systems, electronic theft-deterrant devices, paying LP personnel, etc, etc etc, this really should not be happening.

I buy and sell all the time on ebay and the thought of stolen goods has never crossed my mind. One time DH's sister bought my baby girl some ugly Nike crib shoes - I had no problem selling them since they were new in their original package. Just this evening, I was cleaning the basement and came across a pair of GAP pants with the price tag still on and I am planning on listing them. Can I prove I purchased them? Um no, they are at least 5 years old and the receipt is loong gone. But I would be extremely offended if someone accused me of listing stolen goods.

It really is pathetic that people do this, don't get me wrong. But people are people - most of them are good, but there will always be the "bad apples" who ruin it for everyone else. Therefore, I think it is ultimately going to be up to 1) stores to strengthen their loss prevention systems and 2) law enforcement to prosecute them to the fullest extent possible, to put these crooks to a halt.

[cundiff2001]

I save all my wags/target/wal-mart/grocery receipts in a storage box for this very reason. I don't sell alot on ebay, but I have huge stockpile yardsales about twice a year. I am afraid someone is going to call the police and think I have stolen the stuff. I do the same thing w/ my gap/gymboree/old navy/children's place. I sell the super clearance stuff to help buy my kiddos clothes. People around here are too rich and lazy to do it for themselves. I worry about it though for the above reason.

[mbpnursy]

Originally Posted by patbruck

I guess I'm having trouble understanding how someone could walk out of a store with a whole cartload of unpaid mdse, without anyone noticing a thing. Sorry, but what does that say about the store's loss prevention system? For the amount of money the retail giants stick into high-end camera systems, electronic theft-deterrant devices, paying LP personnel, etc, etc etc, this really should not be happening.

I buy and sell all the time on ebay and the thought of stolen goods has never crossed my mind. One time DH's sister bought my baby girl some ugly Nike crib shoes - I had no problem selling them since they were new in their original package. Just this evening, I was cleaning the basement and came across a pair of GAP pants with the price tag still on and I am planning on listing them. Can I prove I purchased them? Um no, they are at least 5 years old and the receipt is loong gone. But I would be extremely offended if someone accused me of listing stolen goods.

It really is pathetic that people do this, don't get me wrong. But people are people - most of them are good, but there will always be the "bad apples" who ruin it for everyone else. Therefore, I think it is ultimately going to be up to 1) stores to strengthen their loss prevention systems and 2) law enforcement to prosecute them to the fullest extent possible, to put these crooks to a halt.

They "steal" while in prison, too. I recently retired as an RN after working 10 yrs. in a High Level Security State men's State prison, & believe you me honey, I've seen just about everything.