Loss Prevention Staff Stealing at Nordstrom’s

Sept. 30, 2008

The other week an investigation by Nordstrom’s and police revealed a theft ring working out of the King of Prussia mall store, located in the greater Philadelphia area. This in itself is not unusual news. What's shocking about this case is that four of thieves were either former or current Loss Prevention Department employees of Nordstrom’s. Read the Times-Herald.com article.

During my career, I've investigated, interviewed, prosecuted and terminated several loss prevention employees that had decided to turn to the "dark side." It's a fact, not everybody is honest.  Whenever theft or dishonesty by loss prevention staff was detected, I always took it as an attack on my credibility as these people in some way reported to me.Back to the story.

Most of the thefts at Nordstrom’s occurred from the mailroom as packages mailed to legitimate customers were redirected to the thieves. I'm not sure how the thefts were discovered, but these cases normally become known by checking the shipping records of packages leaving the store. The sad part of this story is employees hired to protect the assets of Nordstrom’s committed the thefts.

Curtis Baillie - Security Consulting Strategies, LLC