Join the Fight!

Tackling ORC with Technology

By Tony Sheppard, LPC

The year is 1994 and a spry new store detective follows “DeFazio” out the door onto Michigan Avenue. “DeFazio” has just stolen an entire rack of winter jackets and is headed to a waiting car. That spry store detective is me, and “DeFazio” is a name, assigned by my peers for this repeat shoplifter. The store is Montgomery Ward in Dearborn, Michigan.

I can discuss the details of what happened next privately, but ask yourself these questions: Was “DeFazio” planning to use all the jackets for himself? Was he planning to give them away as gifts? The logical assumption was that he planned to fence the jackets. The point I am trying to make, is that organized retail crime (ORC) has been around since I started in loss prevention, but back then it was not defined as such.

We have come a long way as an industry since that time, but unfortunately the criminal element has as well. In 1994 “DeFazio” may have taken the jackets to another store to fence them, maybe a pawn shop, or maybe just sold them out of his car at a gas station. Today the marketplace for stolen goods spans the globe and includes all mediums, which has caused a significant increase in ORC activity.

In my new role with ThinkLP, I hope to influence change at a whole new level. I joined ThinkLP with the goal of leveraging technology to proactively help our clients and the industry tackle the ORC problem and other LP industry opportunities.

We are in a battle against ORC entities, and the only way we can win the fight is with the right tools. You can join me on this journey as I write about it on social media, in industry platforms, and here on the ThinkLP site. Reach out to me directly to #jointhefight. 

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