Was this incident my fault ?

shogunronin

Full Registered User
I currently work in a medium sized store and today some guys ran through a fire exit with a TV which was worth £1,000. A store employee ran over and told me about 1 minute after the incident had taken place. I ran over there and these guys were long gone - must have had a getaway car waiting. The store managers ran over and complained why wasn't I watching the fire exit? I explained to them that I cannot watch everything in the store at once.... I was currently meeting and greeting customers like I have been informed to do at the door. Our store has TVs mainly upstairs but some littered downstairs so could not see them pick the TV up.

Another incident occurred a few days ago where a member of staff upstairs left a till wide open with the money inside it - I then got a bollocking from the store manager telling me why wasn't I watching the tills ?

Bare in mind I am stuck at the door and cannot walk around the store and follow suspects (if I watch on CCTV I will miss potential products go out the door because the traffic is large going out the door so could miss something...)

Was this actually my fault ?
 
Two plants store with one only guard not able to do inside walks greeting the clients and watching TV?? yes, absolutelly your fault...
you should close the fire exits with chains and lockers and have the key for each and avery till.

Just kidding, the fire exists must have any kind of alarm to activate if opened, so you will notice and run to the parking lot or the like and the store clerics should be accountable for their tills and inventory, talk about "security thinking" measures with your boss and about some kind of reward for the employees IF they point you a thief and some kind of punishment IF they loose a till or inventory (volunteering, you can not impose this kind of penalty), "quid pro quo", you all are interested invading losses and keeping the store safe and your works, I suppose.
 
Mate, from an Old hand! Shop lifters have always used Fire exits to make their escape, in quick, lift, out quick! so don't beat yourself up over it... £1000 tele? that's a shopping list buddy, so a car or probably a Van outside. It's been going on for years... we pulled a team once, joint Police & Security effort who hit Swindon with a shopping list worth £180,000. Even put themselves up in a 5 star Hotel during Friday and Saturday!

CD
 
I currently work in a medium sized store and today some guys ran through a fire exit with a TV which was worth £1,000. A store employee ran over and told me about 1 minute after the incident had taken place. I ran over there and these guys were long gone - must have had a getaway car waiting. The store managers ran over and complained why wasn't I watching the fire exit? I explained to them that I cannot watch everything in the store at once.... I was currently meeting and greeting customers like I have been informed to do at the door. Our store has TVs mainly upstairs but some littered downstairs so could not see them pick the TV up.

Another incident occurred a few days ago where a member of staff upstairs left a till wide open with the money inside it - I then got a bollocking from the store manager telling me why wasn't I watching the tills ?

Bare in mind I am stuck at the door and cannot walk around the store and follow suspects (if I watch on CCTV I will miss potential products go out the door because the traffic is large going out the door so could miss something...)

Was this actually my fault ?

No and they need a more comprehensive security plan and Store managers always blame someone else, it's in their DNA!

CD
 
They need to recheck and evaluate their existing Risk Assessment and perhaps get another Security Officer to help you.
 
I had one other security officer with me but he was on his break. The exact same thing happened last week through the same fire exit.

The thing is the store is so big that you cannot hear the activated alarm at the other side from where I am standing by the door.

Store employees were very close to the door but did not see who ran through it. They told me they thought it was a fire alarm test..

Communication between me and management is non-existent since I am a contractor at a security company and you just pretty much get treated harshly if you attempt to make communication.
 
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Them they do know that you take (WHEN) lunch breaks and also how to sneak a 1000$ TV that is BIG enough for any store clerk to notice unless they are all blinded.
Also if the same door has been used two times will there be a third, have you thought about a friend that watches and gives the advert or even an employee???
Check were that door goes and maybe left some broken glasses out there, you know, slippery things, a big turd... in order to slow down the thieves and if you can not talk with the shop boss talk to your other security team member to go to that door to take his break/lunch/smoke unless you think he is in the move to get you fired, of course... remember that 80% of unknown losses are formo insiders
 
Short answer, blunt but to the point. Yes it was. You are expected to be a Superman, that's what the manager expects and wants and first time you fuk up you'll be crucified... Deal with it, we do.
 
1)The store will always ignore specialist advice, and then blame the advisor when what he advised may happen, happens.

2) It's not rocket science to connect the door alarm system to a pager device, that'll notify immediately a doors opened, or any other alarm triggered. But it costs a few quid, therefore, it won't happen.

3) Stores balance the costs of losses against what it would cost to prevent them. If you're on the wrong side of the curve, you're wasting your breath.

V
 
Fact of the matter is you are only there to deter, possibly catch the odd time.
The only reason retail security exists is to satisfy insurance criteria. They build a margin for loses into the operating budgets.
Retail managers are wankers, they only see you as a drain on their budgets.
Refer your concerns to your area manager, in writing and let him deal with the store security issues.
As previously stated, they do expect you to be Superman and see everything that happens, with your multiple eyes, X-ray vision and extra sensory perception..
Keep the chin up, not your fault but cover your ass.
 
As has been stated, the short answer is no, you can't be held responsible. You were told to stand on the front door, not float around. The fact is, you didn't have a relief officer when hour colleague was on break, essentially putting you as single-crewed. The minimum you should have over 2 floors is 5 people. Managers find it easier to explain away the loss on paper, to blame security rather than a lack of it. They should have enough officers, and comms on top of it.

With regards to the till, it's the employees fault, not yours. They left it exposed, not you.

Don't worry about it!
 
This happens a lot, 1 TV is nothing, try 6 guys with 2 TV's each and a machete lol

It began to happen 3 or 4 times a day and we couldn't keep any TV's out on the shop floor for a while, until we got fire exit delay timers fitted, so the fire exit won't open for 15 seconds of someone pushing the bar but the alarm will sound immediately, it's supposed to deter them but you can only hear the alarm if you're within a 15 meter range of the particular fire exit so it's pretty shit, it got to the point where we now have a camera fitted on every single fire exit and we watch them just as much as the high value areas, the rest of the store is getting absolutely raped but we've been asked to watch the fire exits so just doing what we're told.....
 
Our store has just had a major security re-think. Now we have guys working on CCTV all day and more guards to cover the shop floor. All of the cameras have been fixed and now the shrink is the lowest its been for over 4 years. Major success and hopefully more to follow. We've had about 15 guards kicked out over the past 4 months and me and this other guy are the last originals standing lol

I like this place because their standards are extremely high and it forces you to become a supernatural guard. I like it so I will stay and soak up all the experiences I can get.
 
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Good result so, stick with it, do your job well and get noticed, throw in a night course in security management and you never know what might happen!!!
 
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