Mike Rackley promoted to Senior Director Retail Operations Risk & Control for Nike
Mike was previously the Senior Director Global Loss Prevention & Compliance for the retailer since 2015, and has worked for Nike since 2013, when he started as a Global Loss Prevention Director. He's held other asset protection and security related positions such as Chief Security Officer for Apollo Group, and Director of Global Security, Sr. Group Manager of Crisis Management & Corporate Security, and Group Assets Protection Team Leader for Target. He's also been a member of the National Advisory Council for FEMA and a member of the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross, Twin Cities Area Chapter. Mike earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Management from University of Phoenix and an Executive MBA from St. Thomas School of Business. Congratulations Mike!


Mark Logan promoted to Area Director of Safety for National Express Transit Corporation
Mark previously held the position of Safety and Training Manager for the transportation company and has been in the safety industry since 2006. He started as a Safety and Training Manager for MV Transportation and has held other positions such as Director of Safety and Safety and Training Coordinator. Mark earned his Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy from New Jersey City University and acquired his Masters of Science in Environmental Policy from Kaplan University. Congratulations Mark!

Columbia Sportswear Accuses Top IT Guy of Stealing Corporate Plans
Former Sr. Director created backdoor into company's network
Hacked retailer nearly 700 times over 2 years
Columbia Sportswear Co. on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Oregon federal court accusing a former employee in its information technology department of illegally hacking into its computer system after he resigned and assessing highly confidential company information for the benefit of the company's business partner that hired him.

Michael Leeper, who formerly held a high-level position IT position at Columbia, allegedly created a fake network account the day before he left the company for a job at technology consulting firm Denali Advanced Integration in mid-February 2014. He then used that account to hack into the sporting goods maker's system nearly 700 times over the next two years and lift corporate plans and technology budget information to give Denali an edge as it competed for Columbia's business, the complaint alleged.

"That information included emails concerning business transactions in which Denali had a financial interest, emails concerning transactions between Columbia and Denali's competitors and confidential budget documents related to the IT department's long-range planning," Columbia wrote. "Leeper illegally accessed that information in furtherance of Denali's desire to profit from its business relationship with Columbia, and in his capacity as Denali's [chief technology officer]."

As a result, both Leeper and the Washington state-based Denali violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Wiretap Act and committed conversion. Leeper also breached his duty of loyalty to Columbia, the sporting goods maker alleged in its complaint on Wednesday.

According to the filing, Leeper began working at Columbia in 2000 and worked his way up to senior director of technology infrastructure, until his departure for Denali in March 2014. As a top IT guy at Columbia, Leeper had detailed knowledge of its internal systems and access to its confidential information, the company said. law360.com

How retail chains are working to upgrade their systems,
policies to combat loss prevention threats

Shoplifting
Shoplifting appears to be on the rise as well, Dr. Read Hayes says, and the Loss Prevention Research Council counsels first coming up with solutions that convince would-be thieves not to try a crime attempt because it will be too difficult - for example, because the item is behind a barrier, locked up or cabled down. Step two consists of solutions that make the crime attempt riskier and the chances of getting caught to appear higher, Hayes says. And lastly, retailers can reduce the perceived benefit of a crime by, for example, placing ink tags on clothing that explode if not properly removed, or activating smart devices only as they're purchased "so that item is just a brick" if someone steals it, he says.

Tom Meehan notes that retailers are becoming more aggressive and obvious about how they deploy video monitors, placing them at eye level rather than on the ceiling both to use newer facial detection technology but also because "at eye level, it forces someone to see it," he says.

Walgreens employs signage to impress upon would-be offenders that lighting, alarms, cameras and other technology will go off if their attempts fail, Hal Friend says. "That's our first opportunity to communicate to a person that this is not a good environment to do something bad," he says.

Robbery and Burglary
Walgreens also attempts to prevent robberies with time-delayed safes, used in the banking industry and other retail channels for many years but relatively new to pharmacy. Walgreens has rolled out safes in certain areas where they've had the most difficulty and achieved a 90-percent reduction in such crimes, Friend says. To combat burglaries, Walgreens has put into place alarm systems that start to sound before the intruder has even gotten inside.

Partnerships with law enforcement are critical, Friend says. Retail chains can help bring nearby police jurisdictions together around similar crimes in different locations that might involve the same offenders.

Omnichannel
Retailers are now employing RFID technology to better track pallet shipments to make sure none are disappearing from warehouses or back rooms of stores, Hayes says. They're also more thoroughly tracking and projecting where signatures should be required on delivered packages.

Credit Card Fraud
To solve the dilemma of credit card fraud, the working group on fraud at the Loss Prevention Research Council has been facing down the challenge of convincing law enforcement that it's not a victimless crime, says Meehan, who chairs that working group. The working group has helped retailers partner with one another to identify benchmarks and "lean heavily on solution providers to come up with something different," Meehan says.

Lawsuit Fraud
Advance Auto Parts has been taking steps to offset losses of a different kind - to unscrupulous customers who file phony lawsuits against the company for slip-and-fall cases. The video technology used to catch would be merchandise thieves also comes in handy here, Jeff Carr says, adding that the potential expense of defending against a lawsuit helps to build a stronger case to support video deployments beyond standard threat assessments. securitymagazine.com

Part 1 of the article above was published in yesterday's Daily

Gun Store Burglaries Soar by 30%, Smashing ATF Record
A total of 558 burglaries were reported at licensed firearms dealers in 2016, a 30 percent jump over 2015, which had previously been the busiest year on record for gun store break-ins. The number of guns stolen in these heists soared as well. The ATF recorded 7,488 firearms lost to burglars last year, 59 percent more than were stolen in burglaries in 2015, when thieves took 4,721 weapons.
 
Since 2012, the earliest year for which data is available, burglaries from licensed dealers have increased by 48 percent and the number of guns stolen by 73 percent. These are thefts committed after business hours, where the perpetrators forced entry into the interior of gun stores. thetrace.org

U.S. authorities raid Caterpillar's Illinois facilities
Federal law enforcement officials conducting a criminal probe of heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar Inc searched three of its facilities on Thursday, prompting a sharp sell-off in the company's stock. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney Office for the Central District of Illinois, Sharon Paul, confirmed that federal law enforcement officials conducted searches at locations in Peoria, East Peoria and Morton, Illinois, but did not say why agents raided the three facilities. reuters.com

LPRC Announces 2017 Research Agenda
LPRC is proud to announce our 2017 Research Agenda. This document will serve as a road map for all working group and action team projects in the upcoming year! Please save this somewhere handy so you can reference it before upcoming WGAT calls.

Project updates will occur on each working group call. If you see a few projects that interest you in unfamiliar working groups, please reach out to the project PI for the working group call invite so you can jump on and stay informed of the progress of any project.

Click Here to download.

RLPSA Welcomes New Members
Starbucks, Taco Bueno, Krystal and Cheesecake Factory
The only association dedicated to restaurant and food service loss prevention, security, safety and risk professionals, the Restaurant Loss Prevention & Security Association (RLPSA) is proud to announce its distinguished new members. RLPSA is excited to welcome The Starbucks Company, Taco Bueno Restaurants, The Krystal Company, and The Cheesecake Factory. Renewing members include McDonald's, AMC Theatres, Caribou Coffee, Domino's Pizza, El Pollo Loco, and others. rlpsa.com

Early Bird Registration for 2017 RLPSA Conference now OPEN
Attend the 2017 Annual RLPSA Conference in Las Vegas July 30 - August 2. Register today to receive last year's pricing on registration! Registration fees increase on April 1, so register now and save.

The RLPSA Annual Conference offers relevant speakers and sessions to help loss prevention, safety, security and risk management teams provide safe and secure environments for their customers and organizations. Learn how to guard against the erosive effects of crime on company assets.

Home Depot hiring 80,000 seasonal workers for spring rush

McDonald's to deliver fast-food across the U.S.

An exclusive look at Jeff Bezos's plan to set up Amazon-like delivery for 'future human settlement' of the moon


Quarterly Same Store Sales Results

Costco Q2 comp's up 3%, net sales up 6%
Big Lots Q4 comp's up 0.3%, net sales down 0.3%
Big Lots full-year comp's up 0.9%, net sales up 0.2%
Stage Stores Q4 comp's down 8.5%, total sales down 9.6%
Stage Stores full-year comp's down 8.8%, total sales down 10.1%

H&M renews global multi-year contract with Nedap

Global fashion retailer selects RFID-ready
loss prevention solution

		Click video to learn about Nedap's iSense - Article Intelligence

Nedap has renewed the global agreement with Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), one of the world's largest fashion retailers, for the supply of intelligent article surveillance systems. The multi-year contract encompasses the supply and installation of Nedap's !Sense hardware and tags for new stores and refurbishments.

The !Sense solution offers an outstanding detection performance, enables easy IP-integrations with other devices and direct insights via onboard dashboards. The hardware is also fully RFID-ready, which means that a future RFID upgrade is possible with the least complexity and with minimal additional investments.

Rob Schuurman, Managing Director at Nedap Retail, commented: "We are extremely proud that H&M has renewed the partnership with us. In fact, we have designed !Sense with global retailers like H&M in mind, who need an effective and future-proof loss prevention solution that reinforces their global expansion and future business plans."

Amazon Employee Nearly Kills Internet With Typo
A loss of Amazon cloud services reportedly cost companies $150M
The internet came crashing down Tuesday due to a single typo made by an Amazon employee in Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to CNN, the employee was trying to fix a problem with the S3 billing system. S3 is part of Amazon Web Services, which hosts hundreds of thousands of websites and apps. It reportedly has more than a million users and accounts for 40% of the cloud services market. The employee was trying to take a few servers offline to work on the billing issue but made a typo in the command and accidentally took a whole bunch of servers offline instead.

The loss of S3 servers kept news sites from publishing stories and Slack users from sharing files. More than half of the top 100 online retailers saw their websites slow by 20% or more. The list of affected sites and apps included GitHub, Venmo, Quora, Medium, and Giphy. The S3 service outage reportedly cost companies more than $150 million all told. The servers were down for nearly four hours. Engadget reports it took Amazon "longer than expected" to get the problem fixed because it was the first time some servers had been restarted in "many years." Amazon says it's "making several changes" to avoid a repeat in the future. newser.com


TechSec Solutions 2017 keynote:
Nightingale Security's Jack Wu discusses drones in security
Attendees of TechSec Solutions 2017 started the first morning of the conference here with a look into one drone company, and how the technology could innovate the physical security market, making for cheaper, better and faster solutions.

A "tidal wave" of change, which will impact the entire physical security market, was created by a perfect storm of four factors, according to Jack Wu, co-founder and CEO of Nightingale Security: small and energy efficient microchips, software, rising labor costs and limited human capabilities, and the Internet.

"One of the first services that we see that's going to be affected is manned security," Wu said. Human guards perform a variety of tasks, Wu continued, listing patrolling, investigating alarms that may be false, and evicting trespassers from the premises - tasks which could put a person in danger. securitysystemsnews.com

Poll: 86% say drones are best suited for the commercial space

Report: Virginia is first state to legally support robot delivery traffic

Many LP executives are unaware of the losses they incur from shopping cart thefts, as well as theft of merchandise from push-outs. According to a recent whitepaper by The Calibration Group, it takes the profits generated from roughly $6,000 in sales just to replace one stolen shopping cart. As an early adopter of the Rocateq Cart Containment System, as a former retail LP exec himself, Tim Bartkowiak, VP Sales and Marketing for Rocateq, shares the many cost and time saving benefits of Rocateq's patented technology.
 

Quick Take #4

Amber and Joe are joined by the one and only Hedgie Bartol, who shares what's new with Axis Communications and then fields a couple burning hot-seat questions.

Solution Providers: Have a video or commercial you want to publish? Contact us

Why is payment fraud so persistent?
In 2014, online retailers lost over $32 billion to online credit card fraud. In 2015, in the UK alone, online fraud cost over £10.9 billion to the overall economy-- that's roughly $210 per person. In 2016, there were 2.3million fraudulent transaction attempts.

Ease of opportunity

The degree of technical knowledge required to commit card fraud is now minimal. The ability to download the Tor browser, access some sites on the dark web and make a purchase in bitcoin is not difficult. And it is certainly not expensive; card and personal details can be purchased for pennies.

Lack of stigma

Driving this increase in participation is the decrease in stigma attached to committing these crimes. A whole generation has grown up with online piracy (downloading movies, music, games and software - a recent report by American Assembly shows that 24% of 18-29 y.o's consider it OK to upload movie files to sites where others can download them; directly contributing to online piracy.

Police are not equipped to manage the problem

Police are organised to deal with acquisitive crime in the real world.

When it comes to payment fraud the opposite holds true. For a start the crimes are rarely reported. Each individual fraudulent transaction is not usually large enough to justify a company's time in pursuing the perpetrator.

Consumers aren't protecting themselves

While it is relatively easy for criminals to obtain somebody's credit card information, basic safety practices could go a long way in stopping them. Such practices include:

Only making purchases on trusted sites. Never handing out credit card information over email or the phone. Checking website security. Using strong and varied passwords on sites that store financial information.

Businesses need to change how they manage fraud

To date the response across merchants has varied. Most use and many rely on the fraud checks from their payment provider (PSP). These are of course useful and will in many cases stop cards that have been compromised from being used again. However, their defences are easily overcome, and they have proven largely inadequate when a fraudster uses card details that up to that point have never been seen before by the payment provider. itproportal.com

China uses big data to continues action against online counterfeits

Click for Candy: How Online Retailers Boost Impulse Buys

ORC Leader Lt. Tarik Sheppard
From the Schools to the Streets, One of NYC's Finest Public Servants

Whether it was teaching in classrooms or working his crime beat on the city streets, Tarik Sheppard has spent his career serving the public. While he is currently a Lieutenant with the New York Police Department, he previously taught middle- and high-school math in the New York City public school system.

Clearly, public service is Tarik's calling.

Aside from an 11-month stint with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Tarik has spent most of his time with the NYPD, where he started his law enforcement career and continues to serve today. LOAfter he was promoted to Sergeant in 2010 and transferred to the Transit District 11 in the Bronx, Tarik spent three years working as an Anti-Crime Sergeant.

"I worked in regular decoy clothes catching pick pockets, phone snatchers, robbers and other violent felons," he told the Daily.

In 2013, he was chosen to run the Grand Larceny Analytical Unit, which sought to identify pattern crimes and pattern crime offenders by using precision policing and focusing on the few people that commit most of the crimes in New York City. It was during this experience that Tarik recognized how widespread Organized Retail Crime is.

"My unit discovered a crew that was stealing ink cartridges throughout NYC and realized it extended up and down the east coast," he said.

During a meeting with Sean Huggins (CVS) and Stefanie Mangiante (CVS), he was introduced to the concept of Organized Retail Crime Alliances and knew such an organization would be beneficial to New York.

With the support of Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea and then-Commissioner William Bratton, Tarik began putting together one of these collaborative efforts. Using cases published in the D&D Daily, he was able to identify retailers in New York that were hosting meetings discussing retail crime in the area.

"Very quickly, I had 10 core companies that were excited about the project I was starting," Tarik said.

In spring of 2014, Tarik brought the core group - Walmart, CVS, JC Penney, Rite Aid, Target, Sephora, Macy's, DSW, Burlington Coat Factory, and Home Depot - together for a meeting with law enforcement and other retailers to announce the partnership and the goal of creating a New York Metro ORCA.

Through their relentless efforts hitting the pavement and working the phones, they were able to officially roll out the organization in September 2014. In front of 500 retailers and law enforcement personnel, then-Commissioner Bratton and Tarik announced the creation of NYMORCA.

"For years, many retailers had tried to establish this and were unsuccessful," Tarik said. "We were able to do it in 6 months."

Not long after, he led an expansion into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which is why the group is now called MetrORCA and Tarik currently serves as an advisor. As we recently reported, the organization has more than 1,800 members, including 800 members of the law enforcement community. So far, Tarik says they have had "tremendous success using information from retailers to build cases against gang members."

All the while, Tarik was promoted to Lieutenant in April of 2015 and became the Special Operations Lieutenant in the 32nd precinct in Harlem. Currently, he is assigned to the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Office.

In his free time, Tarik likes to spend time with his wife of 9 years, Jasmine, and his two kids, Danielle and Tyler.

The D&D Daily thanks Tarik for his leadership in the ORC effort and his many years of public service.

To learn more about MetrORCA, visit http://metrorca.org

Lawrenceville, GA: Bold robbers try to steal $100,000 in goods from Neiman-Marcus
Police said on January 28, at about 2:30 pm, two black males wearing yellow safety vests were seen parking a U-Haul box truck outside the Neiman Marcus Last Call store at Sugarloaf Mills. They walked into the store with a hand truck and loaded a glass display case containing more than $100,000 in merchandise onto the dolly. When they tried to remove the display case from the store, they were confronted by store employees and a struggle began. A store manager was pepper sprayed, and the glass case broke. The suspects abandoned the dolly and the U-Haul before they fled on foot. 11alive.com

Gulf County, FL: Fourteen Arrested in $60,000 Theft; involving IGA employees and customers
The Gulf County Sheriff's Office has arrested 14 people after a lengthy theft investigation. Deputies say the investigation started in March of last year when the owner of Rich's IGA in Wewahitchka filed a complaint that alleged employees and customers who conspired with the employees, had stolen from the business between November 2015 and March 2016. Evidence discovered in an investigation showed $60,000 in cash and merchandise had been stolen during the five-month period. Four out of the 14 cooperated with authorities and confessed. mypanhandle.com

Deer Park, IL: Theft charges against 2 men at Apple Store total 12 cases since July
In the sixth such incident reported at an Apple Store in Deer Park dating back to July, Lake County Sheriff's Police said Friday that two men were charged with felony retail theft this week after being found in possession of more than 100 iPhones that investigators allege were obtained fraudulently. Sgt. Christopher Covelli, a sheriff's deputy conducted a traffic stop Tuesday on a vehicle in the area of the Deer Park Town Center where the sheriff's office has conducted increased patrols due to the Apple Store thefts. The driver of the car, from Detroit said he and his passenger, from San Francisco, just left the Apple Store after exchanging broken iPhones. After further investigation by sheriff's deputies and detectives, it was determined Hosein and Qin traveled to numerous Apple Stores across the United States and fraudulently obtained possession of numerous Apple iPhones. Over 100 Apple iPhones were recovered from Qin and Hosein, which they obtained fraudulently. chicagotribune.com

Shootings & Deaths

Franklin, WI: Walmart Shooting Results in Arrest; Store Locked Down early Friday
One person was arrested early Friday morning after a report of gunshots fired near the 27th St. Walmart store in Franklin. According to Franklin police, at 1:37 a.m., officers from the Franklin Police Department with assistance from the Oak Creek, and Greenfield Police Departments responded to a report of Gunshots in the 2700 block of W. Sycamore Street, Franklin. Responding officers located the suspect and took him into custody. Police say no one was injured during the incident and there is no further danger to the public. patch.com

Charlotte, NC: One shot outside University City strip mall
One person showed up at the hospital with gunshot wounds Friday morning. Police believe that person was shot after a confrontation in University City. Witnesses said they heard people arguing outside, when they went to see what was going on, they told police that two people inside a black car started shooting at someone, then drove away. wbtv.com



Wichita, KS: Suspect in Murder and Armed Robbery in 3 states charged in Kansas
Alex Deaton is suspected of killing two people in Mississippi and shooting others in New Mexico and Kansas before he was captured. Deaton is accused of shooting a 19-year-old convenience store clerk in Pratt, Kansas, on Wednesday. Authorities arrested Deaton after he allegedly fled the store with the clerk's car and wrecked it in a neighboring county. The clerk was in stable condition. mysanantonio.com

Louisville, KY: Sheriff's Deputy suffers gunshot wound outside grocery store
Jefferson County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Col. Yates said Linsey Ongoy, 52, was injured when he went to put his gun in a holster and it discharged, hitting him in the bicep in the parking lot of the ValuMarket, Wednesday evening. Yates said Ongoy was getting ready to start an off-duty detail at the ValuMarket when he was injured. Ongoy is a 20-year veteran of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. wave3.com

Jacksonville, FL: Man gets Life for killing Metro PCS female employee during store robbery

Robberies & Thefts

Hot Springs, AR: "Operation Thunderstruck" nets 40 with outstanding felony warrants
Officials in Hot Springs and Garland County say they are cracking down on crime, announcing the results of a "felony warrant round-up,". Authorities say the operation that began roughly a week ago, culminated on Wednesday with a large scale arrest operation. More than 50 law enforcement officers represented at the state, federal and local level were involved in the warrant sweep. According to law enforcement, the vast majority of the warrants served in Wednesday's sweep consisted of theft-related offenses like breaking and entering, burglary and forgery. katv.com

Brooklyn, OH: Dash Cam video of suspect wanted on Theft Warrants; Vehicle flees as Police Officer tries to hold on A Police officer's body camera was rolling as a routine traffic stop turned violent. The officer pulled over 34-year-old Thomas LaForce last Friday afternoon. Police say there were active warrants for LaForce's arrest. When the officer tried to remove him from the vehicle, Laforce sped away, dragging the officer with him. Dash cam video shows him dumping the passenger, who took off on foot, and then speeding back onto the road. The officer catches up to him and rams his cruiser into the suspect's van. Multiple officers surround the van and start smashing out the window. No shots were fired. *WARNING - Video contains strong language. foxnews.com

Wichita County, TX: Female Murder suspect out on bond, indicted of 2 Armed Robberies charges

Credit Card Fraud

Indian migrant jailed over $25 million credit card fraud in US
An Indian immigrant in the United States has been jailed for nine years over a multi-million dollar identity theft scam. 44-year-old Amit Chaudhary pleaded guilty to identity theft, money laundering and visa fraud in September last year. He along with his relatives in India were involved in laundering money from stolen credit cards and identities through shell bank accounts. The scam also operated cheap travel packages wherein customers' money was stolen and their hotel and airfare would be paid with stolen cards. Many customers had their trips cancelled upon discovery of fraudulent transactions. Chaudhary and his relatives are reported to have made $25 million by stealing from credit cards, aided by an accomplice working at a big multinational bank in India. The lid was blown off the scam when an FBI agent recognized a well-known actress, Laura Vandervoort's photo used in one of the fake passports which were used to back up the transactions. sbs.com.au

Randolph, MA: Traffic stop for speeding leads to arrest of credit card fraud suspects
Terrence Munroe provided a false identification, and police determined he was did not have a driver's license. Officer Aldred noticed a pile of credit cards in the vehicle, which he later found to be fraudulent, as well as packages containing various electronics and other retail goods. As part of the investigation, police obtained a search warrant for the home of suspect Terrence Munroe's mother, who lives in Randolph. There, they recovered a credit card embossing machine, multiple unopened pre-paid credit cards, and a ledger showing hundreds of credit card numbers. patriotledger.com

Cargo Theft

Railroad thefts and guns: A deadly mix in Chicago
When street-gang thieves slipped with ease into a Norfolk Southern rail yard on Chicago's South Side and ripped locks off one train, they found box after box of brand new guns. The guns had been en route from New Hampshire weapon maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. to Spokane, WA. The .45 Ruger and other firearms spread quickly into surrounding neighborhoods. Along with two other major gun thefts within 3 years, the robbery helped fuel a wave of violence on Chicago's streets. The 2015 heist of the 111 guns, preceded by one in 2014, and another last September from the same Rail Yard highlight a tragic confluence. Chicago's biggest rail yards are on the gang- and homicide-plagued South and West sides where most of the city's 762 killings happened last year. dailymail.co.uk

Arson

Port Henry, NY: Disgruntled Dollar General employee sentenced to 4 to 12 years in last years Arson

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