FEMA News Desk: How to Help Disaster Survivors in Texas

Harvey's cost could reach $100 billion: Insurance experts
The floods caused by Hurricane Harvey are only going to worsen in the coming days, but insurance experts say that estimates based on the damage Harvey has already caused suggest that the financial cost of the devastating hurricane could be as high as $100 billion. The 2005 Hurricane Katrina-caused damaged reached $120 billion, of which $80 billion were insured losses. The 2012 Megastorm Sandy caused $75 billion in economic losses.

"Whilst Harvey is a major event we do not see this as being the size of a Katrina or Sandy," said Peel Hunt analyst Andreas van Embden.

Peel Hunt analyst Andreas van Embden said the U.S. flood program bears all homeowners' losses up to $4 billion and only transfers 25 percent of the next $4 billion to the private reinsurance market. Thus, if Harvey causes an $8 billion flood loss, reinsurers would face a $1 billion claim. He estimates insured losses of up to $12 billion. homelandsecurity.com

How Hurricane Harvey Could Devastate Texas Retail
"This comes as a double whammy," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with The NPD Group. "In some parts of Texas, there is already a pullback from the Hispanic consumer [which has affected] some of the retailers that rely heavily on that customer base - that's been a political issue for a couple months now. But, now you've got to add in the fact that there is this new environmental issue [which is] totally changing the focus of spending."

"For retailers based in that area, it is a crushing blow," explained Jeff Van Sinderen, an analyst with B. Riley & Co. LLC. "The near-term business impact is brutal. We expect some impact on overall spending, but it will be mixed. Some will replace items right away, but there will be an offsetting lag for others to make replacement purchases, and even for them to just get back to their normal purchasing behavior."

"Perhaps some consumers will decide to buy more of what they need through e-commerce, thereby further accelerating the shift away from brick-and-mortar relevant to [the Southeast Texas] region," Van Sinderen said. "One has to wonder whether it will be worthwhile to repair damage in certain stores. Maybe this will accelerate closures of some marginal stores, and then you have to consider the layoffs associated with that, which are not what Texas needs, especially in the wake of all of the lingering energy woes there." footwearnews.com



Stores in Houston looted after Hurricane Harvey
A Houston store owner says his store was looted when Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas. Video captured on a surveillance camera inside and outside the store show dozens of people entering the store, ransacking it and stealing from the store. The shop owner, Samir Ebrahim, says he called police, but they were unable to respond. fox13news.com




Houston, TX: Police Chief says only 4 Hurricane Looters have been Arrested
A video posted to Twitter on Sunday appears to show a handful of people exiting what appears to be an electronics store in the area. Two people are carrying flat-screen TVs through the parking lot while a person in a nearby vehicle films. Others can be seen walking out of shattered glass doors with their hands full of products from a Family Dollar store. heavy.com

 

From Russia With Love: U.S. Arrests of Russian Cyber Criminals Hits Record High
Masterminds: Yahoo Hackers - Stolen CC's - Spamming - Malware - Money Laundering
The United States has arrested or indicted seven Russians on U.S. cyber crime charges in 2017. On average, just two Russian cyber criminals were extradited to the United States each year between 2010 and the start of this year. Interesting note, Yahoo hackers were arrested this year.

Below is a breakdown of the arrests and indictments so far this year:

STANISLAV LISOV - Arrested in Spain on Jan. 13, aged 32. Lisov, also known by hacker names "Black" and "Blackf", according to court documents, is accused of creating the "NeverQuest" banking trojan which targeted customers of financial institutions around the world and caused millions of dollars of damage.

IGOR SUSHCHIN - One of two officers from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) charged by the United States in March with masterminding the 2014 theft of up to 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government criminally charged Russian spies for cyber offences.

DMITRY DOKUCHAYEV - The second FSB officer indicted in the Yahoo hack and Sushchin's subordinate. Allegedly a former hacker who stole and sold credit card details under the online alias "Forb", Dokuchayev was one of four men detained on mysterious treason charges by Russian authorities in late 2016. He is currently being held in Moscow.

ALEXEI BELAN - One of two hackers accused of working with Sushchin and Dokuchayev to break into Yahoo email servers and steal data from up to 500 million user accounts.

PETER LEVASHOV - Arrested in Spain on April 7, aged 36. A spammer accused by U.S. prosecutors of operating a botnet, or network, of tens of thousands of infected computers used by cyber criminals to pump out spam emails (ransomware).

YURY MARTYSHEV - Arrested in Latvia on April 26, aged 35. Accused of helping run a service that let cyber criminals test-drive malware before attacking victims.

ALEXANDER VINNIK -Arrested in Greece on July 25, aged 37. Vinnik is accused of laundering at least $4 billion in criminal funds through the BTC-e crytpo-currency exchange since 2011. nytimes.com

AP Benchmarks Reveal Opportunities for Fraud
Corporate Security Not Engaged With Accounts Payables
An APEX Analytix survey uncovers some weak spots in global accounts payable departments.

What does a high-performing accounts payable organization look like? According to APEX Analytix, provider of supplier portal software, it has high levels of electronic invoice submission, touchless invoice processing, and electronic payments. It also has five or fewer standard payment terms, and reviews "at risk" suppliers at least monthly. It is also tightly integrated with the internal audit and corporate security teams.

Unfortunately, not many accounts payable units meet all of those high standards. In fact, according to APEX Analytix's benchmarking report, released this week, many AP functions, in their lack of implementation of some best practices, are leaving their companies' "dangerously open to payment fraud."

APEX Analytix surveyed 170 global 1,000 companies about their AP policies and practices. The survey also found "a troubling lack of integration and visibility" across teams: 54% of AP departments report that they don't partner closely with internal audit, and 82% are not connected to corporate security, APEX Analytix said.

A high number of AP organizations report relatively strong compliance with accepted risk management best practices. But in other areas of fraud prevention there appear to be weak spots.

For example, 65% of the businesses say they don't authenticate vendors against external data sources and only 14% capture verifiable details of a vendor's beneficial owners and officers. In addition, 11% of businesses review high-risk vendors only once a year, and 15% don't do so at all.

When it comes to individual payments, there are other vulnerabilities. In the average business, more than a third (36%) of payments aren't associated with purchase orders or contracts. And at 51% of the surveyed organizations, a secondary review of high-value payments is not required. Finally, 79% of businesses don't cross-check their employee records against their vendor data, to ensure employees are not posing as suppliers. cfo.com

Worker Deaths: Now You See Them, Now You Don't
Information & statistics about worker fatalities removed from OSHA's home page
Several years ago, to reinforce that message, OSHA began listing worker fatalities on its website homepage. The workers were listed by name on a scroll on the homepage, along with the cause of the fatality. At the time, OSHA representatives indicated the purpose was to personalize the fatalities, to show them as people, not just numbers. That area of the agency's homepage also included a running total of fatalities for the year.

The fatality information, which moving forward only will contain information about fatalities for which employers were cited by the agency, has been moved deeper into the website and has not been updated since June 2.

Department of Labor spokesperson Mandy Kraft said, "The previous listings included fatal incidents that were outside federal OSHA jurisdiction, not work-related or the employer was not cited for a violation related to the incident... We hope that a greater emphasis on the hazards will help employers and employees better understand how and why these incidents occurred, and take the necessary steps to prevent the loss of life at their own workplace." ehstoday.com

Cargo Security: Labor Day Holiday Security Awareness 2017
All Holiday Breaks have been prime time for Cargo Thieves, this Labor Day Holiday is no different as there is typically a spike in cargo theft this time of year.

These long Holiday weekends allow for more opportunities for unattended shipments and "dark" facilities, leaving more opportunities for shipments to be left unattended or parked in unsecured locations for extended periods of time.

Make sure you take the time to go through your security protocols before the Holiday weekend to ensure all of your personnel are aware of the risks to ensure a "Safe and Secure" Holiday.

Notable thefts over Labor Day Weekend 2012-2016:

● 2012, Georgia, Pilferage of Pharmaceuticals, $273,000
● 2013, California, Theft of Full Truckload of Televisions, $680,000
● 2013, California, Fictitious Pickup of Apparel, $500,000
● 2014, Florida, Theft of Full Truckload of Seafood, $250,000
● 2014, Tennessee, Facility Theft of Cell Phones, $1.5M
● 2015, Florida, Facility Theft of Personal Care items, $100,000
● 2015, Florida, Pilferage of Pharmaceuticals, $225,000
● 2016, California, Facility Theft of Sporting Goods, $1.5M
● 2016, California, Theft of Full Truckload of Cell Phones, $300,000  transportsecurity.com

Expect an Amazon-Dominated Holiday Shopping Season
"Expectations of buying gifts online peak among holiday shoppers ages 30-44"
An August survey of more than 1,000 American adult Internet users found that three-quarters of all holiday shoppers and 83% of those expecting to shop online plan to buy from Amazon during the holidays. Target and Walmart are the second- and third-most-popular destinations, respectively, with each set to attract just under half of holiday shoppers.

See full report: How the US Shops: Where Consumers Will Be Shopping This Holiday Season-and Why chainstoreage.com

Grocery Price War? Really - Taking it to the next level
Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices as Much as 43% on First Day
Remember Bezos doesn't care about making money he just wants market share and top line growth. This could be dangerous for every grocer in America.

The tech giant's $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods has sent shock waves through the already changing $800 billion supermarket industry. The wedding between Amazon and the upscale grocery promises to upend the way customers shop for groceries. Cutting prices at the chain with such an entrenched reputation for high cost that its nickname is Whole Paycheck is a sign that Amazon is serious about taking on competitors such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kroger Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp.  bloomberg.com

Improving Guarding with Data
Proving value in the security guarding industry is complicated. When things are quiet, people tend to assume that there are no problems; when incidents happen, on the other hand, management sees it as the fault of the security personnel. External events and factors beyond our control should not be the way we measure the ongoing performance of the guard force. Traditional performance indicators - spend versus budget, reduction in incidents by frequency and severity, as well as shortened response time - often used by security managers, decision makers, and those who control budget, completely miss the true performance of the individual security professional.

So how do you measure that?

Field supervisors and frontline managers can do surprise inspections, spot checks, and even review video footage to see how their team is performing. However, these methods only capture a snapshot in time. Management is not truly able to measure the performance of the guard carrying out their duties in real-time, nor aggregate performance metrics over time (i.e. over many shifts). We theorized we could better measure real time guard performance through our App by recording things like check-in and location, then applying data analytics and standardized measurement criteria, we could objectively track the performance of a pool of guards.

Starting in January of this year, we implemented this system for over 500 security officers across 75 client sites in different geographies. Using mobile phones and predetermined scoring algorithms, we tracked the following metrics: timeliness, reliability, trustworthiness, reporting and client feedback. securitymagazine.com

NYC plans crackdown on smugglers & store owners after cigarette price hike
Signing a bill to make a pack of smokes at least $13, de Blasio vows to "intensify" enforcement.

About half of cigarettes sold in NYC are black-market smokes, experts have said. The mayor acknowledged that the cost increase may boost the market for so-called "loosies" and other under-the-counter tobacco transactions. But he insisted the city would "intensify" enforcement in order to counteract any such surge.

NYC Sheriff Fucito said his office would draw on relationships with its counterparts in Virginia, and others along the "corridor" into New York, to block contraband before it arrives. "Between a combination of audit, criminal enforcement, civil forfeiture, it's going to be very difficult and very painful to traffic in this kind of tobacco, and these type of things without paying the tax," Fucito concluded.  crainsnewyork.com

Tyco Security Products: Next generation of Illustra Flex 3MP IP cameras
Provides seamless video capture and viewing experience
Johnson Controls introduces the next generation of Illustra Flex 3MP Mini-Dome, Bullet and Box cameras with features such as P-iris lenses and TrickleStor technology to provide optimal image quality and reliability, and the convenience and efficiency of bandwidth management of the camera using Illustra IntelliZip compression technology.

Going beyond H.264 and H.265, the embedded Illustra IntelliZip technology monitors and then adjusts system streaming parameters, matching the camera's field of view activity. tycosecurityproducts.com

Asset Protection Manager for Vintage Grocers in Thousand Oaks, CA
Responsible for protecting company assets through the execution of safety, inventory recovery and internal and external theft reduction programs. Reports to the Human Resource Director. Three stores in Southern California.

A classic hometown, homegrown market with a curated selection of local, sustainable and healthy products for locals and visitors alike. Vintage Grocers opened its doors in Malibu at Trancas Country Market in 2014 and has since expanded to The Promenade at Westlake and Palisades Village (coming in 2018). paycomonline.net vintagegrocers.com

Michaels to Hire 15,000 Seasonal Jobs This Year


Quarterly Same Store Sales Results
J.Jill Q2 comp's up 7.8%, net sales up 9.9%
Best Buy Q2 comp's up 5.2%, sales up 4.9%
Christopher & Banks Q2 comp's down 0.6%, net sales down 3.7%
Finish Line Q2 comp's down 4.6%, net sales down 3.3%

Simple Security Systems:
 
What Happens in the Event of a Natural Disaster

Severe weather and natural disasters are becoming more prevalent throughout the year. Weather reports on tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and the like, can lead to anxiety with your safety and security. Evacuations and resulting disasters can also cause considerable damage to businesses. Once these events happen, who can access your business afterward? Let's look at some not-so-obvious ways businesses and their stakeholders can be prepared to better safeguard assets against the risks associated with such events.

Natural Disasters and Key Control

In the event of a natural disaster, do you have a disaster recovery plan? Do you know who to call and how they can help? When things beyond your control happen, you can't prevent them from having a serious impact on your business, however, it is possible to minimize the risks and react quickly.

At InstaKey, we have worked with many clients throughout the country to prepare them and their businesses in case of a disaster. By tracking keys to key holders, we know who can access your business during an outage or evacuation. In worst case scenarios, evacuations relocate your authorized personnel who have keys, so how to do you get in? Would you burglarize your own business to gain access? These critical security issues are not just safety concerns; but they're also financial risks.

It's best to be prepared and that includes evaluating your key control program. Simple restricted key programs controlling the number of keys available can offer peace of mind concerning the security of your property and assets in times of crisis. Determine who needs keys and how they can get them in the event you or your personnel are displaced.

Card Reader Systems' Failsafe Solutions

Access Control Systems that utilize card readers are efficient and effective means for managing access, but many must utilize key override solutions during natural disasters evacuations, and outages. Many of these systems' failsafe solutions open doors to allow personnel to evacuate, securing behind them. In the event of a power outage, generators and backup batteries are used, but each can expire over the duration of the event, so how can access be managed and controlled if the power backup plan fails?

As extended outages continue, door access controls can become unusable, resulting in the use of basic brass key overrides. Do you know who has these override keys to your facilities?

Read more here.

Blurring the Silos Between IT & Security
Understanding the Internet of Things
Much like the evolution from analog to IP video security, IoT will once again change the game for security professionals, but on a much grander scale. Whereas the transition from analog to IP was confined to security and access control - the IoT revolution creates the possibility for every system, from HVAC to lighting to AV, to interact with physical security.

As these systems become more intertwined, the purview of the security professional greatly expands allowing them to deliver new integrations that have real value for the end user.

IoT will bring enhanced productivity, efficiency, comfort, safety and sustainability to the spaces in which we live and work. Perhaps the most tangible benefit of IoT will be greater return on investment since devices like sensors will serve multiple purposes within a designated space, costing less to install.

IoT will help building occupants stay connected in countless ways and devices must also facilitate daily life without complicating things or getting in the way.

The transition from analog to IP video security has, in many ways, set the stage for the IoT revolution's impact on security. The introduction of IP cameras blurred the lines between security and IT departments, and the addition of more connected devices will continue to erode these silos further.

Working closely with IT departments will be imperative to implementing successful solutions that are also secure. As buildings become smarter and rely more heavily on user-provided data, the integrity of underlying infrastructure is critical to ensuring data is safeguarded. securitymagazine.com

New Technology - Eradicating Call Center Fraud
As phone spoofing begins to infiltrate the consumer retail arena, some firms are fighting back against this new type of fraud. One of them, New York-based Next Caller, just completed a funding round to bolster its abilities.

The company was created to remedy a hole in the market that Next Caller's co-founders discovered when it became clear that it was a challenge for call centers to eradicate the issue of fraudsters calling in and trying to access sensitive account holder data. Next Caller's technology is able to analyze carrier-level metadata to determine whether a call is legitimate or not, therefore, eliminating part of the issue for call center staffers.

"Next Caller's unique approach to protecting highly sensitive information has made it the chosen solution for large financial institutions authenticating inbound calls," said Tikhon Bernstam, investor and co-founder at Crystal Towers, in a statement reported by TechCrunch.

Companies that use Next Caller's fraud detection technology are able to bypass the standard security questions required for customer verification. Instead, the Next Caller software is able to identify the caller, freeing up time for the customer service agent to answer the client's questions or meet his needs without wasting time on identity verification tasks.

Prior to Next Caller, many fraud detection services required the use of biometrics and phone number "reputation scores" to determine whether a caller was who they said they were, but such customer verification methods are ripe for spoofing and fraud in retail, allowing Next Caller to create more advanced technology and offer security to its customer base. pymnts.com

US CERT Warns of Potential Hurricane Harvey Phishing Scams
A Warning Email to Corporate Employees May be Smart
Phishing emails related to Hurricane Harvey may land in user inboxes as the now-tropical storm cuts a path of destruction across Texas, the US-CERT warned today.

US-CERT warns users to remain vigilant for malicious cyber activity seeking to capitalize on interest in Hurricane Harvey. Users are advised to exercise caution in handling any email with subject line, attachments, or hyperlinks related to Hurricane Harvey, even if it appears to originate from a trusted source. Fraudulent emails will often contain links or attachments that direct users to phishing or malware-infected websites. Emails requesting donations from duplicitous charitable organizations commonly appear after major natural disasters. us-cert.gov

Cybersecurity: An Asymmetrical Game of War
To stay ahead of the bad guys, security teams need to think like criminals, leverage AI's ability to find malicious threats, and stop worrying that machine learning will take our jobs.

We're facing an asymmetrical game of war and, unfortunately, we're up against an army of cybercriminals with a vast arsenal of weapons at their fingertips.

As in other combat arenas, asymmetrical warfare in cyberspace describes a situation where one side only has to invest modestly to achieve gains, while the other side must invest heavily to maintain an adequate defense. In the cybersecurity industry, the authors and promoters of malware and ransomware would be the former, while the security industry and potential victims make up the latter. This lopsided investment of time and resources is what makes this war asymmetrical.

Cybercriminals can afford to be creative, innovative, and test new attacks. Meanwhile security teams invest their resources in creating layers of cybersecurity defenses and basics like network segmentation and phishing education.

And here's a scary thought: what will happen when cybercriminals focus their energies on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)?

AI in the wrong hands could cause an explosion of network penetrations, data theft, and a spread of computer viruses that could shut down devices left and right. It could lead to an AI arms race, with unknown consequences. Those little clues that give us hints that an email or web site aren't really what they claim to be can be cleaned up by a sufficiently smart AI capability. And that's scary. darkreading.com

Online Companies Need to Move Beyond Mere 'Feel-Good' Security Measures: BioCatch
Trying to verify an online user's identity with SSO and the like "is a feel-good measure" that does little to stop serious fraudsters. That's the assertion of BioCatch's vice president of marketing Frances Zelazny in the inaugural post on the company's new blog, Fraud Stories.

Zelazny's emphasis is on the sophistication of contemporary identity fraud, which has evolved from the realm of "deadbeat dads" and "convicted felons" of yesteryear and into a criminal enterprise "more akin to identity laundering." She notes that many identity attacks make use of personal information, often used for vetting, that has been compromised and is available through the dark web. That means "fraud today comes from authentication sessions", which means in turn that it's time to rethink relying on such information for user authentication.

By assessing myriad behavioral patterns that are by their nature almost impossible to fabricate, behavioral biometrics technology offers a promising layer of security for online user authentication. Major financial institutions and even the US military are exploring the potential of such technologies, and BioCatch's new blog is sure to make a good case for them going forward. findbiometrics.com

In retail, data scientists are in high demand as e-commerce grows
The battle against e-commerce is putting new pressure on bricks-and-mortar retailers to fix up stores and deliver a more pleasant experience for shoppers. And that means studying data-lots and lots of data. Department-store chains and other businesses have tons of information that they could use to refine their customer service and get more revenue from shoppers; they just need someone to help them go through it.

"Every company collects mountains of data: some valuable, most not," said Jay Samit, a vice chairman at technology consulting firm Deloitte Digital. "It's the data scientist's job to distinguish between the two."

Data scientists aren't just in hot demand in the retail industry. Job postings and job searches for the role have reached an all-time high, according to the website Indeed. Harvard Business Review has called the field "the sexiest job of the 21st century," and employers across industries and government agencies have scrambled to add such workers to their ranks. digitalcommerce360.com

Amazon to open packing, shipping center in Salem, hire 1,000

TokenOne to join Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce project in US

Online improvements help Lowe's grow its online sales by 43% in Q2

Williams-Sonoma's online sales increase 5.2% in Q2 amid its ongoing digital push

Tangipahoa Parish, LA: Woman arrested for reportedly stealing, reselling $18K worth of baby formula
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office reports the arrest of a 37-year-old Mississippi woman for reportedly stealing over $18,000 of baby formula and attempting to resell it. The newly developed Retail Task Force, along with the Hammond Police Department, arrested Samone Rimes, 37, on Friday, after detectives began an investigation into a suspected organized retail theft ring. nola.com


Greenwich, CT: Traffic Stop leads to Drugs charges, Booster Bar and $8,000 of stolen Apple Merchandise Greenwich Police Lt. David Nemecek, the suspects were in possession of a booster bag as well as Apple products within their original packaging, including phones and mice. They were also in possession of a device normally used exclusively by employees to protect inventory. greenwichfreepress.com



Wayne, NJ: Serial Shoplifter Caught Taking $2,100 In Lord & Taylor Goods
Michelle Epps, 32, of Newark had been "wandering the store, selecting items, concealing them and leaving the store without paying," before the guard grabbed her on Friday. Epps, whom Fair Lawn police charged with shoplifting earlier this month , also had "several personal health items" taken from an unknown Walgreens, Martin said. She's also facing similar charges in Verona from an arrest in late May, records show. dailyvoice.com

Ankeny, IA: Former Iowa State Football player charged with $800 theft
Former Iowa State linebacker Jake Knott was arrested Saturday in Polk Count and charged with third degree theft. Knott was accused of stealing nearly $800 worth of merchandise from Sportsman's Warehouse on two different occasions. The second incident allegedly occurred on Saturday. kwwl.com

Paris, TX: Repeat Offender now facing felony in Brookshire's Grocery theft
Marva Reneea Colbert was observed shoplifting at Brookshire's. Colbert was arrested and charged with theft just after 8 p.m. It was found during the investigation that Colbert had several prior convictions for theft and the charge was enhanced to a felony. eparisextra.com

Westminster, CO: 5 Arrested in Smash & Grab Burglary at Boost Mobile

Troy, MI: Detroit Woman with multiple warrants arrested with her 2 small children; hundreds of dollars of merchandise from Macy's

Fort Wayne, IN: Same Suspects Burglarize 3 Cell Phone Stores in One Night

Ajman, UAE: 3 Arrested for theft of $50,000 worth of smartphones

Bomb Threats

State College, PA: Walmart Stores Reopen After Bomb Threats
Days after a string of bomb threats were made in the Centre Region, both State College area Walmart stores received bomb threats on Sunday afternoon. The threats were called in at about 4:45 p.m. to the stores in College Township and in Patton Township. Police responded to both and found no explosives. On the afternoon of Aug. 22, bomb threats were received at the North Atherton Street Walmart and at Penn State's Research West Building. A short time later a man walked into SPE Federal Credit Union on Science Park Road and demanded cash claiming he had a bomb in a duffel bag. After receiving cash, he fled, leaving behind the bag. In all three cases, suspicious devices were discovered but found to be fakes with no explosive capability. Another bomb threat was made on Wednesday afternoon at the North Atherton Walmart and nothing was found. statecollege.com

Falmouth, Maine: Police close Staples store after 'extremely rare' threat; Bomb threat extorsion
A new kind of scam threatening physical violence if the demands are not met was called into the local Staples store over the weekend. According Falmouth Police Department, during a threatening phone call made to the store around 3:20 p.m. Aug. 26, an unknown caller "indicated there were explosive devices" planted in the store. The caller's goal , who could then use them to make purchases remotely. The store was closed as a precautionary measure and a bomb sniffing dog was brought in from the Portland Police Department to sweep the office supply retailer. Nothing was found. theforecaster.net

Dubuque, IA: Nordstrom Distribution Center: Package with "bomb" written on it wasn't a bomb
Dubuque Fire Chief said an explosives detection K9, along with an officer equipped with a thermal imaging camera, found no traces of anything suspicious in the box, which was found on a trailer that had come in overnight from Tennessee. At least three firefighters watched the feed of that thermal imaging camera outside the Haz Mat truck. Once they found nothing suspicious, the facility decided to open up the package. It contained clothing. kwwl.com

Robberies & Thefts

Twin Falls, ID: 2 accused of Shopko theft, 1 threatened to kill employee
A man and a woman were arrested Saturday after, police said, they stole shoes, clothes, jewelry and mascara from Shopko and the man threatened to kill an employee who tried to stop them. The two suspects took the items Saturday afternoon and tried to leave without paying. Two employees followed them out of the store to try to stop and said when one of them approached the female, she ran and screamed at them not to touch her. The male suspect then dropped the items he was items and said "I will (expletive) kill you" to one of the Shopko employees, while holding a small folding knife, according to a police. magicvalley.com

Meridian, ID: Kohl's Shoplifter who pulled a knife on store employee arrested
Meridian Police arrested a suspected shoplifter Monday afternoon after he pulled a knife on a Kohl's employee. The man was hospitalized after jumping into a dumpster and sustaining injuries, initially refusing to identify himself, according to Police. But he later was identified as 26-year-old Aaron Marc Moritz, of Boise. idahostatesman.com


Smash & Grab thieves steal 65 Guns from Dragonman's gun store; "the most armed man in America"
Four thieves smashed their way into the Dragonman gun store and shooting range in Colorado Springs and stole 65 guns, and the shop's owner said Monday they're lucky he wasn't there at the time. The four suspects stole his truck and crashed through an electrically charged fence and a metal garage barrier to get inside his gun warehouse and range. "They took whatever they could get in six minutes and took off," he said. denverpost.com



Melbourne, AU: Jewelry Store Robbers try and fail; glass door didn't give up
CCTV shows three men wearing masks and armed with hammers trying to break into the store in Paula St, Doncaster East. The frustrated would-be thieves smash at the door about 30 times over almost two full minutes. They then give up and run away when the door holds strong. heraldsun.com




Traverse City, MI: Meijer theft ends with Walgreens tackle

Farmington, MI: 50 lbs bag of stolen Dog Food leads to Police Chase

Paris, France: Romanian Disneyland Pickpockets Stand Trial; network that used children to steal over a million euros from tourists

People's Jewellers in the Orchard Park Shopping Centre, Kelowna, BC reported a Distraction Theft on 8/27, items valued at over $15,000

Counterfeit

Interpol led operation seized nearly a Million pounds of fake meds in West Africa

More than 90,000 fake cosmetic products seized at Chinese port; over 53 Million goods confiscated last month in Ningbo

Jeff Bevins promoted to District Director of Asset Protection for Macy's

Donald Ward, CFI named District Loss Prevention Manager for Dick's Sporting Goods

Charmion Robinson named District Asset Protection Manager for JCPenney

Alberto Vanegas promoted to Regional Organized Retail Crime Investigator for TJX Canada/Winners Merchants International LP

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Successful Teamwork
 

Your Top Employees Will Have a Hard Time Working Together--Unless You Do These 3 Things  Every leader wants a team of all-stars, but it doesn't just stop at assembling A-level players. It takes these three things to make sure your top employees work well together. Big Goals

How to Identify Your Star Employees--and Build the B.E.S.T. Team  Success is never achieved by one person, alone. A great leader is only as strong and successful, as the people on his or her team. To build a B.E.S.T. team, follow these tips. Choose wisely

Five Easy Ways to Effectively Collaborate with Your Team  You, as a leader, have the choice whether or not to collaborate with your team, but making it optional gives you a way out. Here's how you can practice, and get better, at collaborating with your team. Permission to lead

How to Make Work More Meaningful for Your Team  Finding meaning at work has become so important for people, there's only a marginal association between pay and job satisfaction. Leaders can help make their team's jobs more meaningful through four personality characteristics. Hire for value

Making it new every day and getting energized - pumped up can be difficult at times. But it's important to try to find that spark each and every day to make sure you're adding value, getting things done and motivating the people around you. It's always great to drive home and think - where did the day go because you were so busy and had so many things to get done, which usually means you were pumped up and energized. But it's a terrible feeling when you can't get out of first gear and the day drags on forever. Just remember, oftentimes it's merely mind over matter. You make your own day and, quite frankly, you're also making the day for a lot of people around you. They're looking to you to set the pace.

Just a Thought,
Gus

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