Loss Prevention Checklist

Pull the prior-night arm/disarm report from the alarm panel or Sensormatic/Verkada dashboard. Confirm the opener's code matched the schedule — unscheduled disarms after-hours are the first signal of internal theft or unauthorized entry.

Walk every perimeter door from the inside. Look for pry marks, propped doors, defeated mag-locks, and any door alarmed-out-of-service. Receiving and fire exits are the most common internal-theft pass-through points.

Log into the DVR/NVR (Solink, Envysion, Verkada) and verify each camera shows a live image and is recording. Pay particular attention to register-overhead, customer-facing register, and front-door cameras — these are the angles you'll need for an investigation.

File the ticket the same shift the gap is detected — a blind register on a Saturday is an open invitation. Note the camera ID, the affected sight line, and the time the issue began. Flag the District Manager if any register-overhead camera is down.

Walk a live hard-tagged item through the Sensormatic/Checkpoint gates. Silent gates are worse than no gates — staff assume coverage that isn't there. If the alarm doesn't sound, escalate before doors open.

Visit the top-shrink SKUs and fixtures identified in last month's shrink report — denim, fragrance, small electronics, batteries, and anything near the exit. Look for empty hangers, cut hard tags, foil-lined bags (booster bags), and groups loitering without engaging product.

After each customer exits, walk the room: count empty hangers, look for cut tags, price-switching evidence, or items stuffed in the seat or under the bench. Fitting rooms drive a disproportionate share of apparel shrink.

Capture description, time, fixture, and behavior — never a protected class. Examples: "two adults, one selecting denim while the other watches the camera dome at fixture J-4 at 11:20." These notes feed the ORC (organized retail crime) pattern file shared with the district.

Badges deter sweethearting and impersonation — a stranger in a polo on the floor without a badge is the simplest internal-theft signal. Vendors on-site for resets need a visitor badge from the back office.

From Lightspeed / Shopify POS / NCR Counterpoint, pull voids, post-voids, no-sales, manual price overrides, and refunds without receipt. Sort by cashier — a single associate concentrating exceptions is the classic internal-theft pattern.

Per policy, refunds above $50 require manager override — pull each one and confirm the override code matches a manager actually on the schedule that day. Refunds without an original receipt should be store credit only.

Export the register-overhead and customer-facing angles for the transaction window, plus 60 seconds before and after. Save to the LP case folder with the receipt number and cashier ID. Do not confront the associate until the District LP Manager has reviewed.

Policy is a drop at every $500 in the drawer. Check drop envelopes against the X-report — a drawer holding $1,200 with no mid-day drop is both a robbery exposure and a policy violation. Coach the cashier same-shift.

Spot-check during associate breaks: drawer pulled and locked in the safe, safe rotated off the day-combo. A drawer left in the register during a break is both a PCI-adjacent exposure and a sweethearting opportunity.

Piece-count every carton against the packing slip and PO before signing the BOL. Short-ships caught at the door are recoverable; short-ships found 60 days later are written off. Note the seal number on the trailer and any broken seals.

Any variance over $100 or 3% of on-hand needs a root cause before adjusting. Re-count, check the receiving log, scan adjacent SKUs for mis-scans, and review CCTV for the fixture if shrink is suspected. Adjusting without investigating masks the trend.

Return-to-vendor pallets are a classic internal-theft sink — "damaged" items get pocketed before the vendor pickup. Confirm each unit on the RTV log is physically present and matches the disposition tag.

Includes apprehensions, observed concealment without apprehension, and confirmed shrink discovered during the shift. If none, mark No and close the section.

Per the observe-document-call-police-do-not-pursue policy, never follow a shoplifter past the door. Capture time, fixture, SKU and retail value of items taken, suspect description, vehicle if available, and the responding officer's report number. Attach CCTV exports.

ORC patterns and suspected internal theft need same-day escalation so the district can cross-reference other stores' incident logs. Routine external shoplifts can roll up in the weekly summary.

Walk receiving, fire exits, and stockroom. A back door propped for a smoke break is the single most common after-hours entry path. Confirm the door-prop alarm sensors are armed.

Log the deposit bag in the deposit register and seal. Rotate the safe to the night combination. Two-person integrity on any deposit over $2,000.

Watch the panel cycle to "armed away" before exiting. Any zone showing trouble or bypass needs to be resolved with the alarm monitoring company before lockup — a bypassed zone is an unmonitored zone.