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SALT LAKE CITY -- Researchers in the U.K. say they've found personality traits among men that are more prone to shoplifting. Their recent findings suggest shop owners may want to watch rude and disorganized men more closely.
One group is classified by researchers at the University of Leicester as "unpleasant and antisocial." Best Buy Loss Prevention Specialist Will Cisneros says he can believe this. He says many shoplifters he's seen don't like being talked to.
"Those are usually the ones that are going to go off and hide in the shadows and just kind of not want to be seen," he says.
- Being male
- Unpleasant and antisocial
- disorganized and unreliable
Source: University of Leicester, England
If these rude and antisocial guys just happen to wander too close to certain items in the store, security guards watch them like hawks.
"We have a list of things that are high-theft products," Cisneros says. "If we see them with one of those, we are definitely going to watch that."
Rude men aren't the only ones shopkeepers need to pay attention to. Cisneros says he's spotted shoplifters who come into the store trying to look poor or even homeless. They think sales associates will just assume they can't afford a big ticket item, so they'll move on.
"They figure, ‘I come in looking like this, nobody is going to talk to me. Everybody is going to leave me alone,'" he explains.
The authors of the study say young men are more likely to try to claim a five-finger discount, but they don't put a lot of thought into the thefts. They just get caught up in the moment and make an irrational decision.
Cisneros says that was especially true for its St. George location. But in the South Salt Lake store, Cisneros says it's mostly middle-aged men who try to walk out without paying.
Researchers also say "disorganized and unreliable" men are prone to shoplift. But Cisneros says he's heard about sophisticated rings of shoplifters with several people working as a team.
"One person will be a lookout and distract people while the other person is stealing the product or taking the product," he says.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
