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Original poster

To be sick of setting off shop alarms?

26 replies

AndyWarholsOrange · 20/01/2015 14:59

Probably every third time I walk into or out of a shop, I set one of these fecking things off. Sometimes it goes off on the way in but not on the way out Confused I was in Morrisons today and every second customer activated the alarm.
Last week, I absent mindedly walked out of Boots without paying for some make up and the alarm didn't go off but it did when I went back in to pay for said make up. I don't see the point of the damn things as apparently loads of shoplifters know tricks to avoid setting them off.

OP posts:
Stinkle · 20/01/2015 15:05

I don't see the point either. Shop staff seem to take any notice of them anyway.

I was out shopping with DD1 a few weeks ago and she bought some of those ankle socks with lace frills from Top Shop. They have some sort of gadget in the cardboard tag that they rub across something on the counter.

They can't have been deactivated properly as every in single shop we went into or out of after that we set the alarms off.

No one batted an eyelid. Even the security guard standing right next to the door didn't stop us.

TwiggyHeart · 20/01/2015 15:20

This was happening to me for about 6 months until a nice lady in Next suggested I pass my stuff over their scanner thingy....my handbag had some kind of hidden tag in it from when I brought it a year before!

bruffin · 20/01/2015 15:21

I was setting off all the alarms in Tesco when i would drop in on the way home from swimming. Turned out I had a tub of scrub in my bag that had half a metallic label on that, took months to work out what it was and I was regularly stopped.
DD also bought a build a bear that had a speaking thing sewing inside, that set off every alarm in oxford street.

ApocalypseThen · 20/01/2015 15:42

No chance of stopping the old shoplifting?

26Point2Miles · 20/01/2015 15:46

Mobile phones often set ours off... Not much we can do about it, but our staff always check receipts/bags when alarm sounds. Always. Most people are on about it.... Unless they are shoplifters

26Point2Miles · 20/01/2015 15:46

*ok about it!

TiggyD · 20/01/2015 15:52

I had a coat with a special label that I was supposed to cut off after buying it and getting it out the shop. Nobody told me. I kept setting off every alarm. V embarrassing.

Gem124 · 20/01/2015 15:55

If you had stolen you'd run when the alarm went off, the innocent don't run!! We only chase the runners :-) x

livsmommy · 20/01/2015 15:55

Some bras can have hidden ones to!

IfNotNowThenWhen · 20/01/2015 15:55

Me too! I set off the alarm in most Tesco, when I enter and leave. My local one are used to me now. I could seriously have half the shop down my trousers, and they would just wave me thru.

Gem124 · 20/01/2015 15:56

Also make up often has soft tags in them which you'll need to cut that part of the tag off and like a pp mentioned it could be your bag x

MinionDave · 20/01/2015 15:56

I used to set off every alarm going- out my mascara still had the security tag on it and was setting them all off Blush

Gem124 · 20/01/2015 15:57

Also make up often has soft tags on them and some underwear does which you'll need to cut that part of the tag off and like a pp mentioned it could be your bag x

lotsofbooks · 20/01/2015 16:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WellTidy · 20/01/2015 16:03

My changing bag used to set off loads of alarms, especially in M&S. In the end, the security guard in my local M&S offered to put it through some kind of reader, which treated the magnet clasp in some way, and it never set an alarm off again. I emptied the bag before I let him have it as I was very sceptical, but it worked.

BertieBotts · 20/01/2015 16:04

Running is irrelevant. When I worked in a shop with an alarm we weren't allowed to chase runners anyway, because you can't risk hurting someone when you catch them, it's classed as assault and the alarm going off doesn't count as proof of them shoplifting which is what you need in order to legally detain somebody Confused

So it beats me. Lots of places are stopping having them because they're expensive for very little gain.

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 20/01/2015 16:05

Do you have a pass for work, or a gym or similar? I set off a shop alarm once going into a shop.

The assistant who saw my confused face asked me that - I do and apparently its common for access cards to set off shop alarms.

TattyDevine · 20/01/2015 16:08

Its the bottle of voddy you have stashed under the baby Lotsofbooks, we are ONTO YOU! Grin

QuietNinjaTardis · 20/01/2015 16:09

I got stopped by a security guard walking out of asda and after searching my trolley for something with a security tag still on he asked if I had a cheap handbag. I said yes as just a £10 new look job and he said the tags are I side the lining and when they done rub them on the desecurifier thing they set alarms off everywhere. He rubbed it on there and it was fine after that. Could it be that?

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 20/01/2015 17:44

I was also stopped by a security guard in a supermarket I'd popped into for a drink in a town I was visiting recently. He asked if I had make-up in my bag and turns out it was a really old eyeshadow that had the metallic strip thingy hidden under another label. It was an absolute pig to remove it and a sticky residue was left behind......

For ages I'd been wondering why I kept setting store alarms off, but nobody had suggested it might be make-up related and I had no idea when I bought the damn thing that there was something that should be removed when/after it was purchased!

InanimateCarbonRod · 20/01/2015 17:47

I was doing this too for ages. I went through my bag and found a small security tag in one of the credit card pockets of my purse. How the feck I was supposed to find that before using it I'll never know.

PixieofCatan · 20/01/2015 17:55

I had a purse that did this. Took a long time for me to realise what it was. The metallic tag was one of those that deactivated when swiped over the deactivator on the tills, and it was wedged into a bit of the purse that I had never used so I never knew that it was there. It was only when I walked into a shop and commented to the shop assistant that it always happened to me that she asked whether I had a tag in my purse or in my bag (I never had anything else with me). She deactivated it for me on her till.

Hatespiders · 20/01/2015 18:26

The self-service automatic checkout is a bugger for this. We bought a cheap iron in Tesco, and rang for 'help' to ask a (grumpy) assistant if it needed the security tag to be removed. She was so scathing, as if we'd just landed from Mars. "Of course not, the scanner automatically cancels the tag."

Going out, the alarm sounded and everyone looked at us. We froze in terror as the security guard hurtled over and we hunted in every bloody pocket and bag to find the till receipt. Luckily Mrs Grumpy ambled across and told him we had paid. My poor dh was shaking; he hates anything like this. And people were tutting and staring, I felt we'd tried to pinch the Crown Jewels.

NadiaWadia · 21/01/2015 01:56

I always used to find library books would set them off. Really annoying because you feel guilty even though you know you haven't done anything!

TimeforaDietCoke · 21/01/2015 08:18

I had the same problem, which turned out to be caused by a security tag in my purse. Worth checking your purse and handbag Smile