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Firearm Sets Off Shoplifting Alarm?

OBXFunn

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Jan 15, 2008
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Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
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For those in the Hampton Roads area try it out the next time you go to Macarthur Mall. It doesn't do it in the bigger stores, Dillard's or Nordstrom but stores like A&F, Pacsun, and other little stores it does it every single time I go there. And it doesn't matter which gun I have at the time. No other mall in the area has this problem.
 

Doug Huffman

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Washington Island, across Death's Door, Wisconsin,
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Not magnetism because it is subject to the inverse square law. More likely induction unbalancing a tuned circuit. Most likely an RFID. Personally speaking, I would not tolerate any suspicion of a surreptitious RFID tag.

I have seen them down to just a couple of millimeters on a side and heard of them smaller.

Find circumstances that set off such an alarm and use process of elimination to find the item. And eliminate your personal weapon first.
 

caltain

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May 23, 2008
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Northern Virginia, , USA
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Okay folks, time to put some urban legends to rest. The devices at the front of stores are RFID sensors. They cannot be activated by any sort of magnet of magnetized item. They send out a short range radio pulse on a specific frequency. The "tag" that is affixed to items in the store can be a hanging tag, like at a leather store, but those are usually just die packs that rupture if you try to improprely remove the tag. That type is typically about three inches by one inch by 3/4 inch.

The type that you should be looking for is a strip about an inch long an 1/4 inch wide, or the other common style that is about one and 1/4 inches square. Both of these are basically flat, but the first type is about 2mm thick. These are USUALLY attached to the packaging for a given item in the vicinity of the barcode. This allows the tag to be fried by the system when it gets waved over that plate at the checkout. This disables the tag, which is basically a radio reflector that only emits a specific frequency.

Cell phones and other electronic devices cannot set off the alarms, but some retailers are putting the tags in the devices, because thieves have started removing the items from the packaging before leaving the store.

If you are clearly triggering the alarms, turn your clothes inside out and search every surface, including change pockets, between the pockets and the cloth on the inside. Check your wallet thoroughly. Check inside the battery compartment of your phone. Thoroughly check the holster for your gun. Remove the grips from your gun to check there. The mag well too. Lastly, check your shoes inside and out. You may have stepped on one that's still with you. Check the inside, too. Changing rooms are popular places for the thieves to remove the tags. You could have stepped on one and transferred it to the inside of your shoe. Don't forget inside your hat band if you wear a hat.

If you set off a sensor, wait a moment and try it again. If it still goes off, take your gun to your car, then try again. If that clears up the problem, its hidden in the fairly easy areas to access on the gun. Check the bottom plate on each magazine you carry as well.

Good luck!
Dan
 

mobeewan

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Oct 5, 2007
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Hampton, Va, ,
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Have you been to the dentist right before this started? He may have put a transmitter in your filling or crown.:uhoh:He may have "chipped" a tooth for you.
 

Chkultr

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Feb 25, 2007
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Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
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Funny everybody kinda pickin on you, but I have had it happen all the time when I carried my stainless ultra carry. My ultra raptor has not set any off! Thought it was just me!
 

ed

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First, I don't shoplift, so if I ever set off the alarm.. I don't really care. I am never the guy that stops.. runs back to the register and have them re-swipe my articles across the de-magnetizer. The funny thing is.. that when the beeper goes off and I keep walking.. i have NEVER been approached or challenged. <shrug>



Ed
 

LEO 229

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I am always setting off the sensor but normally ONLY after pocketing something and not paying for it. :what:
 

Neplusultra

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Christiansburg, Virginia, USA
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tjdempster wrote:
Happens to me all the time. I have noticed it mostly going in, not out. Mainly at Target, Circuit City. Seems strange it goes off when I go in and not out. I have yet to have anyone say anything to me. Tom
I've noticed alarms going off most often when I leave. I think it's because at the automated checkouts you're supposed to hit the "yellow" thingy with the item before putting it in the bag. Which I don't do, I'm not responsible for their security unless they pay me for it. Plus what is the person watching over me doing if not making sure I scan each item???

So when the alarm goes off while I'm leaving I just keep on walking hoping someone will tackle me in the parking lot so I can score the big "Ka-Ching!" :^).

Back on topic, I've never had my gun set anything off. Edit: And it's not even one of those terrorist "plastic" Glock guns....
 

RedKnightt

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Nov 11, 2007
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Location
Herndon, Virginia, USA
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ed wrote:
First, I don't shoplift, so if I ever set off the alarm.. I don't really care. I am never the guy that stops.. runs back to the register and have them re-swipe my articles across the de-magnetizer. The funny thing is.. that when the beeper goes off and I keep walking.. i have NEVER been approached or challenged. <shrug>

When I worked in the living hell that is the modern American mall (I've worked in 8 of them), it was always told to store employees that the alarm going off is not enough suspicion to stop someone, simply due to the fact that so many things will set the damn things off. The most use Loss Prevention got out of them was the record of the number of times it went off. They would then cut this figure down (by how much varied by store) and use it to estimate non-employee shrink. Most stores consider them Loss Awareness machines, not Loss Prevention.

LEO229 confessed after waterboarding:
I am always setting off the sensor but normally ONLY after pocketing something and not paying for it. :what:

(The only time I was really sure one was right was when I saw this guy who look liked a Simpsons character and claimed he was a LEO... he ran away when I asked to run his firearm's serial number :lol:.)

--RedKnightt--

Zombie Squad has it right: “We hold fast to the belief that if you are prepared for a scenario where the walking corpses of your family and neighbors are trying to eat you alive, you will be prepared for almost anything.”
 

GLENGLOCKER

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Jul 6, 2007
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VA Beach, Virginia, USA
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sccrref wrote:
GLENGLOCKER wrote:
I've had the same thing happen. My wife said it was because of the guns but I never thought so. Jim maybe we've been chipped without knowing.

Have either of you noticed bright unexplained lights in the sky or a loss of time/missing memories? ET.
Doesn't everyone??? :banghead: It happened to us at Lerner New York in Greebrier Mall walking in. I tried to tell my wife it was a spending limit alarm but she didn't buy into it.
 

IanB

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Jul 18, 2006
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Couple points I might add here:

I drive a VW. The key for my CAR was setting off detectors left and right. Especially at CVSand Target. I proved this by giving a friend my keys and having them set the detectors off. Other VW drivers have reported the same thing on forums.

I'm also an HK pistol carrier. I've heard that some folks buying HK pistols have been getting HK pistols which have an RFID tag in the backstrap (pourshot was mentioning this earlier). If you have one of these pistols, it was purchased on government procurement and later sold as excess to a gun dealer. See links below for more details.

HK USP-C
Picture029.jpg



HK P2000
2196256484_ff0c23b758.jpg




http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulletin/concealed-carry-guns/50573-found-microchip-my-hk-usp-compact.html



http://www.hkpro.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75748
 

Grapeshot

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Many tennis/running shoes have the magnetic strip enbedded in the sole where it cannot be seen or removed - it must be deactivated at the cash register.

It took many times of setting off exit alarms before I was able to determine that the only common element was my shoes - had them deactivated and no more problem.

BTW- your weapon won't set off these alarms..........not yet.

Yata hey
 

Nelson_Muntz

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Jan 5, 2008
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Manassas, Virginia, USA
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There is a way to defeat any alarm system when you know how it works. Several things can defeat RFIDs. The simplest method is to place the chipped item in a tinfoil lined shopping bag. The chip will never be read on the way out the door. Don't try this though. Loss prevention will definitely be watching you after you enter with a shopping bag. They already know this trick.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth I demonstrated to a teacher how the brand new library system at his schoolcould be defeated. In return for removing from the library any book or books he wantedwithout setting off the alarm I would be excused from writing some stupid term paper. He took the bait and found some of the biggest, thickest, or oversized books off the shelves and stacked them into my waiting arms. On my way through the electronic sensor to the exit I said goodbye to the librarian at the desk, walked through the door, and dropped the books outside.

The alarm could only sense the presence of a small square of tinfoil glued inside between the hardcover and its paper liner. Stacking them in my arms horizontally provided zero reflective surface to set off the alarm. No term paper.

After the original poster has narrowed down what item he has that alarms by exiting with, and then without it he could probably get a sympathetic, and interested store manager to allow his personal item swiped over the deactivator by the register. It shouldn't go off again.
 

OBXFunn

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Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
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OK just got back from MacArthur Mall with the girlfriend. I went into A&F while CCing my SIG GSR and the alarm went off, we turned around and walked out out, alarm went off. Again went back inside and the alarm went off. I found a shirt to try on and my girl went into the dressing room with me. I put my pistol in her purse and she waited in the dressing room. I went out like I was looking for pants to match or something and stepped out of the store NO alarm. Iwas dressed just like I walked in the store minus onlymy gun, holster still in my waistband. Went to the dressing room and reholstered my gun, bought the shirt and left the store. You got it...ding ding ding, the alarm went off again. My gun has been cleaned and stripped maybe 15 times so I know there is nothing in the gun other than gun parts.
 

Grapeshot

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LEO 229 wrote:
I am always setting off the sensor but normally ONLY after pocketing something and not paying for it. :what:
Donuts have chips now? :lol:

Yata hey
 

Grapeshot

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OBXFunn wrote:
OK just got back from MacArthur Mall with the girlfriend. I went into A&F while CCing my SIG GSR and the alarm went off, we turned around and walked out out, alarm went off. Again went back inside and the alarm went off. I found a shirt to try on and my girl went into the dressing room with me. I put my pistol in her purse and she waited in the dressing room. I went out like I was looking for pants to match or something and stepped out of the store NO alarm. Iwas dressed just like I walked in the store minus onlymy gun, holster still in my waistband. Went to the dressing room and reholstered my gun, bought the shirt and left the store. You got it...ding ding ding, the alarm went off again. My gun has been cleaned and stripped maybe 15 times so I know there is nothing in the gun other than gun parts.
I would at this point have to find a "friendly" to allow me to scan/turn off the chip that must be somewhere in your weapon. Do you have aftermarket grips? Have you done a full tear down looking for it? Metal alone won't trigger the alarm.

Yata hey
 
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