Former sales manager explains why you should never shoplift from Victoria’s Secret

A former Victoria’s Secret sales manager is opening up about a little-known secret in the retail world — one that she hopes will help curb store theft in the future.

According to Kenzie Rae (@kenzieraesch), she used to work at an unnamed Victoria’s Secret location where she witnessed many instances of shoplifting. In fact, she estimates that someone would steal from the store at least once a day, which resulted in high losses for the struggling lingerie company.

As part of store policy, managers and salespeople are not allowed to stop or confront shoplifters who are in the process of stealing for the sake of their own protection. But that doesn’t mean these shoplifters get away scot-free. Instead, they’re often digging their own graves without fully realizing it.

“Victoria’s Secret, and probably every other company out there, has tons of cameras [as well as] an asset protection team,” Kenzie explained.

@kenzieraesch

Why you probably shouldn’t steal from Victoria’s Secret.. from an ex employee. #fyp #victoriassecret #vs #shoplifters #theft #victoriasecret

♬ original sound – Kenzie Rae

When employees spot any kind of theft at all, they report it through a system that alerts the asset protection team. And if the dollar amount of the theft is significant, they replay the camera footage, take screenshots, and calculate the total stolen.

“A lot of people think, ‘Okay, well I got away with it last time so I’m just going to go back,'” Kenzie shares.

But that’s where they fall into a trap.

“The more that you go back, the more you have stolen,” she explains, “the dollar amount goes up and they will eventually catch you.”

First, the team will start building a case against you — complete with all of those security camera screenshots and a running list of what’s been stolen — and they’ll have a lot of evidence to back it up.

Kenzie says it also doesn’t matter if you stole from Victoria’s Secret stores in different locations since the loss prevention team works remotely and covers entire districts consisting of many stores.

She even referenced one case where a woman was stealing from the store for months before the team finally caught her. By then, they’d tracked her patterns, knew she’d stolen thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and stationed a loss prevention member in the store the next time she decided to strike. Once she exited the store with a bag full of stolen merchandise, they swooped in and brought her to the security office, where she was soon met by police.

Kenzie’s video has now been watched more than 1.9 million times, but the replies from TikTokers remain mixed.

Some people didn’t actually believe that the woman was a former employee.

“I feel like these videos are made by the companies to try and scare people with fear tactics because its coming from a person not them,” one person commented.

“Yer jus tryna scare me,” another person wrote.

Others didn’t seem to feel bad about the amount of shoplifting that goes on every year.

“The way these prices have been rising, I don’t see anything,” one person declared.

“VS and Target can afford to get things taken in my opinion,” another person said.

But at least some people seemed to heed Kenzie’s warning — and a few even dropped some insider tips of their own.

“Don’t steal from kohls either,” one person wrote. “They care way too much AND there’s a person there who can talk to u and stop you.”

“When I worked at target years ago they had a whole bulletin board of pictures of ppl who steal,” another TikToker shared.

“They like to watch you and wait until you’ve stolen enough for it to be federal offense,” warned someone else. “Y’all stay safe.”

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