• When shopping, always take extra care to keep control of your purse and wallet.
• If you witness any suspicious persons report it to store personnel.
• Retail Fraud hurts us all in the long run by inflated prices.
• Sticker switching and fraudulent returns are also crimes under the retail fraud statutes.
• Do not buy any thing for sale that is not legitimate. This is called receiving and concealing which is a crime.
• If someone approaches you with stolen merchandise for sale, decline and call the police.

A Tip from one of our Crime Alert subscribers:

The best purse anti-theft advice I've ever gotten is to hang your purse over your shoulder before you put your coat or jacket on, then put your coat or jacket on over top. This prevents purse snatching as well as the impulse to set your purse down on the ground or a counter.

For men, the best advice is to keep your wallet in the front pocket of your pants, because pick-pockets are experts at removing wallets from jacket pockets and back pockets by bumping and distracting the victim, but it is virtually impossible to remove a wallet from a front pocket unnoticed.