Man Uses Radio to Spy on Target Loss Prevention Team Tracking Suspected Theft in Progress

Ancient dramas and tragic plays almost always dealt with characters who were royal in nature: tales about highfalutin members of society who represented the best of their respective culture, at the time. Some scholars argued that high drama couldn't be considered "high" if kings and queens princes and princesses, generals, and other big-wigs weren't involved.

"Modern" (depending on what your definition of what this is) drama changed all of that: take Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman for instance which takes Willy Loman, an everyman, and puts the magnifying glass to his life, leaving the audience to derive big lessons from his existence despite being a door-to-door pusher of unspecified goods.

There's been a widespread belief that some of the more mundane aspects of human life, when thoroughly scrutinized and played to the highest level, can yield high drama, take a show like The Office for example. Or folks who like to take a sneak peek into the lives of retail workers, which ham radio enthusiast and TikTok user Mister Twister (@mister_twister_55) facilitates in a series of videos he's posted to his account on the platform.

Twister has used his radio equipment previously to tune into the frequencies of fast food and retail establishments to get the skinny on the day-to-day of workers, fascinating throngs of TikTok users in the process. Recently, he tuned into a local Target store and ended up capturing some drama while scanning the waves.

Here's the rundown: apparently the store's loss prevention team has eyes on a suspect and they're tracking them throughout the store. He writes in a text overlay of the video: "Target Asset Protection tracks a suspect through the store on walkie"

The following text, in italics, is a transcript of the conversation between employees Twister captured:

There's one team member standing right by the cart but there's definitely like night time underwear or something like that in the cart

(It appears that a Target employee is clocking the thief pilfering some lingerie? Here's hoping they're not a Buffalo Bill esque character)

(The TikTok then transitions to footage of the perp in question pushing a cart through the parking lot of the target, Twister points out the items in question with animated Mickey Mouse hands on the video)

So, three things of wrapping paper and then one other like kitchen item I think?

Yeah I have no idea where the f--- she got that from

She has diapers on the bottom of her cart now I don't know if you notice that or not

She keeps on, she keeps on going between like two cameras and I lose her

Yeah she was in boys and girls socks just a second ago, but her cart is like in the middle of the aisle PTZ soft line should be able to see it

(Judging by the discussion of Target's loss prevention team, it sounds like the woman that they were tracking is someone they were able to identify)

Look up her previous incidents and see how hard she would go if you can, copy.

Yeah see if you can look up her previous incidents her last name is spelled with a V: V-e-r-n, if you just search our store and look up V-e-r-n she'll pop up.

(As the clip progresses, it sounds like one of the worker's does indeed look up her name and information, he then rattles off a series of dollar amounts and acronyms, like "PMR" which stands for productive merchandise recovery, or as a Redditor says in prior linked post: 'Recovery of merchandise without an apprehension.")

Yes I'm seeing $44 PMR, $150 PMR, $77 KTR (known theft report)

So most of the KTRs are lower dollar

Just saw her looking at the jeans on that rack

Something like a burgundy clothing

Yeah there might have been another shirt took in there too, I saw like the burgundy pair of pants and something else

They continued to track the shopper.

Looks like she's headed towards bedding kind of

Copy I'm gonna try to regain visual here in a second

I gained visual

She made a selection maybe 2 wrapping paper?

She has wrapping paper she grabbed a couple things of it

Gonna attempt to regain visual but I don't wanna get close cause I know she already saw me in boys

It sounds like from their exchange that they were following the shopper on foot throughout the store, acting as secret shoppers of sorts, but that the suspect may've clocked one of them already and they don't want to make it obvious if she was indeed planning on stealing from the retailer.

There are a few things we can glean from Mister Twister's clip — the first being that folks reacted to his video with a sense of curiosity and appreciation.

As one person penned: "I now wonder what asset protection thought of me that one time I couldn’t decided between a nespresso or keurig and stood there for the longest"

While another remarked, "No wonder why asset protection was eyeing me down when I couldn’t decide whether or not I need to try the elf grip primer or the putty one"

Someone else couldn't believe the extent in which Target's asset protection team monitored shoppers: "they really are watching me go look at the same moisturizer six times before I finally decide to buy it" one user on the app penned.

The other lesson is that the loss prevention/asset protection teams in stores do remember certain "persons of interest" when they visit a store and must have some kind of system set up to let them know that they're in there and getting their shopping on, because the workers in this clip knew exactly who Miss Vern was and they were scrutinizing her every move and each and every item she dropped into her cart.