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By Delia Paunescu: Assistant Editor

 
An image from the security cameras, which Village Eye Center provided to police, shows the man in the bottom right corner taking frames off the wall.
Mikki Freidkin is an optician and partner of Village Eye Center in Va. Of their three locations, two were the victim theft this year. Police have said http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/news-releases/2011/112111eyeweartheft.htm# that at least four separate optical shops in Fairfax County are tied to the same band of thieves. They also “believe these cases are connected to a string of similar thefts occurring in Montgomery County.”

Freidkin spoke to VM about her experience and what Village Eye Center has done since the incidents.

“A number of years ago, we’d had shoplifting all too often. But we had since made it harder to shoplift and put most of the expensive eyewear away. We’re cautious to keep everything locked up. I even got us a security camera system from Ntiva, a company in Fairfax. They do our surveillance now. They’re pretty amazing and not even expensive. You can watch what’s going on at each location from home, or even on your cell phone. It’s very effective.

“This is how the police will get these guys. We’re not the only ones who had that type of surveillance equipment. The officers on the case shared photographs of the same people going into three other companies. That’s how they were able to tie the rings together. These people only come in two at a time but in different pairs.

“Our two locations that got hit this time are in neighborhoods. It was warm out, maybe May or June when it happened. We know the clientele well and we recognize people. You can tell when someone doesn’t seem like they belong there. I guess we were getting lax and these gentlemen didn’t look out of place.

“Half of all the eyewear was accessible still. Even though it wasn’t the most expensive, it was still expensive. They didn’t get to Cartier, Chanel or David Yurman from the McLean store. But they still took Lindberg and Maui Jim or other frames that sell in the $500 or $600 category. Then at our Potomac location, they took Yurman after all because they confused us. We had the rack open showing one of them and the other one caused a commotion and then they stole them. They were good.

“Since that happened, we’ve added additional frame racks that lock. I found individual locking bars from a nifty new company called CNS Frame Displays. They have amazing racks to choose from that they import from Germany. Some even open and close with remote control.

“Where before we were getting lax about locking, we’ve now made it a rule that everyone wears the keys on their wrist and we have trays that hold 12 frames. If a customer is thinking about a few different pairs, we start a tray. So now, we know that only 12 frames are out. Before, we could have had anywhere up to 100 pairs out if several customers were browsing. It’s very funny because we’re not used to it. You should see us walking around with keys jingling and locking everything up. It’s a pain. It’s hard to not trust people. We do trust our customers but this incident made us realize that if we don’t have a rule in place, it’s going to happen again.”


 
After releasing security footage of the shoplifting to a local news station, Eyetique received nearly 90 tips.
Brad Childs, vice president, of Pittsburgh-based Eyetique, spoke with VM just four days after the company’s Shadyside location, one of 10 in the area, was the victim of shoplifting.

“On Saturday, Dec. 3, it was really busy and my staff had two different customers each. This guy comes in and literally just starts stuffing his pockets with frames. He was in and out so fast that five minutes later, we realized the Cartier case was missing six frames, worth $10,000 at wholesale. It’s terrible because we just bought our competitor, we just opened the store and we’d just put Cartier in the night before.

“We turned the tape over to police and the news and it’s been extremely helpful, especially since we offered a $500 reward. I’ve had 60 phone calls and 30 e-mails about him. People are rooting for us. I know where the guy lives, I know where he works, I know where he scalps tickets on Sundays. But it’s four days later; I’m not getting my product back. We’ve done our homework, we’re going to go to court. I’m definitely going to be there and make sure that the state prosecutes and makes an example of this guy. On behalf of retailers, this behavior will not be tolerated. I will draw a line in the sand and I will fight for us.

“We experience shoplifting a couple of times a year that we know about, but never of this size. A couple of years ago, we had someone take 12 RetroSpecs frames. We chased him on foot and caught him before the police even showed up. The way that works is a street patrolman comes by. Then it gets turned over to a detective, they may or may not get to it for a few weeks. The Pittsburgh police do a great job but I need my product now. They’re not real supportive of that so I don’t really want to use the legal system if I don’t have to. The reality of the whole thing is that I take it personally when you steal from my stores.

“It’s always a problem when you have frames sitting out. But we have to be there. We don’t really allow people to just browse on their own. To train my staff, I bring about $3,000 in cash and set it in a variety of places in a training room. People can’t take their eyes off them and that’s the point. Every one of those piles of cash is a frame because we’re so high end. So when you have a full rack of Cartier, you might as well stick a block of $40,000 in the case and walk away.

“I would never let anyone change how I do business. We have things locked up but we also have shelves. I can’t jeopardize that experience. The reason you come to my store and spend three times the money is for the total experience. It’s another thing to create that experience. That’s what we do and that’s what we’re always going to do. I’m not locking up our frames. We engage everybody when they come through our doors. So I’d like to believe that our staff is working with them.”

dpaunescu@jobson.com