The Energon Pub

Hello,

We are looking for two individuals who stole an Encore Bruticus and an Encore Cassettes
from our retail store in Chicago.
Galactic Force Toys and Games
I am offering a $300 cash reward for information which can lead to the arrest of these persons.
Additionally, I will provide you a with a free encore Transformer.
Scum bags who think it's okay to go in and rip off stores are a cancer to the Transformers community,
and I wish to set an example with these persons by stopping them before they rip off other establishments. I am assuming that these will end up on Ebay, or within the collector community.

Autobotmarc wrote:Hello,

We are looking for two individuals who stole an Encore Bruticus and an Encore Cassettes
from our retail store in Chicago.
Galactic Force Toys and Games
I am offering a $300 cash reward for information which can lead to the arrest of these persons.
Additionally, I will provide you a with a free encore Transformer.
Scum bags who think it's okay to go in and rip off stores are a cancer to the Transformers community,
and I wish to set an example with these persons by stopping them before they rip off other establishments. I am assuming that these will end up on Ebay, or within the collector community.

Did you try pulling the security cameras for the time of the crime?

Unfortunately I don't know anything, but I hope you're able to find out who did it.

No news of this on the grapevine but hopefully if anyone gets word on the thieves and visits the forum, they'll post in this thread.

We believe we know who it is, but did not manage to get them on camera.
We believe we know who it is and have their license plates, but do not have
sufficient proof because they were not actually witnessed taking the merchandise
out of the store.
There is a blind spot, and I'm going to have to rectify it, it's a pretty blatant place to
steal from, but if either myself or a sales rep is busy, and there's a ton of people in the store, and no one else in the store cares, someone can walk out brazenly with merchandise.
We are a super tiny store, so it takes skill, and a crowd to get it out behind our backs.
We have no issues with theft, other than when we get new transformers in, and than
people come in and try to steal them from us the minute they come in, unfortunately, a few times
they succeed. I have been reconsidering carrying Transformers in our store because this is becoming such a problem.

Autobotmarc wrote:We believe we know who it is, but did not manage to get them on camera.
We believe we know who it is and have their license plates, but do not have
sufficient proof because they were not actually witnessed taking the merchandise
out of the store.
There is a blind spot, and I'm going to have to rectify it, it's a pretty blatant place to
steal from, but if either myself or a sales rep is busy, and there's a ton of people in the store, and no one else in the store cares, someone can walk out brazenly with merchandise.
We are a super tiny store, so it takes skill, and a crowd to get it out behind our backs.
We have no issues with theft, other than when we get new transformers in, and than
people come in and try to steal them from us the minute they come in, unfortunately, a few times
they succeed. I have been reconsidering carrying Transformers in our store because this is becoming such a problem.

My local comic book store had problems like this when they first opened a while ago, except it wasn't TFs that were stolen but comics. Since you have blind spots and not enough employees, it is possible to require people to leave their bags behind the counter when they enter the store. Or keep more expensive TFs behind locked glass display case.

We use glass cases, we also have a window display, they are stealing off the window display. That's also the blind spot, but it's in front of people.
Plus sometimes, we carry so much, we have overflow, and have to put them in other places, usually it's up high, but even than they've gotten creative once or twice.
Unfortunately, since it's only Transformers, we might just have to stop carrying
Transformers for a while. It's starting to become cost prohibitive with all of the security counter measures I have to have in place just for the Transformers alone.
I carry the Transformers because I'm a fan, and I collected them myself since the beginning, still have my original Megatron. So it makes me pretty angry that people want to come in and target me. But what can you do I guess. Some people are jerks. We do bag checks, we are a small store, it's hard to explain, but if you get a crowd, it's a security weakness I have to fix and that part is my fault.

Good luck but isn't $300 dollars a bit much? The figures aren't worth anywhere near that.

Autobotmarc wrote:We use glass cases, we also have a window display, they are stealing off the window display. That's also the blind spot, but it's in front of people.
Plus sometimes, we carry so much, we have overflow, and have to put them in other places, usually it's up high, but even than they've gotten creative once or twice.
Unfortunately, since it's only Transformers, we might just have to stop carrying
Transformers for a while. It's starting to become cost prohibitive with all of the security counter measures I have to have in place just for the Transformers alone.
I carry the Transformers because I'm a fan, and I collected them myself since the beginning, still have my original Megatron. So it makes me pretty angry that people want to come in and target me. But what can you do I guess. Some people are jerks. We do bag checks, we are a small store, it's hard to explain, but if you get a crowd, it's a security weakness I have to fix and that part is my fault.

Sry to hear that, I think these small stores that sells TFs are a great place to buy from bc they usually can tell you more about the stuff bc they're fans themselves. Hopefully this problem resolves and you get your stuff back.

Mykltron wrote:Good luck but isn't $300 dollars a bit much? The figures aren't worth anywhere near that.

I think he's looking to make a point and not a profit on this.

Good luck in getting these guys

thats sucks.... hope all goes well

If I could, I'd offer 1 or 2 thousand to catch these guys, but unfortunately I just paid rent and a few bills. I'd still be wiling to pay at least $300 and throw in a free Transformer to boot though.
As someone who is a lifelong Transformers fan, this angers me badly that I am being hit, I'm just a small shop, a fan who is trying to sell what he enjoys, and
people keep trying to rip me off because there's me and I think two giant shops in the suburbs. Not that I'm suggesting they go to the big stores, or to Toys R Us instead, it's just that these people know what they are taking, and they know who I am and what it is I do, and they just don't care. Which is why at the least, I want to make sure I'm offering more than what they took.