How a Scottsdale boutique is using humiliation to stop thefts

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — A Scottsdale shop is using a combination of surveillance and humiliation to prevent thefts.

Emma Knight is the store manager of Rolling Rack Boutique in Old Town Scottsdale. She said employees had noticed shoplifters coming in and sneakily walking off with hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise this year. So cameras were installed.

“When we do have someone stealing or lingering around, we are able to focus in on their face,” Knight said.

But even with cameras everywhere, it was still a problem. Knight felt she needed a public solution.

“We’re a very bold brand, so this kinda represents us. We have a little sassiness to us so if you steal from us, we are going to post you everywhere,” she said.

Knight said the posters are deterring crooks. “We believe that it’s done really well for our business. People have respected us a little bit more for it. We get only positive comments from it,” she said.

In addition to the photos on the window for all passersby to see, they also added new tech. “It’s an AI technology that can focus on and identify who they are. It’s our job as much as possible to protect our product and our merchandise,” Knight said.

However, so far, finding the shoplifters is proving to be difficult. “We have customers coming in all the time saying that they have found them,” Knight said. “But we have not technically found any of them.”

But she said her store has seen a dramatic decline in shoplifting and they’ve enjoyed all the laughs.

Knight said they’ve reported all incidents of shoplifting to Scottsdale police. If you recognize anyone, you can call the police department.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.