Update

Past two weeks have really been taken up with a design report containing info on how product design has helped to deter theft in society....

On the project side i have been looking at objects that have designed to be disabled it stolen. The biomega bike is an interesting design which caught my eye. Have a look........

The structural wire on the downtube is used as a lock wire, so if cut the bike cannot be ridden.

Project update

Project since presentation has gone a bit slower. I'm trying to bang out another video dealing with the more non tangible aspects of theft. Having computer issues just now but hopefully will be sorted tomorrow and get one up asap. I am finding that filming parts of my project is helping me understand it a bit better and will hopefully help others aswell

Theft1.0

Heres a small intro video that I have made using footage I have been collecting throughout this project. Its a basic intro as to what the theme of my project is about.

Food alert

I recently found some stolen goods parked beside a fire exit beside a local shop on george street. Meat Theft seems to be on the rise at the moment and this evidence shows it. 4-5 packets of chicken, along with scotts porridge oats, several packets of eggs and muller rice. Lets hope this wasnt a failed attempt for a spot on "ready steady cook"! £30 quids of goods lying in a pool of what smelt like human urine...i hope this aint sold on....

This picture truly shows one of the 2 main causes of shoplifting, alcohol. People nicking to help feed their habit..

Progress report

Over the past week iv been ripping a video which should be on the site monday or tuesday reflecting on theft and the areas which surround it. Currently doing a powerpoint for tuesdays minI presentation to the dragons.

Main areas picked up this week.

-Meat theft!, seems to be on the rise, scumbags nicked meat from markets and selling it in dodgy pubs.

-Eastern Europe culture, Knife theft, i'm going to have to look into this more as there seems to be an issue with this culture bringing in knifes into the U.K when emigrating, using them for self defense and also force.

Update

Things are at a crawling pace just now. Although I was contacted buy an agency regarding an interview with them so thats a bonus. This could give me a big boost with my primary research and could point me in the right direction.

Bicycle tree

Heres a small video I found whilst browsing 'youtube' for ideas. It seems to be very effective and looks pretty sweet within its surroundings. Although I find it might be a bit of an overkill to for its intended use and there could be a better way of securing bicycles.

Shop experience

Well I made good use of the weekly shop with the sidecar by studying shops methods of security and layout....

• Two of the major high street chains I visited used multiple 360degree cameras and electromagnetic tags. One of which had a plain clothes security guard with apple 'ipod' earphones. Perhaps this was a genuine ipod but I had the suspicion it wasnt due to the cables being slightly different. Nice disguise though.

• Early on in the day I phoned another major high street chain asking a few questions about their security measures.. It didnt go that great to be honest as they didnt want to disclose much to me. There seemed to be a lot of "I cant answer that" so I may need to tweek my questions.
  

• However when I did ask the question, do you have a problem with shoplifting with the immediate reply of "no", i did wonder if this interview would be worth it. Especially because at the same time his radio was going off..."still at the shoes,... shes moving towards the jackets now..i need coverage..."
  

• So thats when I decided to take a visit into the chain and to my (non) amazement, two security guards shot past me on the escalator and grounded a publician in the changing room area. Maybe an area to look into??

Cut Security tag

After staring at the wall for an hour.... I decided to go and saw a security device in half so I could get an idea of what happens inside the tag an how it works. It seems simple enough, Ball bearings are used to keep the pin in place and when a magnetic force is used to pull out the pin the balls give way.....I think. A bit of research is needed here i think thought. I'm going to try get my hands on a few more, hopefully one with a colour cartridge in it as well to experiment with. Here's a few tags that iv "acquired" so far through the past few weeks.

Secondary Research

The past week I have been looking at mostly secondary research, printing of shedloads of ex-trees filled with info on retail crime. This seems to be an interesting area to go into and although there is alot of crime prevention all ready in place here I still think there is room for improvement.Planning to do some interviews but keep a wide scope on theft as a whole and not bin anything at the moment.

Other things/ideas/solutions/projects
that have cropped up,
Trolley theft
Environmental theft, forest fires.(currently in California)
Helping theft, how can I help people theive?
Online Networking sites (is anything secure)
Time theft
Ideas theft (copyright, patent)

Top ten most shoplifted items

The past week I have mainly been looking into theft on as wide a scale as possible. The first area I mainly looked at was shoplifting, the causes and effects it has on people.

The other week I shoplifted from a big supermarket(bigger shop mainly to minimise profit loss for them!), just to check out what it was about. I only nicked a piece of chewing gum but because it was the first time I shoplifted, I did feel nervous completing the act!

I have collected data of the most items shoplifted and was surprised to see alcohol so far up the list at number 2. I guess this is mainly due to people nicking it because of the price of it and also due to a habit perhaps.

Personal Statement and Aims

Research...

Iv decided to research into theft for my project as it seems quite a broad subject which has many areas to explore. Design against crime is growning in this world due to the little critters that keep nicking stuff! There are also many more creative areas to look into such as "the scarecrow" and personal space invasion. Hopefully im going to get somewhere with this one.