Nest

"Some shoplifters 'tag-team' which means shop seperately, using seperate grocery carts. One of them is the 'nest-builder,' the other is the pickup man. If done properly, this tactic is very hard to detect.

The term 'nest' is security slang for a collection of items to be picked up and shoplifted later.

A person and their buddy agree in advance where the nest will be planted. Sometimes they put it in an aisle not easily observed which contains bulky, rarely-shoplifted merchandise (pet food, paper goods, etc.) They move through the store putting items in the cart, including small valuable items.

They steer to the pre-arranged site and build their nest. They hide it from casual shoppers by placing an article from that aisle's stock in front of the nest.

Ten minutes later, the person who didn't put an easily shoplifted item has attracted no attention to himself. He pockets the contents of the nest and leaves.The nest-building technique has been used by one person later. When a person routinely pays more than one visit a day to my store, I get suspicious.

If a person has been spoted, they could dump the loot. Most stores won't prosecute anyone who doesn't actually carry the merchandise out of the store. Merely concealing or moving merchandise inside the store may legally constitute shoplifting, but prosecution is unlikely if the evidence is ditched."

This is what Andrew said.