I-Team: Holiday Shoplifting

(WWLP) - Christmas is a week away and it is the busiest time of the year at the mall.  

The 22News I-Team discovers its the season of giving and taking. 

From Black Friday until Christmas eve malls are packed with shoppers searching for that perfect present.  Some of those shoppers just don't pay for what they find. 

The 22News I-Team went to the Holyoke police department.  Since Black Friday, Holyoke police have arrested 30 people at the Holyoke Mall for shoplifting.  More than one a day. 

Springfield had two shoplifting arrests at the Eastfield Mall. 

That does not count people who avoid prosecution by paying individual stores or given citations by police at the mall. 

The Holyoke Mall did not comment on their own security measures, but said they have additional Holyoke police officers scheduled during the holiday shopping season.   

Brian Kennedy is the public safety director at the Eastfield Mall.  

"As you can see we have a camera system that's constantly going here at the mall that's monitoring a number of different locations throughout the mall on the interior and exterior", says Kennedy.  

If you're going to be shopping at the mall during this busy Christmas week, you need to take some of your own safety precautions before you get in the parking lot.

"Making sure you don't leave in plain view in your vehicle, you have to be concerned with not being a target for other people to take advantage of you", says Kennedy.  

Kennedy told the 22News I-Team they work with the Springfield Police department.  Police and mall security patrol inside and outside the mall and there's always someone watching you.   

"It provides us an advantage if something were to happen because we would have a heads up and we could respond to a situation and take care of it as soon as possible", says Kennedy.  
 
Kennedy told 22News the cameras aren't just for watching out for shoplifting or car break in's, it's also for safety in case someone may slip and fall in the parking lot.