Big-box retailers like Walmart and Target continue to increase their security measures by locking up clothes, and customers aren’t happy.
TikTok user LALO (@lalote64) uploaded a video from his local Walmart in Oakland, Calif. He captioned the clip simply, “Out of control.”
In the 40-second video, the Walmart customer films racks of locked T-shirts at the store. “It’s getting so bad here,” the TikToker says, pointing to a security rod going through the hangers holding up the T-shirts.
“As you can see, shirts are locked up,” he tells his viewers.
But despite the new security locks, LALO quickly proves that anyone who wants to steal a T-shirt at Walmart could do so easily.
“You could just go like this and take the shirt because you don’t need the coat hanger,” he says, and he demonstrates how one could simply remove the shirt from the hanger and leave the store with it.
@lalote64 Out of control #oakland #sanleandro #walmart #storesecurity #theft #fyp #fypシ゚viral #bayarea #california #poverty #stealing #crime #dumppeople ♬ original sound – LALO
LALO’s video received almost 6,000 views and 167 comments with users sharing their own thoughts on the security practice.
A few people explained the need for the garment security locks running through the numerous T-shirt hangers at Walmart.
“You can have the shirts they just wanna keep the coat hangers,” one person joked.
“I bet its more to prevent people from taking all the shirts at once,” said a second.
“I think they are trying to prevent the fast grab of gathering all the hangers in their arms & running out. This slows them down a lil bit,” wrote another helpful viewer.
“It keeps them from grabbing quickly more time to call the police,” echoed someone else.
In the face of a rising rate of shoplifting, Walmart and other retailers have introduced a wide range of security measures, from the above-mentioned security locks to shutting down self-checkout lanes so that managers can check for theft, and even adding a police station to an Atlanta store.
But not all of the video’s viewers seemed to be facing the same problem as LALO.
“Our PlayStation 5s aren’t even locked up here, so glad crimes not like that everywhere yet,” wrote one viewer.
The Daily Dot reached out to LALO via TikTok comment for further information.
