PROVO — Going back to school means classes, homework and long hours in the library. It also means another year of careful security on college campuses, particularly in the school bookstore.
Consider: A 22-year-old man was charged last week in 4th District Court with a class A misdemeanor of retail theft for taking $470 worth of textbooks from the Brigham Young University bookstore. A week before, a woman was charged with retail theft for taking almost $300 worth of merchandise from the store.
While administrators at BYU say there's not a growing trend of shoplifters, theft issues pop up on a monthly basis, said Dennis Lindberg, assistant director of operations in the bookstore.
However, BYU's numbers — and numbers of other colleges around the state — are below the national average for losses.
BYU's "shrinkage" is consistently around 0.23 percent. That means that of their annual profits, they lose 0.23 percent — less than one quarter of one percent — in retail theft, accounting errors, broken items or other problems, said Roger Reynolds, director of the BYU Bookstore.
BYU, University of Utah and Utah Valley State College are part of the National Association of College Stores. Unlike other retail outlets that compete against each other for sales figures, college bookstores don't, and thus freely share financial information. The average shrinkage for some of the nation's largest schools is 0.72 percent with a median of 0.55 percent, slightly more than half of one percent. BYU is always under 1 percent, Reynolds said, and rarely, if ever, gets above 0.5 percent.
The national average for shrinkage of retail outlets is 1.6 percent annually, with some retail outlets reporting figures as high as 4.7 percent, according to statistics used by the National Retail Federation for 2005.
So how do college campuses keep such low loss figures?
BYU administrators said it's a combination of security procedures, alert employees and students who abide by the school's rules, commonly known as the Honor Code. The school is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I would say we incur less theft (because we) have a clientele that is selected for their abilities and their standards — everything that goes into making an acceptance into the university," Lindberg said.
Moral codes or excellent employees aside, BYU bookstore officials catch at least one individual a month trying to steal from the store.
The University of Utah sees about three to four shoplifters a month, said Earl Clegg, bookstore director. Like BYU, the Salt Lake City campus store is also under 0.50 percent shrinkage each year.
Clegg says the school's physical isolation from the community at large is one natural protection against would-be community shoplifters.
Since school started two weeks ago, Utah Valley State College bookstore security officials have talked to about 10 different individuals who seemed suspicious, although nothing was actually amiss, said bookstore general manager Louise Bridge.
iPods are the Orem bookstore's hot-ticket item lately, and the school sees the most theft attempts during the busy periods of back to school and finals week, Bridge said. The school generally sees shrinkage of 0.08 percent.
When store security catches someone trying to permanently borrow a book, most of the individuals are remorseful or humble, said bookstore directors for BYU and the U. However, there are still legal ramifications.
"Whenever we apprehend a shoplifter, it's immediately transferred to the police department and out of our hands," Clegg said. "It's handled through the judicial system and the university prosecutes to the fullest."
It's best if stolen items are recovered and can be re-sold. But if not, the schools can ask for financial restitution. And sometimes that restitution comes months or even years later.
Both Reynolds and Bridges said they get one or two letters a year from repentant students who want to make amends for stealing a candy bar or a CD.
The letters usually contain very generous checks, Reynolds said, to make up for the cost of the item — plus interest.
"The way we look at apprehending someone is we're really helping them," Reynolds said. "We're hoping that by catching them at a fairly young age, they can learn from it."
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com