I know at least one business on Oahu, LeTour Cafe, that only takes CC or DC.

No cash or checks.  Nothing for a robber looking for money, to steal.

Their registers only contain paper receipts.

It's sad that the property damages will probably exceed the amount of cash taken.  Insurance would probably go up and the costs passed on to the consumers.

Hawaii low-lifes copying the mainland low-lifes.

Inflation, supply insecurities, high fuel prices, war anxieties, no confidence in government (state and federal) or the country's POTUS are all contributing to the increase of crimes across the nation.

I know at least one business on Oahu, LeTour Cafe, that only takes CC or DC.

No cash or checks.  Nothing for a robber looking for money, to steal.

Their registers only contain paper receipts.

A couple shop owners were on the news yesterday. Said same thing. Probably cost them more to replace the door/glass than what was taken. For some shops, might put them out of business as they were already struggling.

And who wanted the “catch and release” bill? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Very sad to see the news of all these crimes last evening. My wife eats at Mama Pho's, one of the stores whose windows were broken. Now the businesses are probably thinking about installing rolling metal gates, like some gun stores. Last month, these crimes were hitting Kapolei. No area is now safe from smash-and-grab.

My friends who work on Artificial Intelligence applications need to devise non-lethal surveillance techniques that respond to a suspect casing a store, theft, and break-ins. A cash register broken into after-hours should be equipped with a dye pack.



#CancelCrime

 A cash register broken into after-hours should be equipped with a dye pack.

This wouldn't deter or stop the crime from happening. The store would already have been broken into and items damaged/stolen.  What would be cheaper is not leave cash in the register and the drawer open over night, so criminals know it's empty. At least you won't have to buy a new register.  A closed register gives them hope that there is money inside. I worked retail and we did this. But the 1 day that the closer forgot to leave the draw open, is the night we were broken into. They smashed the register (1 of 2, the 2nd one was open drawer) and nothing was inside. But it cost the company $ to replace/fix it.

Also some retail stores do night drops to bank deposits.  This way the cash isn't sitting in the safe from that days sales.  But this service does cost extra too and an employee has to drive to the night drop location after work.

IDK about the mainland, but banks in HI don't use dye packs either. I was in banking for 10 years. Instead we just logged serial numbers of "bait money" and was told to include this with the cash if ever robbed. This bait money is kept separate from the rest of the cash so you don't give it out by accident. But even if you do, it's no big deal, we just change the listing of the serial numbers.

This wouldn't deter or stop the crime from happening. The store would already have been broken into and items damaged/stolen.  What would be cheaper is not leave cash in the register and the drawer open over night, so criminals know it's empty. At least you won't have to buy a new register.  A closed register gives them hope that there is money inside. I worked retail and we did this. But the 1 day that the closer forgot to leave the draw open, is the night we were broken into. They smashed the register (1 of 2, the 2nd one was open drawer) and nothing was inside. But it cost the company $ to replace/fix it.

Also some retail stores do night drops to bank deposits.  This way the cash isn't sitting in the safe from that days sales.  But this service does cost extra too and an employee has to drive to the night drop location after work.

IDK about the mainland, but banks in HI don't use dye packs either. I was in banking for 10 years. Instead we just logged serial numbers of "bait money" and was told to include this with the cash if ever robbed. This bait money is kept separate from the rest of the cash so you don't give it out by accident. But even if you do, it's no big deal, we just change the listing of the serial numbers.

So, my question is:  aside from locating and arresting a suspect/s and only then checking serial numbers of cash found in their possession, how does a list of serial numbers help catch the robbers?  There's no routine scanning of numbers at businesses, so the bait bills could be passed without ever being recognized.

I do notice my bank now uses a bill counter for every deposit.  I'm wondering now if that counter is capturing images of the bills for comparing to stolen bills with known serials.  Seems strange to use a counting machine for a few $100 bills.

So, my question is:  aside from locating and arresting a suspect/s and only then checking serial numbers of cash found in their possession, how does a list of serial numbers help catch the robbers?  There's no routine scanning of numbers at businesses, so the bait bills could be passed without ever being recognized.

I do notice my bank now uses a bill counter for every deposit.  I'm wondering now if that counter is capturing images of the bills for comparing to stolen bills with known serials.  Seems strange to use a counting machine for a few $100 bills.

There is no way the serial numbers will track or catch the robbers. It's more evidence that they have stolen property since none of the other cash's serial numbers are kept.  A good defense attorney could argue that those bills was given to them by a "friend".

The bill counter doesn't keep track of serial numbers either. It just counts the cash. It can also detect counterfeit bills, as in not the right kind of paper.  When this is detected, it spits the bill out and the teller has to examine it.  But old or damaged bills also get spit out (rejected) which the teller has to verify.  IDK how the machines respond to "washed" bills, as I never put 1 into the machine.  The 1 or 2 that I did come across were so jacked up that we knew something was wrong with the bill. Washing is taking a $1 or other lower denomination and erasing the pint on it. Then putting on a higher denominations print like a $50 or $100.  This way to the touch, it feels like a real bill.  As that was the biggest give away. All the counterfeits I came across were on regular printer paper.  And they tried to make it more worn out, but you can still easily tell the diff since we handle cash so much.  So with the washed bills, besides the image being on all jacked up, the strip inside the bill is either missing or a lower denomination.  So a printed $100 bill would have a $5 strip instead of it's proper $100 strip.  $1 bills have no strip at all.

And every single counterfeit bill we came across was from a person who didn't know it was fake. Like they had 1 fake bill in a stack of others (often business owners).  And it was never a sketchy person either, but your normal person.  When you work the teller line long enough, you can tell when a check forger is in line.  We never called the cops or feds either. The procedure was to confiscate the bill and mail it to the Secret Service who has a local office on Ala Moana Blvd with the persons info who we found it with.  I've talked to the customers later they said no one called them.  So I figure they don't waste their time with 1 bill.  They go after the bigger fish.  And I've never been presented a stack of fake bills like how you see in the movies.

But back to the machines, they're mainly used to reduce teller error. The machine tells you how much cash was given so then deposit or hand out that amount.  So if the machine counted $300, but you deposited $400, then you know where your error is.  The counter is linked to their computer system.  But there are the older ones the size of toaster where they aren't linked and the teller is just lazy if it's only a few bills to run thru it.