MALLS FACING SCHOOL-DAYS STEALING CRAZE.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

School is coming back into session, and - like clockwork - so are the shoplifters, police say.

The phenomenon started late last week at malls across the San Fernando Valley and is expected to last until school starts in September, police and retail trade experts said.

``We call it the back-to-school stealing session,'' said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Craig Ledsworth who patrols the Northridge Fashion Center.

``Seems like this is pretty common just before school: Kids go out on their last fling,'' said LAPD West Valley Division Officer Jim Heitz, who patrols the Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park, The Promenade in Woodland Hills and the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills.

The motivation?

``Most of it is peer pressure to look good, to be stylin', '' Ledsworth said. ``With girls, it's mostly the fashion that they want, a lot of underclothing. For the boys, it's mostly hats and tennis shoes.''

Other hot items among the young thieves, who are typically 14 to 17, are compact discs, sunglasses and low-price accessories, Ledsworth said.

``It's not surprising at all because you have an increase in traffic for back to school,'' said Richard Giss, partner with the trade retail services group at Deloitte & Touche. ``I would expect a spike in shoplifting because you're going to have more sales and traffic at this time of year.''

Police cannot recall a single case of a teen shoplifting a notebook, ruler or other traditional back-to-school supplies.

The LAPD does not keep statistics on juvenile arrests at malls, but officers who patrol malls say the pace of arrests of teen-agers - two a day on average per mall - picks up to three or more daily near the start of school.

Officials at six of the Valley's nine malls would not comment on shoplifting trends at their shopping centers.

At the Glendale Galleria and the Panorama Mall, supervisors said they have not noticed an increase in shoplifting, whether by adults or teen-agers.

Louise Marquez of the Panorama Mall said many of the shoppers in the past few weeks have been elementary school students with their parents. And they were in search of school uniforms the kids would rather not wear, let alone steal, Marquez added.

Police and mall security directors said they anticipate the crush of teen shoplifters by focusing more on young shoppers and departments that have items most likely to be stolen.

Typically, the rate of shoplifting at malls rises and falls depending on the time of year.

``There's a natural upswing during Christmas and going back to school. Those are two of the times where you see more youth-involved shoplifting,'' said Jim Dellinger, the Northridge Fashion Center's public safety director.

``There's an enormous amount of pressure on kids to say, Hey, look what I'm wearing,'' said Dellinger, who patrolled the mall for nine years before retiring from full-time police work. Youngsters who get caught can expect to face petty theft charges, Ledsworth said. Punishment depends on prior record, grades and attitude, but is likely to include probation, community service and fines.

Stores can seek $250 or more in civil court toward the cost of their loss-prevention programs, but usually bypass that and press for theft prosecution, said Officer Michael Soper of the LAPD's Devonshire Division.

And then there is the humiliation factor.

Some petty thieves get led through the mall in handcuffs on a walk of shame and are detained until they are picked up by a parent or guardian, Ledsworth said.

While getting trendy fashion is a common goal, the young shoplifters have differing motives, police said.

``Sometimes it's that kids can't afford it or the family can't afford the fancier clothing like the rest of the kids have,'' Heitz said.

But plenty of teens from well-off families also shoplift, often on a dare from peers, he said.

``I've had kids who could probably buy and sell me who say their friends said it was easy to get away with it,'' Heitz said.

What some teen-agers apparently don't know is that the stores and police have time-tested methods of catching shoplifters: surveillance cameras and electronic sensors attached or embedded in clothing.

As a result, police and security guards say they catch most of the thieves, who typically find out they were not as clever as they thought, Ledsworth said.

``They all figure they had the perfect way to steal. They take it to the fitting room, tear the tags off, and put it in a bag,'' Ledsworth said. ``A big way is to use their backpacks, and out they go. They think this is awful easy until they get outside and get nabbed.''

``Every store in this mall takes shoplifting very seriously and their managers, their help, any of their employees, are always very vigilant in trying to keep that down,'' said Gene Esperanza, a regional security manager for the Topanga Plaza and Promenade.

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PHOTO (color) Officer Michael Soper walks a shopping center beat in Northridge.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News