Orhan Senel has been a department store detective for 25 years. How he manages to remain invisible, how the perpetrators give themselves away and why he once helped a thief.
from
Helena Ott
If someone wants to steal, he can tell by their eyes. Orhan Senel is standing in front of the shelf of a drugstore, turning the cardboard box of a 100-euro perfume with both hands. “But the eyes scan the environment.” He looks furtively to the right and left under the black shield of his cap. When he observes this, a simple shopper becomes a “target”. He will use the term more often this afternoon in mid-December. The 56-year-old, neatly trimmed white beard, brown leather shoes, black quilted jacket, is a department store detective. For 25 years he has been following on the heels of customers who are a tad more nervous. Only when they have passed the checkout area does he strike: “Could it be that you forgot to pay for a pair of headphones?”, He then asks, for example.