When shopping for clothes last week -- if you were brave enough to fight Black Friday crowds -- did you notice all the security tags on just about any piece of clothing you picked up? Those slender, semi-yellow tags have been affixed to store garments for years as a way to thwart shoplifting. The tags can cause a sensor to alarm if not deactivated or removed during the checkout process. The device has probably saved clothing retailers millions of dollar per year in prevented theft.

But, what if you walked out of the store with the security tags still present on your garments only to not have the alarms go off? Since there are many types of theft-prevention tags in use, some tags are left on but deactivated at the register once you check out (like Sensormatic or RFID tags). Other tags are never deactivated, simply removed and then re-used on other items.

With the hustle and bustle of this past weekend's shopping frenzy, did you notice that any tags left on your purchased clothes remained on the garments after you left the store? Perhaps some clerks were just overworked and neglected to remove every tag. Or maybe some stores just turned off security measures knowing the futility of trying to keep up with legions of shoppers. Nah, that can't be it.