Shoplifting and shoplifters-the nerve of some of them

[Jean-F]

We were in a shoe store in a Mall in Georgia U.S., and I was looking for something in a size 8 U.K. that might catch my eye.
One wall was maybe 12-15 metres long by about 2 metres high, all stacked with boxes of shoes and boots.
Suddenly a young guy walked in, dressed in jeans and work shirt, tools dangling from his belt, he looked like he’d just climbed down from some scaffolding, and his Timberland work boots had seen better days.
He strolled slowly along the wall of shoe and boot boxes until he came to a pair that suited him, he then took the brand new De Walt boots out of their box, tried them on, laced them up, then casually put his battered Timberlands in the empty box, placed it with the other boxes, hitched up his belt and walked nonchalantly out of the door.

 

[BowdonUK]

A lot of the regular low level criminals come from dysfunctional families.

 

[arknor]

A lot of the regular low level criminals come from dysfunctional families.

yea they learn fast what you can get away with and what you can't.

or they don't care much like the police/courts

Elaine Rutherford, who has a string of shoplifting convictions, faces jail if she breaches the Criminal Behaviour Order handed down to her by magistrates.
The 46-year-old, of no fixed abode, had plagued shops and stores in the city over the past two years, amassing several convictions for theft.
She is now banned from all retail premises within the city centre as a result of the order – a replacement for anti-social behaviour orders.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/13592905.shoplifter-banned-every-shop-newcastle-city-centre/

whys she walking free? how many times do you imagine shes been arrested?

seems she used a 6year old boy to smuggle cannabis into a prison too
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/boy-six-took-drugs-prison-1492529

seems you can just do as you like and prisons never really an option

 

[Mr Badger]

They usually go for the high value items like meat joints, fridge packs or bottles of wine but d'you know how embarrasing to help a customer by telling them where something is, only to find out that they're a shoplifter later?
How am I to know?

You don't find it odd when you are asked to direct them to the highest value item in the shop and also the nearest exit?

 

[Beerbaron]

I recently witnessed 3 kids walk out of Poundland with boxes of chocolates under their coats. They then sat on a bench out front eating them. There was only one member of staff at the tills so was easy for them.

 

[Efour]

I accidentally shop lifted a box of cat liter once. Just completely forgot to self scan it, didn't realize till I left the shop.

I deserve to be hung.

 

[KiNgPiN83]

I remember working in retail years ago and you had the same people coming in every week stealing stuff. They'd also all be known to every shop with a shop safe radio and nothing ever seemed to happen to any of them. Well, occasionally you wouldn't see one of them for a month or so which may have meant they were serving some time at her majesties pleasure however they may have just been on holiday or something.. Also, I'd sometimes follow them round the store in the hope of them buggering off but most of the time didn't get involved. Especially if i knew they were one of the more angry ones.

 

[Freddie1980]

I remember when the Xbox 360 was launched, we had to put some sort of display up in the porch with loads of empty console boxes to advertise it. It was hilarious the number of empty boxes that got robbed.

Makes me think some people just do it for the thrill of it as they would have known there was nothing in the box the moment they picked it up (unless your boss put a brick in it to give it some weight).

I worked at Boots at Stansted airport back in the early 2000's and just about every day we would have all our Razor blades nicked. It couldn't have made it any easier for the thiefs, the shop front was completely open, no security camera's overlooked the merchandise and the razors were right at the front of the store with no security casing or electric tags. All someone had to do was pick them up of the shelves, stick them in a bad and walk out.

 

[alchal]

Once watched a woman in Morrisons attempt to walk out with a trolly full of meat and kids clothes, she had a nice chat with security before legging it after she saw that there were cops headed her way, was funny as hell.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I accidentally shop lifted a box of cat liter once. Just completely forgot to self scan it, didn't realize till I left the shop.

I deserve to be hung.

Technically that is not shoplifting as theft (legally speaking) require the act of dishonesty + appropriation. If it's merely appropriation then everything we picked up would be classed as theft.

p.s. I have done that too, when i was in uni I went out shopping and had loads of bags on me, went to a Tesco Express on the way home to get a few things for dinner, so the intention was only a few things and didn't get a basket. One item I had was some mushrooms and I put them in those semi clear plastic bags. Then I loop them under my pinky….with my other shopping. So when I went to the check out and put all the items down on the conveyor belt I just forgot I had those mushrooms under my pinky. Paid for the rest and walked home, only when I got back I noticed these mushrooms hanging on with all my other shopping.

pps, the maximum sentence for theft is 7 years.

 

[Jean-F]

Technically that is not shoplifting as theft (legally speaking) require the act of dishonesty + appropriation. If it's merely appropriation then everything we picked up would be classed as theft.

p.s. I have done that too, when i was in uni I went out shopping and had loads of bags on me, went to a Tesco Express on the way home to get a few things for dinner, so the intention was only a few things and didn't get a basket. One item I had was some mushrooms and I put them in those semi clear plastic bags. Then I loop them under my pinky….with my other shopping. So when I went to the check out and put all the items down on the conveyor belt I just forgot I had those mushrooms under my pinky. Paid for the rest and walked home, only when I got back I noticed these mushrooms hanging on with all my other shopping.

pps, the maximum sentence for theft is 7 years.

Colour me dumb if it’s glaringly obvious, but pinky?
Was it a typo for pinny?

 

[Stu999]

Colour me dumb if it’s glaringly obvious, but pinky?
Was it a typo for pinny?

Common slang for little finger.

 

[Hanuki]

I accidentally shop lifted a box of cat liter once. Just completely forgot to self scan it, didn't realize till I left the shop.

I deserve to be hung.

Haha, REPORTED. Kiddin, i've done the same i've gone into a shop without a basket, intending to buy one item ended up picking up multiple items. At the self check out scanned everything in but a single can of Starch for ironing that I had under my arm-pit XD Got half way down the high street before noticing it lol. Accident- I should turn back and pay but looked how far away the shop was and though I make up my bad karma by doing something nice lol

 

[Hanuki]

Here a good one, I used to work at WHSmiths in Wandsworth early 2000's and the manager at the time hired Family members & Family friends. I think myself and 2 other people who were hired were random's. I remember sometimes off duty these employee's would take their trollies up to the Stock room and leave with the trollies looking little full up. Deffo a lot of fiddling going on as well with money. Little off topic, but this was a deffo inside job. Yeah the manager didn't last long, along with her friends.

 

[Scam]

I was once in Superdrug where they had the disposable razors down by the till (where you queue). As we were headed that way I noticed a shifty-looking guy staring at them, pick a packet up and weirdly do an about-turn and head towards the back of the store (rather than the tills). Girlfriend was faffing looking at something else near the queue area, I watched him go into a back corner with his back turned for a moment or two, then immediately walk straight out of the store past us. I told someone on the till who promptly told the manager. She went out back to look at the CCTV, came back in 3-4mins and said "yeah he's just nicked them". I think they went looking for him in the shopping centre and alerted security but doubt they got him. He didn't run or anything, just sauntered out. Cool story bro.

 

[lunar]

what do prisoners have in a cell to occupy their minds?

I've honestly wondered who gets a medical condition diagnosed and treated more easily, a prisoner or a citizen on the outside.

What happens to all your stuff if you get sentenced to prison time? whos paying your rent? and how do you build back your life once released.

your possibly starting from the very bottom, living at a doss house on benefits, maybe a few hundred quid to buy clothes and necessary items.

but your essentially birthed out of the prison system and just left to survive or what?


The only people I know that have been sent down I haven't had contact with in decades and they were only around 16-21 doing small stints for a few weeks, apart from one guy who got 4 years and served 2.5)
none of them seemed that bothered, they made friends they stayed in contact with on the outside and seemed to enjoy learning new skills like mechanic courses etc.

this is all like 20 years ago though and it was only Lincoln prison which google says is for young offenders so not "real man prison"

Ok, when I was at University in the mid 80s one of my University lecturers use to visit a prison to teach Relativity to some inmates.
I once said to him,
"Sir, don't time slow down for them."
He just gazed at me with a disgruntled look.

 

[firstborn]

I remember back in the day our manager duty manager and security guard chased some bloke out of the store into the car park. Threw him into a bush and sat on him until the police arrived. Was only something like USB pen drives.

I also remember some shoplifter pocketed some stuff In front of an off duty police officer. He didn’t get out of the store.

Back in the day I worked at Dixon's and was involved in a fair few such events. I worked stock room so often got called out when the usual suspects where in the store. Couldn't t react to such situations in the same way these days...

Have a letter from a chief constable somewhere thanking for assisting in a situation... I'd probably get a caution these days!

 

[BowdonUK]

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/13592905.shoplifter-banned-every-shop-newcastle-city-centre/

whys she walking free? how many times do you imagine shes been arrested?

seems she used a 6year old boy to smuggle cannabis into a prison too
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/boy-six-took-drugs-prison-1492529

seems you can just do as you like and prisons never really an option

I think this is a question to be asked, what to do with people like this woman whose criminality as become part of her life?

I don't have all the answers, and I'm sure there isn't a one size fits all approach as I would like to have those people rehabilitated. But I wonder if its time to bring back the old workhouses? I'm not sure how strict they are on rules. But I think a lot of the people like her have become institutionalised and in a way have a need for an ordered system around them. It's like they haven't fully grown up.

I remember the cops saying its always a small hardcore group of low level criminals that end up causing 90% of the crime. So if those people can be moved outside of regular society (with a way to work themselves back in later on), then the better for us all.

 

[2004typer]

I used to work in Halfords in my college and early Uni days (1997 - 2000), and we had the usual cronies who came in to thief.

One of these was a chap who was very prolific, looked like a scrawny malnourished Jaws from James Bond so didn't exactly blend in, every time he came we all followed him round like a hawk, always headed towards the expensive professional tools looking to bag something expensive, anything we had that was very decent though was secured to the shelves and needed a staff member to assist with the purchase.

We had it pretty tight to be fair, and didn't really lose much high value stuff.

Still lost low value stuff though from the criminals not on our radar though, but as per earlier posts, a store has to weigh up the cost of security vs losing low value stock.

 

[SDK^]

My brother In-Law was store manager at Asda Minworth which is turning over about £2m per week. He has some crazy stories on shoplifters.

One guy got his kid to fall into a large TV on display and demanded the TV, else he was going to sue for injuries. They gave him the TV

Staff as well get caught stealing stuff. Petrol station drives off are another popular one.