Looking back to see what you were talking about, I read it wrong. I didn’t read “do they even think…” I read “Do you think…” and my answer was “no”.
I keep thinking that theaters would confiscate any backpacks just to keep people trying to bypass the over priced concessions. I remember my roommate’s girlfriend had a big handbag and we would stop at Burger King before the movie to fill it up.
I’m glad I don’t go to theatres anymore. Don’t even have to think about it.
I think you’re still whooshed. I believe Ludovic’s intent was to make a play on words with the phrase “security theater”.
“Lets all go to the Lobby!”
“Lets all go to the Lobby!”
“Lets all go to the Lobby…and re-load with a clink!” 
It isn’t my experience in retail that kids are any more likely to shoplift than other age groups.
Could be, I was gonna joke about that, but there’s a little survey at the bottom of the OP’s link about metal detectors vs pat downs vs bag search etc, so that may have been on my mind.
Either way, I’m still going to guess the guy had no intention of hurting anyone and as the story unfolds, I’m going to predict he has a bit of a prepper mentality. Room full of guns (well, several guns), gas mask, tactical vest etc. It wouldn’t surprise me if we find out from friends or neighbors that he’s talked about someday wanting to build a bunker. I’m not ruling out a screw loose, I’m also specifically not saying that preppers have screws loose, I’m just saying that I think we’ll find that he’s one of those people that just takes self protection a bit overboard.
I had a friend in college like that. It wouldn’t surprise if by now (10 years later) he either grew out of it or booby traps his apartment before he goes to bed so no one can get to him. This was someone that while, at the time, had no weapons, used to talk about how he would defend himself in the event of a riot and what weapons he would need to acquire to do it…in the middle of a nice suburban residential neighborhood.
So…pretty good then.
This was one of my first thoughts when I heard “backpack.” Some guys I used to work with would carry backpacks to work to bring their lunches and maybe workout clothing, but I don’t think they used them as I use a purse.
Indeed.
Wow.I just realized it was only a couple of miles away.
Damn it. It just occurred to me that this will make it impossible to bring outside food into the theater.:mad:
Maybe they’re just better at it? At least half of the kids I knew growing up stole something from a retail store at one point or another, but practically all of them grew out of it as adults. There are fewer consequences for underage thieves, and kids (with their not-yet-fully-developed frontal cortices) have poorer impulse control than adults.
I’m not trying to be confrontational but the board in general (and also society) are very critical of youth, and I don’t like the stereotyping that young people=thieves.
In my experience the biggest thieves retail are middle aged women trying to return used to hell things they never intended to keep/abusing return policies, and the biggest $$$ damage was a couple in their thirties who loaded up shopping carts and didn’t pay for their groceries. I wouldn’t believe kids are more likely thieves than adults without proof.
Also I would bet a good amount that even if kids trump adults in petty theft, that the biggest dollar amount damages caused by theives are caused by professional shoplifters who are almost exclusively adults.
I would have guessed that kids are simply more likely to be carrying backpacks, so it’s easier to steal should they be inclined. And a LOT harder for the loss prevention folks to keep track of.
Just wear a big trenchcoat, lots of space under there to conceal food!
Ha, yeah, because nobody would ever think to hide weapons in a trenchcoat!
Yes, but that’s not what you said initially, nor what I argued against. You said:
It IS *my *experience that kids are more likely to shoplift than any other demographic. Much more likely, insofar as a majority of the kids I knew (including both friends and boastful enemies) had stolen something at one point or another. I was a rarity because I had never, ever shoplifted (although I’ve been a regular illegal downloader since the age of 18 :eek:). My sister even admitted to me a couple years back that she stole a candy bar when she was in her tweens, which surprised me! Anyway, she and most of the admitted petty thieves I knew back then have grown out of it, and are now fine adults… this kind of petty crap is generally short-lived because cerebral cortices develop more fully, and the legal/financial consequences become much harsher (and serve as better deterrents) than in childhood.
I don’t doubt that professional thieves are responsible for the majority of overall theft, in terms of dollar amount. But that’s not what you originally argued, and certainly not at all what I was arguing against.
As far as whether it’s more lucrative for a particular store to take precautions against thievery perpetrated by children or adults, it depends. In a small store like Dollar General (which I remember as the strictest enforcer of the “no-backpacks” rule), it’s simply not possible to walk out of the store, unnoticed, with hundreds of dollars in merchandise like it is at a big-box store like Walmart. Their largest theft risks were quite likely employees (no-brainer, there) and kids with large backpacks. Sure it’s not a big amount stolen per person, but if 20 kids steal $10 in candy every week for a year, that’s over 10k down the poopchute. And professional thieves don’t generally bother with dollar stores, because the merchandise has a too-low value-per-pound to justify taking. There are no compact, value-heavy items like dvds or expensive jewelry at the dollar store, and you can’t take carts out of the store without someone seeing/stopping you. So, protecting against professional thieves would provide very little reward per unit of effort. Protecting against theft perpetrated by children is easier and was, for that store, likely more lucrative… so that’s what they did.
Sorry for getting all tangential and stuff, OP.
Very tangentially related to the above, this is why the best way to prevent your car from being broken into is to lock the doors and keep valuables out of sight. Why would a thief want to raise his risk by fussing with a locked door, breaking a window, or spending extra time rooting around when he can just open a door and grab a laptop in a few seconds?
When I was in high school, immediately post-columbine, they enacted rules regarding the carrying of bags/cases during the school hours. Basically, we couldn’t. You had to go to your locker, stash your bag at the beginning of the day, and hand-carry anything you needed for your classes, typically meaning that you had to go back and forth to your locker during the class breaks rather than spending that time hitting the restroom, talking to the teacher about classwork, or bullshitting with your friends in the hallways.
What made this a pain for me was that I was in band class. Trumpet cases don’t fit in lockers, and the band hall was something like a quarter mile away from the bus stops past the far end of the football field, which put a crimp on our time before and after school as we had to hustle to the band hall before-and-after school so we would neither be late for class nor miss the bus.
I was on good terms with the school counselor though, so she let me and a couple of my friends stash our instrument cases behind her desk during the day.
America… Someone is caught with a backpack full 'o guns at the cinema, and the response is:
