When I worked at Eckerd’s we used to get ripped off all the time by people who would come in, pick up a case of beer and just haul ass. We weren’t allowed to chase them, and I wouldn’t have anyway, so we just waved our hands ineffectually as they sped out.
Once a couple working together got a nice camera. A man and a woman came in and asked to “see” a particular camera. They wanted to have it taken out of the packaging. I called a manager to take care of them (it was night and we were the only ones in the store besides the far-away pharmacist). So she came up and spent some time struggling with the packaging, and as she was engrossed in this, the woman put another camera in her purse. Neither of us saw her do it, so I’m assuming that’s when it happened. Anyway, they decided not to buy the camera the manager showed them, and walked out. As they did, the alarm sounded and the woman took off. The man stood blocking the doorway with his arms raised, saying “What? What?” Then after the lady had a good head start, he dashed out as well. We waved our hands ineffectually.
I used to lift stupid crap like candybars, fireworks and collectable cards. The reason? I just didn’t have money and I wanted stuff.
It was fun while it lasted, but this was all before I was even in High School, so I was pretty young.
One summer I got caught with some candybars and was led away handcuffed in a cruiser. It was the fist time I had been caught, and it wasn’t even the police thing that got me.
It was the simple fact that I was caught that made me stop. I no longer knew if I could get away with it, and it last it’s flair.
So that was it. Never did it again. [shrugs]
A kid I went to high school with was a king of shoplifters. I hated to go anywhere with him for fear of being caught by association. He would steal anything, and yes, he later stole from me, too.
He was incredibly bold. At a record store or clothes store, he would collect the items he wanted and simply walk out with them. And I mean big armfuls of stuff. His motivation was just to get lots of free stuff for himself.
Someone else I knew had a winter coat that was cut on the inside near the waist and would slide things into the lining of the coat. This person stole wine from convenience stores.
I haven’t really stolen anything except perhaps some candy as a kid. I just don’t have to urge, plus I would probably die if caught.
Dungbeetle, I meant to mention- in our neighborhood, stealing beer like you described (grab and run) was called a “Wahoo” because neighborhood etiquette required you yell “Wahoo” very loudly as you ran out the door.
Because he’s an idiot?
(But that’s jut my 51 cents…)
Hi, my name is Lord Ashtar, and I was a teenage shoplifter.
I used to walk into a CVS (general convienence store) with an empty backpack and walk out with it just full of stuff. I’d always load up on candy and magazines, and would sometimes walk around and see what else I could get away with. One time I made out with this shelft you put up in your shower, just because it fit in my backpack.
Once I walked into a Sam Goody (a music store), stuck two cassettes (Metallica’s Black Album and Nevermind by Nirvana) under my jacket and walked out. The alarm didn’t go off. So I got greedy and walked back in. The alarm went off this time, but since it went off while I was walking in they couldn’t touch me. It went off again as I left the second time which attracted some looks, but nobody said anything.
Then I tried to steal from Sears. I wanted a White Sox hat. You know, the black one with the white logo that everyone was wearing in the early 90’s. As I was walking out the door, two security guards came jogging up to me and caught me. My dad was pissed off, but since I had never done it before, I would learn from this and never do it again. At least, that’s what he thought. I was just glad they weren’t calling the cops, since the hat was only like $10 and they could see I was scared as hell.
I never did shoplift again. I didn’t need the candy or the magazines, and I eventually lost the cassettes. When I think about why I did it, I can’t come up with a good reason. I wanted the stuff, and I was getting away with it for so long that I thought I always would.
I knew some kids in high school who were big-time kleptos and I have several stories, none of which involved me being guilty as I have never shoplifted. Only one of them I considered a friend (I’ll call him “Tony”); the other two (I’ll call them Beavis and Butthead) were just tag-alongs that I got stuck being with as they associated more closely with my friend. Anyway…
When we were sophomores in high school none of us had cars at the time, so every day we’d walk to a nearby convenience store during lunch (it was an open-campus high school). While I only went in there to make legitimate purchases, my friends (Tony, Beavis and Butthead) were in the back by the beer/wine section waiting for the right opportunity. On more than one occasion after we walked out I noticed one of them had swiped a bottle of Thunderbird (I think this is what it was called). On the walk back to school they’d pass the bottle and each take drinks back and forth. I didn’t want anything to do with this scheme and therefore I didn’t partake in the consumption of the illegally obtained (and possessed) beverage. Anything that wasn’t consumed by the time we got back to the school was tossed into a nearby ditch.
Another time we had gone into a clothing store, Butthead took three shirts into the changing rooms. He came out of there, having put all three shirts on underneath the one he wore into the store. When we left the store he bragged and showed us how proud he was of his latest achievement. :rolleyes:
Beavis and Butthead had a bad influence on Tony, who was starting to become bolder and braver with his own five-finger discounts. We were in K-Mart one day looking at the records and tapes. I pointed out several tapes that I wanted to get but didn’t have the money for them. In no way did I ever ask him or even imply that he steal them for me, but when we got back to my house I was shocked to see that he had swiped five of them, having stashed them in his coat, complete with the plastic frame that is intended to discourage such theft in the first place. I told him I didn’t want the tapes as I could not enjoy listening to them with a clear conscience.
Tony continued to make off with several pilfered items here and there over the next few months, but after awhile, Tony’s luck ran out. He got busted for trying to steal a can of Copenhagen. He had gone out the door ahead of me after buying some candy and a book and I was just following along, completely unaware that he had stolen anything. I was stopped by a security guard who asked me where I was going. I said, “to my car.” He then asked me where my friend was going and I told him the same thing. He took both of us into the back room and made us empty out our pockets. I was scared and angry the whole time that Tony got me into this situation. Once I was determined to be innocent I was let go. Tony, however, was detained. He remained in the store for several hours as his mom was several miles away, on duty as a ski patroller at the nearby ski resort. Needless to say she was very pissed off when she had to come down from the mountain and into town and get her son at the store from which he had shoplifted. I hope this was when he learned his lesson as I never heard of or witnessed any shoplifting incidents from him after this.
Beavis eventually reformed and grew out of his shoplifting habit (in fact he even works in the same place I do), but Butthead had strayed from the group and was caught repeatedly for other incidents of thievery. Last I heard he was doing time somewhere in Washington state.
I had a friend in my home town whose chutzpah I admired in spite of myself. Assuming she was telling the truth, several times she paid the rent by shoplifting expensive clothes from department stores and then returning them for a cash refund.
At least her motives were pretty clear.
Daniel
I worked one summer in a store that is now out of business, probably partly due to the high amounts of shoplifting that occurred there. We caught stupid people all the time, but I can’t say I really blamed any of them for trying, as that store really had no security at all and was ridiculously easy to shoplift from.
The best one was when two people shoplifted a couch and got away with it. They just picked it up and carried it to their truck. I wasn’t there that day, but I was told a lot of people saw them carrying it out. Everyone just assumed they had paid for it, because no one would be carrying a couch out of a store in plain sight unless they had, right? I had to give them credit for that one, it took balls.
They didn’t realize it had been stolen until that evening when someone realized there was no record of a furniture purchase that day.
I stole a pair of scissors from a store when I was around 7 years old. I have no idea why…I just wanted them and my mother told me she wasn’t going to buy them.
Later she found me in my room using the scissors to cut out some paperdolls and she drove me back to the store, made me go in and apologize to the salesclerk and manager of the store and I got a spanking when we got back home.
When I was around 16 I worked in an antique store during the holiday break for a family friend and I stole 2 little figurines from her. Just picked them up when I was doing inventory and put them in my bag. They probably cost about $25 each. I felt so guilty afterwards that I ended up coming in on a Saturday and helping her wrap gifts for customers for free. I guess I figured that by not getting her to pay me it made up for it somehow.
I never stole anything else after that.
Unlike a lot of my high school friends, I was never a big shoplifter.
I think the first thing I ever took was a lipliner, and then a lipstick, just by taking them out of the box and sticking them up into my sleeve. I think I took cheap jewelry here and there (I’m talking 5-10$ range.) and that’s really about all I can remember. I was always afraid I was going to get caught.
Oh, I took underware once, because they were really cute. That was my last time stealing anything, though, because i was at the store with 2 friends and a girlfriend of one of them who I barely knew, and she was walking around with her big purse saying “Oh, you like that? I’ll get it for you!” and just dropping stuff in left and right. I noticed someone following us around, so when it was time to leave, I left before her and as she was leaving, I heard them ask her to step back inside.
We also used to take stuff from Goodwill and Salvation army, but it was really more of a tradeoff, as we’d gather up a backpack full of thrifted clothes we didn’t wear anymore and trade them out for new ones. On the day she’d gotten caught, we had an entire backseat full of clothes, and it was in my car. That was enough to scare me off of never taking anything again.
My friends, though…I had one friend with a big purse, who would go in, put two pieces of clothing on a hanger, take them to the fitting room and put the one she wanted in her bag. She did take a skirt and dress for me, but that was it. She got a ton of clothes for herself. Her boyfriend wore those big, baggy Jnco jeans that were popular in the mid-90s, and he’d go in and tie clothes around his legs, and walk out with them under his huge jeans. I told another friend that I liked a hat at a store and she put it on her head and walked out with it. I was always too afraid of getting caught to do any of that.
As far as I know, the friend grew out of it, and her boyfriend went on to get arrested for robbing numerous homes.
I have known a few shoplifters in my time. The first was a young lad who often played a thief in D&D. He would shoplift small items and call it “being Blodget” (a hobbit thief he often played). It was a thrill thing. The fact that I threatened bodily harm if her ever did it again, cured him of this habit. Stealing candy bars is a thrill, having your butt kicked is not. 
The second was a bit different. She was a "professional" shoplifter. She became one when she became pregnant due to practicing her normal profession (the oldest). Hey at least pregnancy kept her off the streets.
Her services were simple, you would tell her what you wanted, and where it was located, and she would steal it for you. She would then collect 25% of the origional price.
Did I mention I grew up working in my father's retail store? I was also working retail at the time. I did not approve of this woman's shoplifting, and told her if I ever saw her in the store where I was working at the time, every security guard in the place would be told who she was.Well dude - in case you didn’t know, your “advice” is the oldest game in the book. Whenever I get two people coming in and one of them asks me about eye cream and the other disappears I page a code 99. Guess what - that means “There are a set of morons in the cosmetic department trying to get away with shit.” Our store security heads over pronto - guess what - they get a $$ bonus for each lifter they catch.
Secondly, while many retail clearks are overworked and underpaid, all of them are not. I make about $15/hour when you factor in commission, which is decent for a part time job standing around playing with makeup. Also, as I said previously, the owner of my store is a sweet, kind lady. If anyone tried to assult her, not only would I not be impressed - if the opportunity presented itself, I would slap them silly.
Next time, keep your stupid “advice” to yourself. And just 'cus I’m in that kind of mood, I’ve reported your post to a moderator - posting avice on how to commit illegal acts is a no-no around here, which anyone with half a brain would know.
Right. And the next time you post instructions on how to break the law, it will be the last thing you post.
Psst…alice, so is posting that you reported the post.
Really Jeff? Humm - I don’t think I knew that… CRAP!
Sorry mods. Please disregard any previous mention by me of any posts that may or may not have been reported.
I used to work at Ross during college, which is a clothing store.
We had the normal people running out of the store with stuff, with our stockboy in hot pursuit. He lived for stuff like that. We even had one couple leave their baby behind in the carrier while they ran out with their loot.
The other thing thieves would do is switch tags. I was working the fitting room, and this woman returned some clothes she’d tried on. I noticed the tags were wrong, since each tag had a code that told us if it was a skirt or a blouse or pants or a coat or whatever.
I called up front and warned them at the register what she was doing, and they called me for a “price check” when she went to pay. I think she ended up leaving with nothing.
Then, there was the time a woman was screaming through the door to open up, since we had closed an hour earlier than we should have.
I reminded her that the day before we were supposed to set the clocks forward, and she slunk off.*
*Not a shoplifting story, but something that popped into my head.
You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty damn clever.
I’ve stolen numerous things over the years. Almost everything I’ve stolen, I stole my freshman and sophmore years of high school.
I used to steal makeup, lip gloss, candy, cds, movies…just little stuff like that, during the colder months when I had my Adidas coat with the big pockets. I remeber one time my friend Laura and I were loading up on crap and a security guard followed us clear into the lobby. We busted it to her car and she flipped him off!
But that was about 2-3 years ago and I haven’t stolen anything for a while*. The reason I stole was simply because I wanted stuff, and I didn’t have money. I didn’t get a rush from it or anything. I was just consistently broke.
Ok, New Years Eve my friend and I went to pick up a birthday cake for our other friend with her baby picture on the front. We decided to save her mom money so we just walked out with it! Out the main doors of Wal-Mart. No one so much as batted an eyelash. Sure was funny though, to tell everyone we got the cake for free!
25 years ago when I was in high school, I stole a board game from a local hobby and craft store. (Ironically, it was called “Billionaire” – a “Monopoly” knock off.)
Anyway, I got out of the store and back home O.K., but how I got that big of a box out of the store without detection I don’t honestly remember.
But the rest of the day and evening and until I finally went to sleep that night, I sat looking out my 2nd story bedroom at every car that drove by our house. And every car that drove by caused my heart to race and my palms to sweat – a classic panic attack/adrenaline rush (and not the good kind, either).
You see, I was so afraid that the store owner had figured out who ripped him off that he had called the cops and they were driving over our house right now to bust my ass.
I decided then and there that I hated that intense feeling (fear of being busted) so much that I gave up shoplifting forever.
Scared straight, I guess, by my body’s sympathetic nervous system.