Shoplifter stories

[Troy_McClure_SF]

I worked at the supermarket near my house for a few years. A few months after I left, I was in there shopping and saw some kids very obviously putting stuff in their jackets. I pretty much ignored it, but one of my old co-workers happened to be in the next aisle, so, remembering how fun it is to bust people, I told him and moved on.

I get to the checkout, and as I’m there, the kids tried to leave and the ex-co-worker caught them. And then looked at me from 40 feet away and yelled “THANKS TROY!” Yeah, he wasn’t all that bright.

So I’m walking home and, predictably, the kids who got busted start harassing & threatening me. I’m trying to ignore them but it gets to the point that I need to do some creative walking, as they’re trying to physically stop me. As they’re doing this, I see a bunch of people walking toward me from the other direction, obviously friends with the guys harassing me. It’s at this point I decide to dart across the (quite busy) street into the local bar, where they know me and chilled for a while until they were all gone. (Original Pit Thread)

I had some words for Ex-co-worker next time I saw him. He was always a fucking idiot.

…

As for those security beepy things at the door? Fuck 'em. I have no obligation to stop because something next to me beeped. If it’s that important, they can chase me. Of course, they never do, because they go off all the time falsely. I also never stop for receipt-checkers.

[Cardinal]

@Martini_Enfield

The case that established the precedent is Myer Stores v Soo, in which someone accused of shoplifting was detained in the manager’s office and not told they were not under arrest and could therefore walk out the door anytime they liked. The decision was, IIRC from my Law studies, that this constituted False Imprisonment (as the defendant was led to believe they could not leave the office, therefore they were being detained unlawfully).

At any rate, the fact remains that it’s basically not worth the hassle to go after shoplifters in Australia unless they’ve nicked something really expensive.

But it seems then that the point is the false information to the arrestee. My buddy here in California arrests people every month at his Target department store. In CA you have know you’re witnessing a crime, so you have to be able to see the item under their shirt or have tailed them after they hid it, etc. He’s actually wrestled them down. They’re very aware that they’re being arrested.

Conversely, because you have to know you’re witnessing a crime to do your own arrest in CA, I just walk past the receipt checkers at the doors. They don’t know I’m stealing (and I’m not), so they can’t detain me to check my receipt.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

A tiny bit off topic, but I once accidentally walked out of a Publix in the middle of Buckhead with a hand basket full of groceries that I hadn’t paid for. I was totally spaced out, and didn’t even notice until I got to my car and realized that none of the items I was preparing to load up were in bags. I promptly turned around and walked back into the store so that I could pay for the items, and felt really, really strange (like everyone in the store was staring at me. They weren’t.) walking into a grocery store with a basket full of food.

I never zone out like that, and I can’t even remember what was on my mind that day that distracted me to such a degree. I often wondered what would happen if someone who works there had seen me depart their store in that manner. Would they have understood, or called the cops?

[Critical1]

my favorite shoplifter stories were ones I hear from a guy who did security at a local mall, his real job was working for a local jail where he usually did processing of new prisoners…he always loved busting people at the end of his shift at the mall then being at his jail job in time to process them, he said it was always amazing how much a persons attitude could change.

[Arglefraster]

@Tastes_of_Chocolate

My SO and I were once stopped while leaving a KMart. We’d finished shopping, and triggered the alarm when we walked out the door. Security was polite, and even after looking through the bag, we couldn’t figure out what tripped the alarm. Finally we discovered that it was my SO’s shoes. It seems that there was a security strip build INTO the shoes. You couldn’t take it out, and it had never been deactivated. Security tried to help us deactivate the shoes, but it still didn’t happen. Got to the point where if he thought about it, my SO would warn store security before he got to the door on the way out. We later figured this would be a good scam. Get a pair of shoes that do this, and use it as a cover to hide the stuff you have hidden in your pockets.

I had a pair of shoes that did the same thing! It took me the longest time to figure it out, though. I just thought I had bad luck with faulty security thingers.

I used to work at a gas station, and a common scam was to ask for 4 or 5 cartons of cigarettes. Then when the cashier got them out of the locked case and scanned them, the thief would count his/her money, and say “You know what, give me one more.” As soon as the cashier turned around to get another one, the thief would grab the 4 or 5 cartons originally asked for and bolt. We fixed that problem by keeping UPC’s from a carton for each cigarette brand on a keyring by the register. We’d scan that, and not get the cartons until after they’d paid. Lots of people bitched about that, but no more cartons got stolen.

Some friends and I were once wrongfully accused at an IHOP. We’d finished eating, paid, and were walking to the car when an employee came running out and said “You have to pay for those!” “Pay for what?”, we asked. “For the syrup containers you took.” It was summer, and we were all wearing t-shirts and shorts with no jackets. None of us were carrying purses or backpacks or bags of any kind. IHOP syrup containers are way too big to fit in your pocket or hide in your shirt without being completely obvious. We told him we didn’t take any. He didn’t believe us, so we asked him where he thought we were hiding them? He gave us the cat-butt face and went back inside.

[Martini_Enfield]

@Cardinal

But it seems then that the point is the false information to the arrestee. My buddy here in California arrests people every month at his Target department store. In CA you have know you’re witnessing a crime, so you have to be able to see the item under their shirt or have tailed them after they hid it, etc. He’s actually wrestled them down. They’re very aware that they’re being arrested.

Conversely, because you have to know you’re witnessing a crime to do your own arrest in CA, I just walk past the receipt checkers at the doors. They don’t know I’m stealing (and I’m not), so they can’t detain me to check my receipt.

It works a bit differently here; you need to witness an indictable offence happening before you can effect a citizen’s arrest. Shoplifting doesn’t qualify, and the rules regarding citizen’s arrests are so complicated that the advice generally given is “don’t.” For all intents and purposes, the police are the only ones here who can arrest someone.