Stealing, Thieving, Nicking, Shoplifting, etc.

[Chewbacca]

I dunno where to even begin....

I spent the last couple years being a manager at a music/video/gaming store in the middle of the city within 4 blocks of every subway line in Boston. The sheer amount of thieves I faced near daily is enough to alarm an average citizen.

Consider also a fully manned police kiosk 10 ft from the front door of my store and it really makes you wonder what the thieves were thinking. I never in my life thought I would make a living by have the cops chase people on average twice a week or so.

There was the homeless battery racket...A group of homeless men would come in and empty the battery rack into a backpack and then run out. The second guy we caught wet his pants when the cops chased him down. Hehehehe....

There was the teenage-wanna-be-gang-bangers who would steal, among st anything Else, CD player Walkmans and run while their thug friends attempted to distract and intimidate. When they ran and got caught by police, they would complain they were embarrassed by the whole scenario of being thrown to the ground ( or against a wall) after being chased down by the police or they would have bags of weed or crack on them. Duh!

One of the funniest is when I ran outside and yelled "stop thief" and a cop on horseback took off at a gallop after a guy. The guy turned around and saw the horse bearing down on him and fell to knees, started crying!!!

Another funny one is the old man with a broken leg the cops let get away.
He stole an earth wind and fire CD and proceeded to hobble up the street..I pursued thinking the cops were right behind me. He made it 2 blocks and onto a subway. I met the cops as I headed back to the store as they strolled casually my way. They asked "you needed us?" I said "you just let an old man in a cast get away" I did get the CD back though. My assistant told me the cops finished lunch before join the chase...no wonder.

There was the pros...They come in a gang as well and steal 20-100 DVDs/CDs/Video games at a time, using codewords and subtle distractions to get around our human security(me). They would usually sell the stolen goods to the bootleggers up the street if they got away with it. These guys would ruin my bonus and my job if they got a way with it so I was hellbent to prevent them or catch them. I was fairly successful. I did reduce shrink 250% my first year at that store.

I could go on and on. In around 18 months I counted 88 trespass forms I filled out, and 17 court dates I attended, I was threatened with death at least 5 times. I'm very glad I don't have that job anymore. The cheap-ass company wouldn't pay for a security guard so I, along with my management staff, was it.

[ 09-03-2003, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[Arledrian]

The only times I've ever stolen have been in the cafeteria back in high school. I'd say I've pinched at least three or four hundred dollars' worth of food and drink over the seven years I spent there. It was stupid really, I could afford it and all, I guess it was just the thrill of walking out of the canteen with coke cans stuffed down my pants that did it for me. It was an excitement thing. Also, I have vague rememberences of feeling that it was only justified as my parents paid thousands a year to send me there. I wouldn't nick anything now though.

[Zuvio]

I stole chocolate bars when I was 9 or so. Ate them all, got sick, teachers parents found out, me got burned out and never stole again...

[JrKASperov]

If people steal smalls tuff they need but somehow cannot put up the efoort of actually paying for it, who gives. However, if it is valuable, he goes aroudn threatening people to not tell, and does it repeatedly, then it tends to get evil and thusly, rejectable.

[Animal]

Being an ex police officer, I've seen it all.

The youngest was 3, the oldest 85. I've seen people steal everything from candies to cars, but probably the strangest was a live chicken. That guy wasn't real hard to spot running down the road, with a chicken under his arm.

[johnny]

Originally posted by Animal: Being an ex police officer, I've seen it all. The youngest was 3, the oldest 85. I've seen people steal everything from candies to cars, but probably the strangest was a live chicken. That guy wasn't real hard to spot running down the road, with a chicken under his arm.

He must have been a really fast guy. Do you know how hard it is to catch a chicken ?

[Animal]

He was pretty messed up when we picked him up. The chicken had been clawing and pecking him the entire time!

Another guy broke into a store one night, and stole a big bin of candy. When the alarm in the store went of, he dropped the bin, but then picked it back up and high tailed it out the door. I guess when he dropped it it broke, so we just had the dog follow the trail of candy until we found him holed up in someones backyard about 5 blocks away.

[Ladyzekke]

ROTFL Animal! A chicken?!!! Oh that is too funny! Beats my Goldfish-in-the-Pants definitely!

[True_Moose]

Personal take: I have shoplifted. Not proud, but it's done. My motives? Probably seeing if I could do it, and the rush, it's undeniably intense. My vast take over the last year: 2 chocolate bars.

Weird thing: Apparently, a kid I know stole a car transmission from his work at Canadian Tire. God only knows how.

[antryg]

When I was a grocery manager we had a woman walk into the store, take a cloth shopping bag off the rack, grab a bunch of plastic canisters and then she filled the containers with gourmet candy. She packed the containers in the shopping bag and tried to walk out. We held her and called the police. The lady was about 5 ft. tall and the policeman that showed up was about 6 ft. 6 inches tall. She walked up to him and from about 2 inches away she said "It's about time! How long is this going to take?" The policeman just looked at me and asked if we had a witness. I said yes and he said "We're finished here right now. You're under arrest." He then handcuffed her and took her out the store. She is the only shoplifter who wasn't fighting that I ever saw put in handcuffs. The moral is don't ever get in a policeman's face.

The cheapest one was a junkie who was stealing sweet and low packets out of the box. One of the stockers told him to stop and the junkie took a swing at him. He went to jail for assault and shoplifting for stealing 3 packets of sweet n low.