Is Shopdropping (Reverse Shoplifting) A Crime?

1. JonnyDanger
   June 18th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

   Hmm.. doesn't seem like any infraction has been committed? Littering possibly?

2. Namowal
   June 18th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

   A Bavarian themed shopping center I used to live near has a problem with this. Neo Nazi kooks try to slip propaganda pamphlets and junk into the gift shop.

3. Scooter
   June 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

   there was a story a few years ago of an artist who snuck in to museums and glues his own art on to empty spaces on their walls, somehow that story is more interesting than this...

4. SenorMysterioso
   June 18th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

   Works well at stores where they do not use a scan system because you can put prices on your items, hobby lobby for example

5. David Dancy
   June 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

   If, for example, you were shopdropping/droplifting an album into a record store. Couldn't you simply print a barcode from another album onto it? (I'm sure when it goes through the scanner the clerk doesn't check the title[I used to work in a record store]) It could mean that people buying your illicit album would up the sales figures for another artist... Britney, if your reading this, we know what you're up to.

   D.

6. cuimhne
   June 18th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

   @ Scooter:

   You're thinking of Banksy

7. Justin
   June 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

   If you were a store owner, would you want people placing products on your shelves that you didn't know about? Imagine if someone unknowingly put some canned tomatoes down, which caused someone to get sick?

   Or if someone slipped some pornography into your childrens book section?

8. BlessedBlogger
   June 18th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

   I do this, I admit it. When I was a kid we were very poor and had to eat the cheapest (and therefore unhealthiest) foods. So sometimes when I go grocery shopping I take along a roll of scotch tape and whatever coupons I've gotten in the mail and I tape coupons to their corresponding products. Why? Well, for starters I'm not using the coupons, I have food allergies and try to eat really healthy, so why shouldn't I pass them on to someone who may need them? Besides, if it means that some kid gets an extra can of soup or loaf of bread then I've done something I can be proud of.

   I also play those claw machines at grocery stores and restaurants and then give the toys I win to random kids. I always ask their parent if it's ok first though, don't want anyone thinking I'm a kiddie snatcher or anything. I leave my wait staff notes in restaurants when I'm leaving to thank them for the exemplary service (my mom was a waitress most of her life and I know what a tough and thankless job it is). Oh, and I send my mom these little pewter angel coins and she gives them to random people who look like they could use some cheering up or maybe a guardian angel.

   I know it's corny and cheesy and all that, but I like giving back. I'm not rich, but I can still makes someones day a bit better in my own small way.

9. key
   June 18th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

   Because we all know, in The Land of The Free (tm):

   1. Sharing is bad (so corporations fuck you in the a$$)
   2. Free always means cheap (most people still believe this lie)
   3. New laws must be passed every day to restrict rights
   4. Reminders of new, vague, or potential laws must be broadcast every day
   5. You are not free

10. earl
    June 18th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    The next time you struggle with the tamper-proof seals on over-the-counter medicine, remember the Tylenol Scare that occurred in 1982 after someone put potassium cyanide in Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules, killing seven people in the Chicago area. The culprit was believed to have entered various supermarkets and drug stores over a period of weeks, pilfered packages of Tylenol from the shelves, adulterated their contents with solid cyanide compound at another location, and then replaced the bottles.

11. Godoy
    June 18th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    If you play Sam & Max, you may remember season 1, when Bosco's main problem was people trying to stock merchandise he didn't order at Boscos's Inconvenience. Never thought of it as 'shopdropping'.

12. ted
    June 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Dumb idea.
    People who do this sound really full of themselves.

13. jenjen
    June 18th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    My dad used to do this at the library at the university where he worked. He subscribed to the Journal of Irreproducible Results and printed labels that looked like the library's. He would bring in his issues and leave them on the appropriate shelf in the current journals room. I don't think the library paid to bind them when the year ended...

14. Goober
    June 18th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    La Cacaphony Society did this years ago, with cement teddy bears in a toy store.

    http://la.cacophony.org/CS_cement.html

15. grandma's favorite sausage treat
    June 18th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    Exhaling anything but oxygen poisons us all and contributes to global warming, anyone not exhaling oxygen into their surroundings must be charged and fitted with an oxygen exhale! converter mask!

    i like it in the bum

16. Ali S.
    June 18th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    I think the danger here is that in the past some kooks decided it was a great idea to put poison in food products and medicine bottles and this resulted in a few fatalities. As such...this is a dangerous and irresponsible thing to do. If it's non-edible then it's fine.

17. Elizabeth
    June 18th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    Goober, I'm so happy you remember the Cement Cuddlers! Excellent prank.

18. taxes make slaves
    June 18th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    I believe Bill Hicks was murdered, via a "cancer sprinkle".

    Those who speak out now either die of heart attack (via poisoning), fast-moving cancer, or some accidental type of method, never the lone gunman anymore.

    Sure, lots of people will say, "But Hicks smoked his ass off!" Fuck that, the guy was at his peak, ready to bloom in America and his life was cut short by a "cancer sprinkle" from the powers that be. "Where's your proof?" Watch his videos, audio, everything from the guy, absorb through your eyes and ears, breathe his stuff, you'll see he was a lone preacher in the wilderness, trying to open our hearts to the reality of our present dictatorship. Friends, there is no land of the free, we are all slaves.

    Bill Hicks:

    "They don’t want the voice of reason spoken folks, cos otherwise we’d be free. Otherwise, we wouldn’t believe their fucking horseshit lies, nor the fucking propaganda machine of the mainstream media and buy their horseshit products that we don’t fucking need and become a third world consumer fucking plantation which is what we’re becoming. Fuck them. They are liars and murderers."

    Where are voices of reason like this in today's media? Nowhere. The guy making a comment about GB hating black people and Rosie on The View telling people to Google gulf of T..... was as close as it got.

    When a person speaks out to the people and for the people in a voice they can understand, they don't end up well soon after, this is fact. At the very least they are pulled from a show, or the show cancelled. If they are vocal enough and well respected enough not to be smeared or jailed, the shadows swirl around them.

    Vote for Wesley Snipes and send a message: fuck your taxes we are not slaves.

19. land of the slave
    June 18th, 2008 at 9:20 pm

    I believe Bill Hicks was murdered, via a "cancer sprinkle".

    Those who speak out now either die of heart attack (via poisoning), fast-moving cancer, or some accidental type of method, never the lone gunman anymore.

    Sure, lots of people will say, "But Hicks smoked his a** off!" F--- that, the guy was at his peak, ready to bloom in America and his life was cut short by a "cancer sprinkle" from the powers that be. "Where's your proof?" Watch his videos, audio, everything from the guy, absorb through your eyes and ears, breathe his stuff, you'll see he was a lone preacher in the wilderness, trying to open our hearts to the reality of our present dictatorship. Friends, there is no land of the free, we are all slaves.

    Bill Hicks:

    "They don’t want the voice of reason spoken folks, cos otherwise we’d be free. Otherwise, we wouldn’t believe their f----ng horses--t lies, nor the f----ng propaganda machine of the mainstream media and buy their horses--- products that we don’t fucking need and become a third world consumer f---ing plantation which is what we’re becoming. F--- them. They are liars and murderers." - profanity omitted to pass filters here on neatorama

    Where are voices of reason like this in today's media? Nowhere. The guy making a comment about GB hating black people and Rosie on The View telling people to Google gulf of T..... was as close as it got.

    When a person speaks out to the people and for the people in a voice they can understand, they don't end up well soon after, this is fact. At the very least they are pulled from a show, or the show cancelled. If they are vocal enough and well respected enough not to be smeared or jailed, the shadows swirl around them.

    Vote for Wesley Snipes and send a message: f--k your taxes we are not slaves.

    Note: profanity omitted to pass censorship

20. Christophe
    June 18th, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    Besides a prank I don;t see the point...
    The cement teddy bear story was pretty good.

21. recidivista
    June 19th, 2008 at 3:05 am

    to BlessedBlogger--bless your heart. thanks for making my day.

22. ripper
    June 19th, 2008 at 7:38 am

    For a while I was getting various religious garbage on slips of paper snuck into the books and magazines I bought at the bookstore.

23. cooties
    June 19th, 2008 at 8:51 am

    I wrote a short story 20+ years ago (it was published in the Burlington Spec) about a guy who was charged with this same activity, but he was exhonorated because it was proved he suffered from 'philanthropomania' (the reverse of klepto).

24. roger
    June 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    hmmm "land of the slave". Thats an interesting quote. Ahh, the calm, sober judicious voice of reason and sanity. You raise many subtle and intriguing points and express them with grace and humor.

    But what the F--K!@! are you talking about and what the !@!#$ does it have to do with shopdropping?

25. sybann
    June 19th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

    I call this "shopleaving" and I did it with fish at a pet store rather than flush them since I was moving cross country!

26. ahole jerry
    June 20th, 2008 at 2:12 am

    I just place products back where they don't belong so I guess that doesn't count. Especially at Safeway, where they pay some east indian security guard with a comp sci degree minimum wage to profile their own customers and follow those who they think look suspicious.

27. prophet
    June 20th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Sam & Max, I barely remember that game I used to play when I was little.

28. Melissa
    June 24th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    This sounds like fun! I can think of so many cool things to leave. It's like non-destructive graffiti. How awesome!

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