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You can’t trust anyone these days. You can just innocently go about your business when suddenly some crook will rob your blind. That’s what a couple in Ogden, Utah discovered. According to police, they went into a store to engage in a bit of shoplifting. They were caught, cited by police, and then let go. The couple went back to their car and got a shock:
But as the officer started to leave, “He sees the two suspects trying to flag him down in the parking lot,” Young said, “and he goes over to their location and realizes that their vehicle has actually been burglarized.”
From a distance, surveillance video caught what appears to be a man in a red sweater scoping out Alexander’s truck and he eventually gets inside.
“They ended up having their stereo and amplifier, a drum machine and some cigarettes stolen from their vehicle,” Young said.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Guerrilla Futures/Jason Tester
If you are going to help yourself to a five-finger discount, the worst of all possible times to do it would be during the “Shop with a Cop” event. But that’s exactly what happened Wednesday in Clackamas, Oregon. Portland police were at Fred Meyer to help children shop for back-to-school items when security personnel caught 20-year-old Shane Alexander and 30-year-old Jason Vantress allegedly filling their backpacks with store merchandise.
“They were a little freaked out when they saw all the cops at first, but then decided the police would be too distracted, helping kids to notice them,” said police Spokesman Pete Simpson.
Police officers assisted security in making the arrests.
Otherwise, the back-to-school event was a big success. Link -via Fark
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Matthew and Nora Eaton had a clever scheme: shoplifting popular toys and resell them on online. It was such a smart idea that they decided to go on the Dr. Phil show and brag about it. This decision brought them to the attention of prosecutors:
District Judge Irma Gonzalez sentenced Matthew Eaton, 34, to 27 months in prison — one year more than prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office thought was sufficient punishment.
Nora Eaton, 27, was sentenced to one year and one day in custody.
Gonzalez had little sympathy for Matthew Eaton, calling his conduct in running the scheme over two years “despicable.”[...]
Matthew Eaton’s lawyer said the couple went on the show seeking help for their chronic shoplifting problem. On the program, however, they came across as bragging about their exploits and not appearing particularly troubled.
Instead of helping them, producers egged them on to exaggerate their cases, said defense lawyer Leila Morgan. And the only help they got was free copies of McGraw’s books, she said.
The judge also had harsh words for Dr. Phil.
Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Consumerist
Father Tim Jones of the St. Lawrence Church in York, England is getting some flack for advice he preached after his Nativity sermon on Sunday, in which he advocated shoplifting for those in desperate straits.
Delivering his festive lesson, Father Jones told the congregation: ‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.
‘I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.
‘I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.
‘I offer the advice with a heavy heart and wish society would recognise that bureaucratic ineptitude and systematic delay has created an invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope.’
He added that he felt society had failed the needy, and said it was far better they shoplift than turn to more degrading or violent options such as prostitution, mugging or burglary.
Both the North Yorkshire police department and local MP Anne McIntosh hav publicly denounced Father Jones’ sermon. Link -via Fark
She was not very subtle about it. At the Lewis Drug Store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a woman was arrested for hauling 418 items out to her car:
Police say an employee of the Lewis store at 10th and Cliff in Sioux Falls noticed her acting suspiciously.
She was apparently filling up a bag with items and then went outside without paying.
The employee confronted her and called police.
Police say she had stolen 418 items from the store, simply by filling up bags with merchandise, and taking them to her car.
Link via Stuff | Photo: KSFY TV
A new survey by the Centre for Retail Research revealed that shopping shoplifting has increased at an astonishing rate:
They found that shoplifting in Britain has increased in the past year by nearly 20 per cent to almost £5 billion, £750 million more than in 2008, keeping Britain at the top of Europe’s shoplifting table. Clothing and fashion accessory shops were hardest hit, with branded designer goods high on thieves’ shopping lists, closely followed by DIY stores.
Neil Matthews, vice-president of Checkpoint Systems, said that he was astonished at the rise of middle-class shoplifters. “We are not simply looking at your traditional shoplifters here. We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell on than before,” he said.
A surveillance video at Smith’s Food & Drug grocery store in Idaho has captured a … shoplifting dog!
Surveillance video at Smith’s Food & Drug shows the dog walking in the front door and giving a friendly sniff to a young girl at a checkout stand.
Then the dog headed straight for the pet food in Aisle 16, grabbed the $2.79 bone and made a break for the door, only to be confronted by store manager Roger Adamson.
Adamson says that when the dog didn’t obey his command to surrender the bone, he decided not to force the issue. Adamson tells KSL-TV, "I decided I wanted to keep all my fingers." (Source)
Nothing to do with Arbroath blog has the video clip: Link
