How To Shoplift Without Getting Caught - This Only Works For Whites

[eridani]

http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-to-shoplift-without-getting-caught.html?spref=tw

Neil de Grasse Tyson--

So fortunately my depth of interest was so deep, and so fuel enriched, that every one of these curve balls I was thrown and fences that were in front of me, and hills, I just reached for more fuel and kept going. Now here I am, one, I think, of the most visible scientists in the land and I want to look behind me and say where are the others who might have done this, and they’re not there.

And I wander, how, where is the blood on the tracks, that I happened to survive and others did not, simply because of the forces of society that prevented, at every turn. To the point that I have security following me every time I go through department stores, presuming I’m a thief. I walked out of a store one time and the alarm went off and so they came running to me. I walked through the gate at the same time a white male walked through the gate. And that guy just walked off with the stolen goods, knowing they would stop me and not him. That’s an interesting exploitation. What a scam that was. People should do that more often.

So, my life experience tells me that when you don’t find blacks in the sciences, you don’t find women in the sciences, I know these forces in the world are real and I had to survive them to get where I am today. So before we start talking about genetic differences, you’ve got to come up with a system where there’s equal opportunity. Then we can have that conversation."

This actually reminds me of the so-called "salt and pepper" shoplifting teams. A black guy with baggy pants saunters through the store fingering the merchandise, while his white partner robs the place blind.

[longship]

1. "And I wander..." Ahem. I think you mean, "And I wonder..." nt

[Egnever]

2. Cool I will have to try that some time

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. When I was in retail management...

There were really only two groups that disproportionately shoplifted. Teenaged girls of any ethnicity and men dressed as women.

[IronLionZion]

5. Was it women's clothing?

for alcohol, george foreman grills, and food items in a grocery store its often teenage boys with very baggy pants.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. It varied

The teen girls stole a lot of makeup, but weren't usually brazen enough to just rush the exits with arms loads of clothing.

[bettyellen]

7. No, those were who you profiled and focused on finding.

Have had friends in retail for 30 years, and all kinds steal.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. Of course they do,

But if we had to identify the two groups that did so disproportionately in our stores it was those two groups.

[bettyellen]

13. It breaks down by product and customer base...

But also to a certain extent you find what you are looking for. Unless you were selling women's clothing or makeup, it was foolish to concentrate on people who wear women's clothing and makeup. Foolish and bigoted.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

17. How is identifying the people we caught stealing bigoted?

Would have some demographically distributed false accusations for theft in those departments have been preferable?

This was a department store, teen girls stole mountains of makeup, men dressed as women stole tons of women's clothing - but beyond that it was pretty much random and with no meaningful ethnic correlation.

[bettyellen]

18. I'm sure it seemed that way since you focused in catching girls and

Cross dressers. It's always nice to have your assumptions about people confirmed.
I worked for a guy who only hounded black customers. He assumed all theft people got away with was black customers. So, he thought he was right in targeting them. But he was not.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. So was the AS/400 that ran the inventory system in on the bigotry and sexism too?

The inventory system could identify the merchandise being stolen in large volumes, loss prevention could identify the people stealing the merchandise in question. Beyond those two issues it was pretty much random, all ages, all races and all walks of life.

[bettyellen]

25. Garbage in, garbage out.

[Jenoch]

29. Why did you bring up profiling?

The post to which you responded did not write anything to make anyone to assume any profiling was done.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

40. Please explain where precisely the system broke down

If the inventory system thinks there are thirty packages of something on the shelf but the overnight audit finds only ten items it would be flagged. Alternatively if a sales person can't find it they can flag it as missing on the spot. Someone from my supply chain department would go to the warehouse and see if the missing merchandise had never made it to the sales floor. If it was there they would take it right down to the floor, it if wasn't it was flagged for loss prevention to investigate. And low and behold the people stealing the makeup were disproportionately teen girls.

In terms of money cosmetics theft was the worst for us since it was both expensive and we were responsible for the loss. The theft of designer clothing was a little different since to mitigate the risk of carrying the expensive inventory in a multitude of sizes the distributor or manufacture actually owned it until it sold and wasn't returned.

I'm not going to get into any detail on the other group. That is way too un-PC for this place.

[Jenoch]

28. There was a big story in the Twin Cities in 1996

in which a family hired a convict to shoplift for them. What the story in the link does not say is that the shoplifter was dressed as a woman when he stole the merchandise.

The other odd thing is that the son mentioned in the story was also a model and after the case was settled he appeared in a newslaper ad selling suits, for the department store where the merchandise was stolen. The store was Dayton's, founded by former U.S. Senator and current governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton.

(Governor Dayton's great-grandfather George Dayton opened his first store in my tiny hometown in sw Minnesota before opening a large store in downtown Minneapolis. George's grandson opened a store in 1962 you may have heard of, Target.)

[mokawanis]

4. My experience

I'm 55 and white, my son-in-law is 25 and black. The only times I've been stopped by store security is when he and I are together. When it happened in Tennessee a few years ago I got fed up and refused to let them check my shopping bag. I told them I bought the merchandise in the bag and wasn't going to let them rummage around in my possessions. I even offered to sit tight and wait for them to call the cops so THEY could check my bag. At that point the manager told me I was free to go. I don't know if what I did was a bad choice or not. I just know I'm sick and tired of seeing my son-in-law being treated like a criminal.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. That's white privilege for ya.

Had your SIL been stopped by himself and took exactly the same stance, the least of his problems would be going to jail. Sick, isn't it?

[lunasun]

26. bet they didn't think you were being uppity either or have you arrested anyway

you know it is true because you experienced it
other whites just do not think it could be true and minorities must have a chip on their shoulder or imagine things

[AverageJoe90]

27. Sorry that happened to you guys, fella.

No doubt that racism and other prejudices are still a problem in this country. Not that hard to see, indeed, if you look close enough.

[blueamy66]

6. I have a friend of a friend who shoplifts on a regular basis.

She usually starts in cosmetics and chooses a few things. Then she'll walk to another part of the store and browse....slowly slips the items into her purse...then she meets up with her husband and they buy groceries.

She can easily afford whatever she wants, but finds it "fun" to trick WalMart.

Nobody thinks that a nice, well-dressed, middle-aged, WHITE couple will shoplift. Especially if they are buying a cartload of groceries.

She has a few shoeboxes full of cosmetics and other little things that she has stolen underneath the sink in her bathroom.

She tells alot of people too. Weird.

[IronLionZion]

11. F Walmart

and F people like this. Stealing is as wrong as using white privilege to get away with it.

I'm sure visibly poor white families would get more scrutiny in Walmart too.

[blueamy66]

15. I agree. It's wrong.

I don't know why she does it. Maybe just the thrill of getting away with something.

[Jenoch]

30. Do you know her name and description?

You should tell the manager of the local Walmart what your friend's friend is doing. She is committing a crime, with apparent frequency. I would guess she has accumulated enough stolen merchandise to be charged with a felony.

[blueamy66]

34. I know her name and what she looks like.

But this is back in Arizona...another world away now.

I believe that my friend has already threatened her with this. She told her that she needs to get help, and quick.

[Supersedeas]

24. if only we were all so privileged...to get away with this and that

[Nevernose]

19. I used to collate juvenile crime statistics in my metropolitan county

Quarter after quarter, year after year, almost exactly one-third of all juvenile shoplifting occurred at Wal-Mart.

[blueamy66]

22. Why do you think that is?

Because the stores are so big and they can't have enough security? Because WalMart has what kids want?

[hfojvt]

35. perhaps the other way around

because Wal-mart HAS the security.

After all, the statistics are of shoplifters who have been caught.

[blueamy66]

36. Hmmm...

That's true.

But one can never compile the #s of how many haven't been caught.

[callous taoboy]

37. She sounds like Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad.

[Iggo]

10. Rarely is my white privilege so apparent...

...as when the alarm goes off, the store employees look at me, and then they just give me the "oh, you're okay" look and wave me on ahead.

And they always let me go.

Always.

Don't get me wrong. I'm relieved to get a pass.

But there it is, right there.

[Orrex]

12. That one baffles me.

Only once I have ever been stopped after setting off the alarm, and in that case it was because I was carrying a VCR (with receipt). That was about 18 years ago.

Every other time I've gotten a sort of dismissive hand-wave and a "you're ok" endorsement.

[bettyellen]

14. Yep, me too. Once I was past my teens- a free pass.

Foolish assumptions.

[gollygee]

39. me too

I'm always told to pass through

[JI7]

20. from what i have seen every age, sex, race does it

i also noticed many who shoplift tend to buy something also .

[tabbycat31]

23. From my days in retail

Senior citizens were actually the highest demographic of people we caught shoplifting (moreso than teenagers). There was a ring of them stealing merchandise and then returning them for store credit and buying what they wanted with it.

[Jenoch]

31. I'm pretty sure that sort of thing is not as common anymore

because most stores now require a reciept for returns/exchanges.

However, I am aware that some people buy an item they wish to own, shoplift the same item from another location of the same store, and then return one of the items for cash.

[LeftyMom]

32. My late stepgrandfather would steal anything that wasn't nailed down.

If anybody saw him he'd let his hands shake a bit more than he normally did or pretend to be confused. But it wasn't that he was senile or stealing anything he needed. It was just a habit he'd picked up when he really had to steal to survive during the depression, and ever since I think he just did it for the thrill. We never could get him to stop, my mother stopped shopping with him because she was so embarrassed by him stealing stupid things like tubes of chapstick and lighters.

[MisterP]

33. not a damn thing in Seinfeld's made up, is it?

[callous taoboy]

38. "What??? I'm an old man! I'm confused." +1,000