___est shoplifting story

[alphaboi]

What's your weirdest, most expensive, stupidest, etc shoplifting story? Mine involves a would truck gone missing. It wasn't at out store but another store in the same area; our LP guy told me about. It was right before Christmass (I found out during our Xmas lunch). One of the trucks backed up to the loading area and detached the trailer part like normal (they back right up the building where there's doors in the stockroom). About an hour later the night crew started showing up to unload it and it was gone ! Someone got a truck, hitched up to the trailer and drove off without anybody noticing! After that all our stores got locks to secure the trailers to the buildings.

[blas]

other than the toilet paper from the bathroom at the gas station....

when I worked at the young lady's store at the mall, girls were constantly stealing panties. Nope, not the regular price panties that ranged from $3-$9 a pair..............I'm talking the REDLINE discount panties........the ones that were marked down to $1 to $2 a piece (when we got so damn many we just had to get rid of them because our weekly shipment of panties was sooooo plentiful).

We didn't have security cameras in that store, we all relied on ourselves and each other's good eyes and judgement.

the panties were a "hot spot" (hot spot meaning hot shoplifting spot) in the store. We knew that 80% of the time, young girls were stuffing their big paper Hollister bags with panties and merrily walking away.

Like we can't tell the difference between Hollister clothing and the more risque clothing (especially PANTIES) at the store I worked at. Morons.

[Becks]

Blas, it just boggles the mind that people would steal the $1 panties and leave the more expensive ones alone. Don't they know that if you're going to do something like that, they might as well do it well?

[BrassCowboy]

We had a TV at the front of the store, right as you walk in the door, which showed a continuos loop of ads for the new Medicare plan, as a way of informing people about the new plan. That was stolen within the first day.

A few weeks later, we had a TV advertising shampoos on an endcap right in front of the registers, in plain sight. That was stolen after a week.

The managers will never learn...

[protege]

There was one kid who tried to make off with my newspaper delivery vehicle...only to fall and have it run him over

As usual, whenever I parked my long-suffering 1988 Radio-Flyer wagon, I usually turned the front wheels into the curb. Most R-Fs don't have brakes (my other one has a crude handbrake), and can roll away pretty easily. So, this day, like every other day, I left the R-F sitting in the street as I made my rounds--I'd usually do about a dozen houses in a row, move the wagon, then do it again. Usually, nobody bothers the wagon, unless it's parked too close to their driveway. I'm careful about leaving plenty of room for people to back out...since one of my customers backed into it about 2 days after purchase--he ended up giving me a $5 tip to fix it...but that's another story

Anyway, I'm minding my own business, when one of the neighborhood kids decides to steal it. At least that was his plan. He forgot to take a few things into account. First off, Radio-Flyer wagons, especially fully-laden ones with wooden bodies versions aren't exactly light. Second, once a heavy vehicle is moving, it can be difficult to stop.

At least he didn't get very far, maybe about 10-15 feet. That's when he fell on his face, and the laws of physics took over. Let's just say that the wagon went up his leg, and stopped with the front tire in his buttcrack. Good thing I was able to run over there in time...otherwise I'm sure it would have messed up his back.

He learned his lesson though. No more wagon stealing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nothing can beat this guy who ran in thru the back door of *supermarket*, grabbed a whole lot of random grocery items, then ran out of the front door... and pitched head first down the stairs. He knocked himself out, as soon as he came round he was taken in to wait for the police.

[SwanJun]

This isn't shoplifting, but theft none-the-less.

I was helping out our graphics department by handmaking special sale tags for one of our smaller divisions.

I had to do 120 of the damn things and they took me a fair while to complete. Anyhoo, a day after I had finished and I was ready to hand them to the division buyer, I discovered two bundles of 20 were missing.

These tickets have the company logo on them and are division-specific. Noone has any possible use for them!

It took me two full days to finish another 40.

SJ

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This probably isn't that exciting, but I guess it was for another store.

This happened in January about 2 years ago, so it was a pretty slow night. At about 7:30 we got a call from the Wal-Mart down the street. They had a family come into the store, load up a cart with clothes, electronics, and other expensive things, and push it out an emergency exit. I think their total haul added up to about $3,000 or so. So they called us to give us a description of the family and tell us to keep an eye out for them.

Well, the manager on duty that night must've seen them enter the store, because he ordered me to instantly drop what I was doing and stand by the emergency exit in sporting goods. He went outside in his car to investigate. He said he saw a car back there with its lights off, and it took off when he approached.

We don't have a lot of exciting shoplifting incidents at my store, at least none I'm aware of.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Since it's been a couple of forums, I guess I get to retell the "KD Nickel" story (alternate name of the store I was working at )

A while back, when I was just barely 20, I was working seasonally in a KD Nickel just to have present money for Christmas. I had done some wrestling training by this point in my life, and since I was one of two girls working in the men's department, there was fertile ground to discuss it in and word got around.

One cool Friday night, the manager of the whole store approached and asked me "Are you the one who's done the wrestling training?" Me, thinking she was just idly making convo for whatever reason, said "Yeah." "Good," she says, motioning. "Come with me over here."

Understandably baffled, I followed her over to bedding while she explained the situation. Every Friday night, for a few weeks, the same car, containing the same five teenage boys, would cruise by the bedding entrance. The store was in a mall, and this door led straight outside to the main street that was the fastest way out of the parking lot. It was literally a twenty-foot run from car to a shelf covered in sheets. And every Friday night, this car would cruise by, and if the coast was clear, one of the boys would dive out, sprint inside, scoop up an armful of sheets, bolt back to the car, and peel out.

The manager had tried stationing security guards by the door but if the little hoodlums saw anyone, they would drive away before they could be caught. However, the suckers had stolen $800 worth of sheets by this point and she wanted them caught.

So, here was her theory. I was 20 at the time, but could usually pass for 14-16. Not to mention I was a girl who didn't look that physically imposing. So the plan was to have me hang around by the sheets, enough to be right there, but hopefully I would look unthreatening enough that the boys would expect that they could still get by me before anything happened. She made it clear that it was only an option if I wanted to do it. ...hell yes, I wanted to do it.

So, the magic hour rolls around, and I'm "shopping" in the sheets, when the car cruised by. It parked, there was a pause...and the door came open. One of the little suckers (probably about 16), made a dash for it.

For the purpose of information to those of you who are not wrestling fans, an "arm drag" is a fairly minor offensive move. When performed by two willing participants in the ring, the wrestlers lock each other around the elbows, or with a hand to the elbow of the person being thrown. However, there is a "legit" version of this move, wherein one person can throw an unwilling participant, either with a hand under the armpit for an over-the-hip throw, or with the elbow hooked in the armpit for an over-the-head backwards suplex type throw, which is considerably more painful and more useful for a running opponent.

You can guess which one I prefered for this situation.

The kid grabbed his armful of sheets and ran for it, as expected, and I quickly stepped in front of him, arm dragging him over and straight to the floor. Security (who were hiding in wait) were all over in within 20 seconds, before he had even figured out what hit him. His "buddies" in the car drove off without him, but he got them back...he sang like a little canary bird to the police and was the only one of the five to avoid juvie hall.

Me? I returned to the men's department and resumed folding pants...

To this day, we don't know what they wanted with $800 in sheets.

[XCashier]

The kid grabbed his armful of sheets and ran for it, as expected, and I quickly stepped in front of him, arm dragging him over and straight to the floor. Security (who were hiding in wait) were all over in within 20 seconds, before he had even figured out what hit him.

That was brilliant. I hope the little twerp didn't think of trying to sue you or the store?

[Ringman]

To this day, we don't know what they wanted with $800 in sheets.

too lazy to wash the bed sheets after the dirty deeds were done for the night?

[Becks]

too lazy to wash the bed sheets after the dirty deeds were done for the night?

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, or done with sheep?

:muttering: Damn you, Weird Al!!!

[zeoquean]

The one that I remember as quite funny was when I was working the cigarette lane at my store. Since I was there, I couldn't get out from behind my counter and walk around, as I was the only one guarding the cigarettes and had to wait for someone to come and take my place before I could leave.

There was this kid who came by, and just walked through like he couldn't find anything that he wanted. So he just walked right by me. The thing is though, I saw him when he came in, and he had on just one shirt. The next time he came by me, he had a few more layers on...and the tags were sticking out of the neck of the shirts! And you could see that they were clearanced shirts too.

I didn't see what happened when the exit greeter got to them, because I was too far away from the door. But those tags in the back were hard to miss.

------------

And before I forget, I do have another one. I'll make it short though. A girl comes by with a pair of pants, (nice looking ones for my store, I might add) with a clearance sticker on it. I was new at the time, so I didn't think anything of it. I rang up everything, and she was asking me about fuses. I don't know ANYTHING about fuses and I told her so. So she goes on her merry way, and then the LP guy comes by and asks me if the girl I just rang up paid for everything. I said yes and he walked out the door after her. He took her back in...he SAW her switch the tags....and then he asked ME to be the witness when they talked to her (you know, so they can't just say they were yelled at and whatnot and sue the store)...and THAT was awkward....especially when the LP guy called the cops and left me there with her...and she asked me how long I worked at the store, and I said a year and a half (wich was true, but I was out for 3 months or so due an accident with a drunk driver, and I started out in a different department...I only started cashiering the month before or something)...she thought I was new too. But that was just...strange. That was the first and last time I had to be a witness (hasn't happened since).

[PuckishOne]

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, or done with sheep?

Dirty deeds done with sheets!!

*ducks the rotten veg and trash*

[Acolyte]

Dirty deeds done with sheets!!

*ducks the rotten veg and trash*

I think that's what most people do.

And that is quite possibly the most awesome story around the boards, Mysty. Makes me wish I still a) had a shoplifting problem around here and b) still remembered my Kenpo training.