What Would You Do If You Saw a Shoplifter?

May 5, 2009 · Filed Under · 5 Comments 

I watched a story on the news the other day that due to the current state of the economy, shoplifting is becoming a bigger problem in stores across the U.S.  Perhaps people are feeling a sense of entitlement when it comes to stealing because they feel betrayed. That obviously does not make it OK, but I find this phenomenon interesting. Some people are stealing things to eat. Others are trying to turn stolen goods into cash by selling them on eBay or Craig’s List.

But my question is this: What would you do if you saw someone trying to steal something from a store? Would you look the other way? Would you inform store management? Would it matter if the person was stealing food compared to an iPod? Also, what would you do if they were stealing children’s clothing or baby formula? Look forward to your thoughts.

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Comments

5 Responses to “What Would You Do If You Saw a Shoplifter?”

  1. Amphritrite on May 5th, 2009 10:38 am

    This is a toughie, because you know that the argument about thieves feeding their families is going to come up.

    Myself? I would report them. Stealing does nothing to society but help it decay.

  2. Jenny on May 6th, 2009 6:19 pm

    This is difficult. If they were stealing food I would ask them to put it back and perhaps offer to buy them a meal. Especially if they were stealing baby food or something else.
    Anything other than food and I’d probably report them.

  3. Laurie on May 12th, 2009 1:13 pm

    I once saw some women stealing clothes in a store in Boston. I told the store manager. All she said was, “Oh well”. I left at that point.

  4. Jen on September 17th, 2009 8:05 am

    I once saw some young adults shoplifting quite a bit of cold medicine. (This was before Sudafed was kept behind the counter.) I did report it to the pharmacist, and then I witnessed the security take down. In that case, I’m sure they were shoplifting to make meth.

    When I was a kid I worked at a bookstore, where they estimated we lost $200 worth of merchandise to shoplifters every single day. And this was during a time when the economy was booming. Our policy was try to recover the items by saying things like “would you like to pay for that book you placed in your bag, ma’am?” but if they said they didn’t have anything, that was as far as it went. We didn’t prosecute shoplifters or do any sort of arrest program.

  5. Claire on September 23rd, 2009 10:11 am

    If it was a mom and pop store I would tell the person the manager was watching them wither or not they were. Hopefully they would put it down. If it was a big chain I would do nothing, especially if it was at a damn Walmart and they were stealing food or baby clothing.

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