Comments on: What Would You Do If You Saw a Shoplifter?

By: Claire

Claire — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:11:32 +0000

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.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:05:31 +0000

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.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:13:29 +0000

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.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:19:25 +0000

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.

By: Amphritrite

Amphritrite — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:38:35 +0000

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.