He stole a gamecube (1 Viewer)

[James Slade]

I was just at the local mall at Electronics Boutique checking for cool new gamecube games. Mt girlfriend saw a guy steal a gamecube. She told the staff they didn't believe her because the were on a high shelf. They didn't care.

As someone who has bought a cube, xbox and many high priced new release games for the store I am pissed. I spend my hard earned money in the store buying things at full price and they don't even care if people steal systems!!!!!!!!

 

[SteveA]

What an abomonation! If you're going to risk arrest, at least steal an X-Box for god's sake!

 

[DaveGTP]

Stealing an X-box would be like trying to stuff a toaster oven under your shirt. (You left yourself wide open for that one!) I imagine the GC was a little easier steal because of the size.

 

[BrianB]

I imagine the GC was a little easier steal because of the size.

And the handle.

 

[Travis Olson]

I saw a guy walk into Walmart, grab a set of golf clubs and walk out like nothing happend. Looked like a crack addict, so he probably needed some quick cash.

 

[Devin U]

I used to work at a sporting goods store, and was crosstrained as a LP associate. You wouldt beleve the crap people would try to steal. Whenever Nike would release the new Jordans, it was the worst. You only got a very limited supply as it was, and without fail, at least two pair would get stolen on release day. The funniest one I saw (well, on video from another store) was a guy who stuffed a full set of golf clubs down his pants and tried to goose step out.

 

[Jason Tracewell]

The sad part is that if you go to a bigger chain store (like a Wal-Mart or Target), it's actually quite easy to steal stuff, as long as it doesn't have an anti-theft device..

I used to work at a Wal-Mart and saw stuff stolen all the time... Towards the end of working there, we finally got a security guy who did a decent job of catching some of them, but we still found CD/Movie wrappers and empty toy boxes throughout the store...

We even had a few people bring back old VCR's in a brand new box and swear that it was the item that came in the box and that they wanted there money back cause it stopped working... Man, so of the stories I could tell (and I am sure most of us who ever worked in retail as well)..

-Ice

 

[Thomas Newton]

Not exactly theft, but several times in the supermarket, I have found refrigerated items left out to spoil.

Presumably someone changed their mind about buying the items, and was too lazy to take them back to where they got them.

I wonder what happens to these items. Do the clerks know enough to discard them when they are unsafe, or does some poor Joe Schmoe who comes in the day *after* the food sat out for several hours get to play bacteria Roulette?

 

[AllanN]

I used to work at a Office Supply store. There the most common thing was people bringing back in cartridges and saying they got the wrong one. But they brought back empty ones.

Not theft but at least once every few weeks someone would come in looking for a postage scale that measured in grams not ounces.

 

[Shawn McBride]

I briefly stole a couple of shirts from the Gap a while back. My wife was looking around so I wander over to the guys section and pick up a couple of shirts. Wife proceeds to look... and look... and look... and finally decides she doesn't wan't anything so we leave.

A couple of minutes later I realize that I'm still holding the shirts so I go back to the store to pay for them and let the cashier know their alarm is faulty and he says, "Oh, the alarm's not broken it just goes off so often that we don't pay attention to it."

 

[David-S]

Just a note, regular staff aren't allowed to "stop" shoplifters at many stores, so if there wasn't a security person there, they can't do crap...

 

[WadeB]

But in a mall, the staff most certainly can call mall security and get them to stop the shoplifter, that is if you can drag mall security away from loitering around the victoria secrets employees.

 

[Greg*go]

Another note: Unless an employee in the store saw him steal it, mall security might not stop him. My sister used to work in a mall shoe store, and the mall security would get them with that all the time. And if they did, then your girlfriend would have to be a witness, and ID the man, then testify against him in court.

I know that it is a very bad way of looking at things, but I'd be grateful that the store didn't do anything if it meant I'd have to take time off from working to go to court since I'm a witness. And I know at the place where I work, unless they catch you on camera putting something in your pocket, they won't press charges. I've seen quite a bit of stuff stolen but if a camera wasn't on the person, the store just waits for him/her to do it again after I tell them about the perp.

 

[DaveGTP]

A friend of mine has a story he always gets quite agitated about. We worked at Meijer (Grocery/Superstore for those of you not in the N/Midwest). A mother hid a carton of cigarettes under a baby and her purse (you could tell it was intentional, she went, oh, I didn't want that when confronted). My friend kept saying "Stealing cigarettes with an innoccent little BABY!!! THAT's TERRIBLE!!!"

Us ex-retail guys have plenty of those kinds of stories.

 

[Dewitte]

Because we've been told that we can't apprehend a shoplifter, we've resorted to taking pictures of them after they've been caught with a disposable camera. Usually the stuff is dropped and they run away.

We have a Sensormatic and because our de-magnetizing device is ancient, it won't deactivate tags inside anything bigger than a keepcase. So that typically means the device goes off for almost everything. It also goes off for anything bought at Target or Electronics Boutique because they use similar systems. Don't even get me started on how the alarm hates cell phones.

De

 

[DaveGTP]

Speaking of false store alarms, I bought a couple of clearance hardcover books @ B Dalton at a mall up north about 2 hours the other day. They were setting off the alarms @ the Suncoast, even though there were no magnetic tags anywhere in the books. She looked under the cover and through the pages. It was funny. The girl behind the counter was stupified. After a few runs through the demagnitizer, the alarms stopped going off.

 

[Eric Kahn]

In alot of hardcover books, you will find the theft tag in the middle of the book, I have found several while reading them at home

 

[Travis Olson]

Yeah those damn alarms. I know the store has to have them and all, but every time I walk through one with an item that has a sticker on it, I prey the clerk deactivated it right. I can't count how many times I've been further hassled walking out the door of stores that have them. It's actually gotten to the point of some stores I visit just ignoring them and waiving the customers out. They've become like car alarms.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The best alarms are in Disney Stores or WB Stores. They have the mascots (like Mickey or Bugs Bunny) telling you to stop at some places.

 

[Chris]

Walmart for a while has been facing a scam where people buy inkjet printers, steal the cartridges out of them, and put back in the cartridges from their printer.. suitably, if they have a Lexmark (whatever) at home, they buy the whole printer again, then that same day return it and say "it prints poorly" or whatever.. pocketing the cartridges. It got to the point where a few stores have started to consult local computer stores about practices, and they are thinking of changing their printer return policy at at least one store.