Back in June, we told you about the uptick in Sunday newspaper thefts in Boise, ID, from thrifty folks trying to score additional coupons. Well, it looks like it wasn’t isolated to Idaho and one paper has even offered a reward for finding a newspaper pilferer. [More]
crime news
NYC Welfare Worker Admits To Running $7 Million Food Stamp Scam
By 8.10.11
While the feds recently announced a spike in the number of Americans using food stamps, at least some of those 45.8 million people didn’t exist. A Brooklyn woman who worked for NYC’s Human Resources Administration has entered a guilty plea to charges of creating fake identities to scam the government out of millions in food stamp benefits. [More]
NYPD Forms New Unit To Monitor Facebook And Twitter For Signs Of Criminal Activity
By 8.10.11
Be careful the next time you’re planning a bank heist on Facebook or send out a Tweet that reads “there were only supposed to be two alarm systems wtf???” As we’ve already reported, cops around the country have begun using social media to track down criminals, and now comes the news that the New York City Police Department has actually created a unit that monitors Facebook updates, Twitter feeds and the like to detect the planning of, or bragging about, illegal goings-on. [More]
TSA Screener Accused Of Stealing $50K In Electronics From Travelers
By 7.8.11
As if worrying about having your private parts groped — or being scrutinized and mocked — by TSA screeners wasn’t enough, yet another airport security staffer has been arrested and accused of using his position to pilfer thousands of dollars worth of travelers’ treasures. [More]
Target Customer Uses Baseball Bat To Demonstrate Her Displeasure With Store's Return Policy
By 6.24.11
There are so many ways to express one’s outrage with a retail store’s policies. You can complain to the company, start a grassroots campaign, write to Consumerist, or just take your business elsewhere. But for one displeased Target shopper in Pennsylvania, the answer was clear: baseball bat. [More]
Food Blogger Jailed For Salty Restaurant Review
By 6.23.11
A food blogger in Taiwan has been sentenced to jail for 30 days and ordered to pay around $7,000 in damages after a judge ruled that her comments about the saltiness of a restaurant’s food were made without doing due diligence. [More]
Walmart Releases Video Of Vigilante Jumping On Robbers' Hood
By 6.23.11
Walmart has released CCTV footage of the shopper who jumped onto the hood of a car full of would-be beer shoplifters in an attempt to kick in their windshield and stop them from speeding away with their pilfered lager. [More]
Walmart Shopper Jumps On Hood Of Getaway Car To Prevent Beer Heist
By 6.21.11
We’ve run our fair share of stories of Walmart employees whose anti-crime heroics got them into trouble, but now comes the story of a customer who decided she was going to succeed where Walmart loss prevention staff failed. [More]
Office Depot Manager Accused Of Swiping Millions In Toner And Ink
By 6.14.11
The loss prevention staff at Office Depot should be checking employees’ pockets. Authorities in Washington state have charged a manager, along with a former employee, at the retail chain of swiping oodles of office supplies that they are accused of then re-selling on eBay. [More]
Should Best Buy Have Fired Employee For Chasing Down A Shoplifter?
By 5.3.11
A three-year employee of Best Buy is now out of work, not for selling stolen TVs out the back door or taking returns without photo ID, but because he chased down a man attempting to pilfer a pair of laptops from the store. [More]
Rising Gas Prices Lead To Spike In Restaurant Fryer Grease Theft
By 4.29.11
As gas prices continue to float around the $4/gallon mark, the cost of biofuel is also higher than it has been. And according to grease industry insiders, this has led to an increase in thieves making off with restaurant fryer grease. [More]
Bearded Man Steals $658 Worth Of Razors, May Have Shaved Beard By Now
By 4.6.11
New Jersey’s Hunterdon County Democrat urges the public to watch out for a criminal on the loose. A tall, burly, bearded man shoplifted $658 worth of expensive razors from a Walgreens store. Police told the newspaper that the man “may or may not have a beard at this time.” [More]
Is Walmart Putting Elderly Greeters In Harm's Way By Having Them Check Receipts?
By 3.29.11
While Walmart fires young loss-prevention staffers for restraining an armed shoplifter, the company has no problem asking its elderly employees to check receipts of exiting customers, who occasionally get violently upset when stopped. Perhaps the latest incident, in which a 71-year-old greeter was allegedly hit and choked by angry customers, might change things. [More]
Starbucks In Wrongful-Death Lawsuit After Tip Jar Dispute
By 3.9.11
The estate of a Starbucks customer who lost his life after attempting to chase down a tip jar thief has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the java giant, alleging that the company invited crime by having an unsecured tip jar on the counter. [More]
83-Year-Old Walmart Greeter Arrested For Attempted Armed Robbery Of Own Store
By 3.7.11
Walmart greeters are usually nice, elderly people just making some extra dough in their golden years. But even in such a pleasant group of folks, there is always going to be one rotten apple. [More]
Best Buy ID-Checking Policy Did Nothing To Stop Employee From Making Fraudulent Returns
By 2.28.11
You may remember how Best Buy recently went to great lengths to explain its new policy of requiring a photo ID for all in-store returns, claiming it helped to prevent fraudulent returns. Except it didn’t do a thing to stop a Best Buy staffer in New Jersey from making thousands of dollars off bogus returns. [More]
Domino's Burglar Leaves Trail Of Chips & Sauce Straight To His Door
By 2.28.11
The police in Ojai, CA, didn’t need David Caruso’s CSI skills, sunglasses, or witticisms to find the man who broke into the local Domino’s Pizza. [More]
Drunk Pizza Hut Employee Breaks In After Hours To Fry Wings
By 2.25.11
It’s nothing new for a felonious fast food employee to sneak back into his place of work after hours to pilfer goods and cash. But for one staffer at a Minnesota Pizza Hut, the thing that lured him into late-night larceny was access to the restaurant’s deep fryer. [More]
