When you see a co-worker pass around the inevitable Girl Scout cookie order form and grumble about how you had to do door-to-door sales back when you were a kid, keep this story in mind. A family alleges that a Girl Scout selling cookies in a California neighborhood had a gun pulled on her by a potential customer. [More]
crime
Walmart Customers Charged With Beating Security Guard, Running Off With 55 DVDs
By 1.28.14
On Friday, a Walmart security guard in South Carolina confronted a woman who was pushing a cart filled with DVDs that she hadn’t paid for out the door. That’s his job. Instead of surrendering or simply running off, the two women allegedly started hitting the guard and then ran off. [More]
Tiny Bluetooth Card Skimmers Will Make You Hug Your Debit Card
By 1.23.14
It’s probably not a good idea to use your debit card at the gas pump. Not because we have anything against debit cards, but because we’ve learned of yet another group of criminals who planted invisible card skimmers in pay-at-the-pump machines at gas stations in the southern United States. [More]
The History Of The Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, In Comic Form
By 1.22.14
We at Consumerist remain fascinated with the 2012 theft of 10,000 barrels of maple syrup from the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve in Quebec, Canada. We’re not the only ones: there’s even a movie about the heist starring Jason Segal in production. Yet some questions remained: Did authorities ever catch everyone involved? Was every drop of syrup recovered? More importantly, why is there a global strategic maple syrup reserve in the first place? [More]
Man Suspected Of Swapping iPods For Erasers At Target Caught, Arrested, Pleads Not Guilty
By 1.17.14
Remember the guy in California who gave his wife an iPod box filled with erasers for Christmas, but not intentionally? When he tried to exchange it for a box with a real iPod in it, the new box contained erasers, too. We publish a lot of stories like this, but here’s something unusual: a follow-up story with the arrest of the person behind the alleged eraser-swap. [More]
Avoid Shoplifting After Faking Your Death To Avoid Shoplifting Charge
By 1.16.14
Here’s a tip: if you’re going to fake your own death to beat a shoplifting charge, remember that’s a big step. Don’t jeopardize your hard work by shoplifting again at a different department store and getting arrested. A woman in Nashville allegedly did just that, and is now accused of stealing from Dillard’s after faking her death to get out of a shoplifting charge at Macy’s. She did not try the controversial “Dawn of the Dead” defense. [USA Today] [More]
Shoplifters Take $20,000 Worth Of Bras And Panties From Victoria’s Secret
By 1.15.14
It took them three shoplifting trips, but a pair of real-life underpants gnomes took $20,000 worth of bras and panties from a Florida Victoria’s Secret store. In surveillance video, you can watch two twentysomething men shove merchandise into a bag from another store and their pockets, apparently unnoticed by store employees. [More]
Comfort Food Crime Wave Is Back: $362,000 Worth Of Candy Disappears
By 1.2.14
In spring of last year, comforting, tasty foods began to disappear by the truckload. Soup, hamburgers, Nutella: all stolen. Consumerist developed a theory. What if these crimes were the work of a syndicate of well-traveled, resourceful, and extremely hungry thieves? After laying dormant for most of 2013, the Comfort Food Criminals are back. [More]
Cops Shoot Alleged Thanksgiving Night Shoplifter Dragging Officer With Car
By 11.29.13
Some Black Friday shoppers brawl over discounted junk, and some people aren’t interested in paying those discounted prices at all. Not because they’re staying home: don’t be ridiculous. Brown Thursday turned dangerous in Illinois when a police officer shot an accused shoplifter. For shoplifting? No, for dragging a fellow officer whose arm was stuck in his car door. [More]
Shoplifters Make Effective Use Of Their Time, Dash Out Of Store With Rolling Racks
By 11.7.13
When you hear the word “shoplifting,” you might picture one person slipping a few small items into her purse, or a person layering extra clothes under their jacket in the fitting room. That’s not how large shoplifting operations roll. Literally roll, in the case of these thieves who took a few racks of merchandise out of a Sports Authority store near Chicago. [More]
Goodwill Fires Cashier, Presses Felony Charges For Giving Discounts To Poor People
By 9.27.13 — Updated: 9.29.13
Goodwill is a charitable organization that sells donated goods in thrift stores to raise money for its job-training and employment programs. So it’s an organization that helps people. Just not the people who shop in its stores. That’s what a teeenage cashier learned recently when he gave some broke customers off-the-books discounts, and got arrested on felony charges (and fired) for his trouble. Update: The store decided not to pursue the charges. [More]
Mystery Man Visits Grocery, Confesses To Armed Robbery, Pays Store Back $400
By 9.9.13 — Updated: 9.10.13
It was kind of weird: a visitor to an Asian grocery/sandwich shop had an envelope in his hand that he would only give to the store’s owner. When the owner’s son hesitated, the mystery courier set the envelope down on the counter and left. The envelope contained $400 and a note, which confessed to an armed robbery of the shop a dozen years ago. [More]
Couple Beaten And Robbed While Selling Phone Over Craigslist
By 9.5.13
Even though selling your old smartphone to a local person through classified ads will probably net you the most money, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take safety measures. Here’s one example why: an Illinois couple were beaten and robbed of their phone plus $275 after they arranged a meetup over Craigslist. Two teens have been charged with the crime and are in jail. [More]
NFL’s New Stadium Bag Policy Is Great, Until People Blame It For Car Burglaries
By 9.4.13
The National Football League recently put new rules in place about what kind of bags fans can bring inside stadiums, a change intended to speed up security screening. All bags but the tiniest of purses need to be made of clear plastic, as if we’ve suddenly become a nation of retail employees. That’s fine…until fans blame the policy when their non-conforming bags get stolen from their cars in the parking lot. [More]
Best Buy Shoppers And Employees Save 9-Year-Old Girl From Violent Attacker
By 8.27.13
It isn’t just every parent’s nightmare: it’s the nightmare of every human being with a functioning soul. Police in Florida say that a stranger attacked a 9-year-old girl in the ladies’ rest room of a Best Buy store on Friday night while her mother was paying for her purchases. Another customer heard her screams, and witnesses say that employees and other bystanders rushed in to save the child. [More]
Shopkeeper Stocked Store From The TJ Maxx Where He Worked
By 8.15.13
When you’re launching a new business, it can be a good idea to keep your day job so you can keep some steady income as well as any benefits you might have. However, you should avoid the worker-to-owner transition that one Brooklyn man made. He allegedly stocked his little store with merchandise that he took off the shelves of the TJ Maxx store where he worked. [More]
At Least Three Men Fell For ‘Let’s Have Sex On A Pile Of Cash’ Robbery Scam
By 8.9.13
The man who was robbed of $2,000 that he was bringing to a romantic encounter with a woman he met online isn’t alone. At least two other would-be lovers brought huge quantities of cash to roll around on with the mystery woman, but were robbed instead. Police in Mountain View, California have made three arrests, and have asked any other victims out there to come forward. [More]
Tiny Bluetooth Gas Pump Skimmers Are Here To Gobble Your Credit Card Info
By 7.30.13
In the above picture, on the left you see a brand-new credit/debit card for gas pumps. On the right is the same device with a card-skimming device placed in the conveniently empty slot. How can consumers avoid having their card information skimmed by crooks using similar devices? You probably won’t even know until the fraudulent purchases hit your account. [More]
