Management of a Portland, Ore. Safeway was sick of getting ripped off by the same couple over and over again, so its security staff placed a tracking device on the van driven by the alleged shoplifters. Now the couple, accused of swiping more than $5 million worth of goods from the Safeway over several years, is in custody. [More]
shoplifting
Walmart Employees Fired For Stopping Armed Robber
By 2.14.11
When a suspected shoplifter pulled a gun on employees at a Walmart in Utah last month, the staffers say they were left with no choice but to disarm the man, which they managed to do without anyone getting shot. Unfortunately for them, Walmart says it had no choice but to let these employees go. [More]
On A Hot Date But Low On Cash? Don't Steal The Condom Machine
By 1.28.11
A man in Hungary found himself banned from a bar after he got caught attempting to exit the establishment with an entire condom vending machine under his coat. [More]
Man Scores 100% Discount On Electronics By Making Fake Receipts At Home
By 1.25.11
Here’s a story that should let you check off both the “receipt-checking” and “I make my own at home” boxes on your Consumerist bingo card. A man in New Mexico was recently arrested for allegedly forging receipts to steal goods from Sam’s Club and other stores in his area. [More]
Guilt-Burdened Shoplifter Pays For Stolen Hammer… 25 Years Later
By 12.24.10
Earlier this week, we asked you to opine on the situation of a Target customer who had inadvertently walked out of the store without paying for a DVD. Many of you said he should return the disc or contact Target to pay for it. Now comes the story of another shopper so burdened with guilt that he recently sent money to a hardware store from which he’d stolen a hammer decades earlier. [More]
74-Year-Old Accused Walmart Shoplifter Fights To Clear Name
By 12.15.10
No one wants to spend their golden years fending off unwarranted shoplifting charges, but that’s the situation in which a 74-year-old Missouri man finds himself. Following up on Walmart complaints, authorities accused the man of nearly 20 robberies at stores throughout the midwest. He’s maintained his innocence and finally seems to be making some headway. [More]
How You'll Be Robbed Of $423 This Year Without Realizing It
By 10.20.10
If Punky Brewster taught me anything, it’s that shoplifting is harmful to everyone’s bottom line. Retailers, which pass the costs of insurance against theft to customers, will cause the average shopper to part with $423 extra at the mall this year. [More]
Kroger Security Guard Shoots Homeless Man's Dog
By 10.14.10
A Nashville-area Kroger security guard got into a scuffle with a homeless man he says was stealing firewood and then shot and killed the man’s dog. [More]
Walmart Shopper Fakes Labor Pains To Avoid Shoplifting Arrest
By 10.12.10
See if you can follow this: Two women were suspected of shoplifting at an Ohio Walmart. When confronted by Walmart security outside the store, it was determined that they hadn’t left the building with the allegedly purloined merchandise. Security was about to let them go when the women called the cops to complain about being unlawfully detained. The cops arrived and determined the women actually could be arrested for shoplifting. That’s when one woman faked labor pains to escape going to jail. [More]
Witness: Target Worker Wrestled, Choked Female Customer
By 9.15.10
Yesterday, Cherie was shopping at a Target in Cincinnati when she claims she witnessed a Target loss prevention associate “brutally detain, wrestle, strike and choke a shopper for more than three minutes.” [More]
Hobby Lobby To Couple: Only Women Can Carry Bags
By 9.15.10
A Hobby Lobby employee asked Joe to leave his Maxpedition Versipack–I was going to call it a man purse, but it’s so aggressively utilitarian that I think it gets a pass–at the front counter before he shopped in the store. That’s unfriendly but not that weird, considering the loss-prevention strategies some stores use. However, they let his wife continue with the exact same bag attached to her hip, I guess because women can’t steal. [More]
Mall Security And Suspected Shoplifters Engage In Car Chase
By 8.31.10
Earlier this month, two mall security guards in Montville, NJ, gave chase to a carful of suspected Victoria’s Secret shoplifters for six miles. Both vehicles eventually stopped at a liquor store parking lot two towns over, where a real policeman–who at first thought the guards were legit undercover cops–stepped in and started issuing tickets. [More]
This Hobby Lobby Reserves The Right To Search Your Car
By 8.16.10 — Updated: 5.3.13
A tipster in Louisville, Kentucky snapped this photo of a small warning sign taped to the window of his local Hobby Lobby. According to the sign, the store reserves the right to go through pretty much anything you happen to be carrying with you, plus your car. But shoppers shouldn’t feel too bad, because the sign says you can refuse and be escorted from the premises. [More]
Forever 21 Issues Statement About Choke Hold Video
By 8.13.10
Forever 21, the store responsible for the security force that put a choke hold on an apparently deaf shoplifting suspect has issued a statement about the incident. [More]
VIDEO: Forever 21 Security Puts Choke Hold On Deaf Customer
By 8.12.10
Clothing store Forever 21 is under fire today over a YouTube video showing a security guard for the store’s Hollywood Blvd. outlet wrestling a deaf customer to the ground and putting him into a choke hold on the sidewalk. [More]
Shoplifter Blames Devil
By 8.10.10
A woman caught shoplifting from a Walmart in Cinnaminson, NJ, assaulted the store’s loss-prevention officer and drove off, but accidentally left her pocketbook–which contained her driver’s license–in the parking lot. She called back later to ask whether they’d found it, and when the police got on the phone she admitted to the shoplifting and assault, but blamed it on the devil. [More]
Shoplifter Forgets Baby
By 8.3.10
A note to shoplifters: When doing your thing, don’t leave behind any item that could incriminate you, such as, say, your 10-month-old infant. [More]
Woman Shoplifts Clothes, Comes Back to Interview For Job In Shoplifted Clothes, Shoplifts Some More
By 7.28.10
What the heck in wrong with Canada this week? Yesterday we wrote about the stupidest man in the Great White North and now comes news of a woman who is either the dumbest or most brazen shoplifter we’ve heard about in a while. [More]
