Stealers Week

This morning, we have the story of a "grab and go" robbery at the Skiers Outlet here in Oshkosh where a group of women walked into the store Tuesday night--stuffed about a thousand dollars in merchandise in their bags and walked out without paying.  This may not be the isolated incident police believe it is--as an intern here at the Radio Ranch told an off-hand story yesterday about a group of women--with the same physical descriptions--stealing items from the store where she works this week as well.  The thieves in that heist acted the same way as at the outlet store--spread out, avoid contact with the sales clerks, stuff the items in your bag and run out to a waiting car to get away.

It's clear that shoplifters like that know how the system works.  Our intern expressed frustration that even though she knew those people were going steal--there was little she could do about it because of company policy.  In her case, she would have had to know exactly where the thieves were hiding the merchandise--because they do not have the power to search a person or their bags like a police officer does.  They are also told not to directly accost shoplifters--or attempt to prevent them from leaving the store.  And calling the cops to report the theft is not mandatory either (which I don't understand--because it would give us a greater understanding of the extent of such crime)--instead, the lost item boxes are just put on a shelf to be cataloged at a later date.

We weren't given a list of stolen item in the Skiers Outlet heist--but our intern says all of the items stolen from her store were children's sizes.  That leads me to believe that what the stealers took will likely end up under the tree next week as "gifts".  I'd be willing to bet that they even had a "shopping list" made out of things to "pick up at the store" for Christmas--and that is how they determined what stores to target.

I wonder if there will be even the slightest twinge of guilt in their minds when the kids tear open the wrapping paper to see their ill-gotten goods.  I tend to doubt it.  They probably have themselves convinced that they and their kids "deserve" to have the same nice stuff that the family in the suburbs have--even if they don't have the money to buy that stuff.  Besides, they probably think. the stores make money hand over fist--they should have some of that taken away to make it "fair" to the rest of us.  I wonder where they would get such an idea?

As is becoming more common nowadays, those of us who do the responsible thing will end up footing the bill for their thievery--by dealing with higher prices on the goods we actually pay for to make up for the loss.