Oftentimes, when you arrest these thieves, you find that they have other outstanding arrest warrants, often from several jurisdictions. Some even have felony warrants from the department of corrections for parole violation. The shoplifting is just the "presenting" symptom.
What the business paid me to work shoplifting duty was never covered by the value of the recovered stolen goods. But word got around in the thieving community quickly, and pre-emptively stopped a lot of would-be thieves from trying.
“The shoplifting is just the “presenting” symptom.”
Great post. That is why “broken windows” law enforcement is so effective.
The “bad actors” do lots of small stupid bad things as well as bigger ones—once you have them in custody you can make sure they go to court for all of their outstanding warrants.
I worked for a while as security. My favority memory was catching three thirteen year old girls who had each stolen home pregnancy tests.
I had all three of them in the office, along with a female employee as a witness. The girls were all crying their eyes out and wanting to know what I was going to do.
I have to admit it was with some pleasure I followed the store policy concerning minors and minor thefts. I called their parents to come to the office and pick up their child who had been caught shop lifting.
As their parents arrived, I showed them what their sweet little girls had stolen