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Do Walmart and other retailers support the destruction of American values through their lack of willingness to stop shoplifting? How much is their lack of enforcement costing you and me? The answer appears to be YES and it's costing us BILLIONS. Last year Walmart reported that they had lost $3 billion due to theft of products. That's just at Walmart. Most retailers reported losses in the same range for their market share. Given the poor economy I would expect this year's losses to be much higher. How is this happening? Two reasons: 1. Once a shoplifter makes it outside, they...

SPRINGFIELD – Seventy-five bottles of body lotion stuffed down his pants did not help Chamil Guadarrama make a slick getaway. Guadarrama, 30, of Framingham, was arrested Wednesday night on a charge of shoplifting more than $250 from Bath & Body Works in the Eastfield Mall, Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet. When he was apprehended by mall security officers Jane Colon and Jeff Lawlor and held for police after a brief foot chase, Guadarrama was found with 75 8-ounce glass bottles of lotion stuffed into his pants, Delaney said.

A Church of England priest has found himself at the center of controversy after he told his congregation it was morally justifiable for the poor to shoplift. Father Tim Jones of St. Lawrence and Hilda Church in York said this week that he did not believe it was right for people to shoplift but maintained it was the “least worst option” for people in desperate situations. He gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance, saying it was for better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather...

Tim Jones is an Anglican Priest who in a sermon to the congregation at St Lawrence's church in York suggested that there is an exception to the Eight Commandment, the one that says Thou Shalt Not Steal. Apparently, according to Father Tim, as his flock calls him, it is alright to steal if one is poor, if one is stealing from a large, corporate owned store, and if one only engages in shoplifting. The idea is that God, for whom Father Tim Jones is evidently speaking for, so loves his

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio woman who asked that police be called after she caught her 6-year-old daughter shoplifting a package of stickers said Wednesday that she was just trying to teach the girl a lesson early in life. Diane Lyons said she doesn't believe she overreacted when she discovered the girl, Shiane, had taken the $3.11 package of stickers used to make temporary tattoos. An older 10-year-old daughter told Lyons about the theft. Chief Ronald Yeager of the Carrollton Police Department in eastern Ohio arrived at the Discount Drug Mart Dec. 15 and took the girl to the...

Shoplifting is increasingly common in NSW, with thefts from clothing stores up more than 30 per cent, the state's Bureau of Crime Statistics says. Thefts from licensed premises were also up by a significant amount - 18.1 per cent - in the 12 months to September this year, the bureau says in its quarterly report. Overall, stealing from retail stores was up by 5.8 per cent in the 12 months. There has also been a huge increase in convictions for possession and use of ecstasy and cocaine, with ecstasy convictions up by almost half (49.7 per cent) and cocaine convictions...

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The county plans to sell the home of a Dennis Township man, the subject of one of the largest stolen property scams in local history, according to Prosecutor Robert Taylor. Thomas Moran, 48, of Furlong Drive in South Seaville, was sentenced last month to six years in prison, part of a plea agreement for crimes in Cape May and Atlantic counties. “When you add up all the amounts, it’s a tremendous amount of money this man took,� said Taylor. “This is one the largest cases, if not the largest case, of this nature for this...

EDISON -- A veteran Edison police officer was placed on probation for one year today for shoplifting about $42 in merchandise from a local supermarket where he was working as a security guard.  David Yanvary, 55, who served more than 27 years on the township police force, must also forfeit his employment and is permanently barred from holding a public job or law enforcement position in New Jersey.   Yanvary was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa in New Brunswick who told him "it is a very unfortunate thing that brings us here."  "Our courts expect a police officer...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A Southern California couple who went on national television to brag about making $100,000 shoplifting toys and selling their loot on eBay has pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy charges in San Diego. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday says authorities seized more than 500 boxes of stolen toys when they raided Laura and Matthew Eaton's home in San Marcos with a search warrant in March. The couple was arrested Friday and faces at least 27 months in prison if convicted of conspiracy to transport stolen property. The Eatons appeared on the "Dr. Phil" show...

BEIJING — A woman in eastern China was allegedly beaten to death by five employees of a Wal-Mart store who accused her of shoplifting, a police report and state media said Tuesday. Police have arrested two employees from the store in Jiangxi province, while three others are being investigated, Jingdezhen city police said in a report on their website. According to the report, the woman was beaten outside her home near the Wal-Mart on August 30 and died in a city hospital on Wednesday last week from injuries suffered during the beating. Police said the five Wal-Mart employees had stopped...

ZACHARY, LOUISIANA (WAFB) - Zachary police say surveillance video shows a woman steal a 12-pack of beer from a small grocery store by putting it between her legs and waddling away. She is also suspected of shoving several cans of soda into her top. The Miller Light and soft drinks were taken from the Cross Roads Grocery on August 2. "It's just amazing how people go this far to steal," said David McDavid with the police department. "It just doesn't make sense." However, this "beer between the legs" bandit apparently didn't work alone. The video also shows a man try...

Now it can be told: The mysterious petty theft that President Barack Obama's new computer chief committed at age 21 was shoplifting four dress shirts worth $134 from J.C. Penney. A 1996 Montgomery County, Md., police report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday under a public records law shows Vivek Kundra was observed by a security guard putting the men's shirts into a shopping bag and leaving the store without paying. Sgt. Tom Stanton wrote that Kundra was arrested after a brief foot chase and the property was recovered. Kundra pleaded guilty, paid a $100 fine and $55 in...

TAMPA - A woman caught taking about $70 worth of items at a Sweetbay Supermarket last week said she did it for her children. So instead of arresting her, a Tampa police officer paid for the diapers, formula and other baby care products the woman was accused of taking. He even threw in a couple of sandwiches.

In March, federal and regional authorities shut down a central Florida shoplifting ring, arresting 21 suspects - all illegal immigrants - who were paid up to $300 a day to steal baby formula. The group stole $17.5 million worth of formula, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, which had 40 detectives assigned to the case.

roanoke,va - WASHINGTON (AP) - Now it can be told: The mysterious petty theft that President Barack Obama’s new computer chief committed at age 21 was shoplifting four dress shirts worth $134 from J.C. Penney. A 1996 Montgomery County, Md., police report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday under a public records law shows Vivek Kundra was observed by a security guard putting the men’s shirts into a shopping bag and leaving the store without paying. Sgt. Tom Stanton wrote that Kundra was arrested after a brief foot chase and the property was recovered

With that also comes an increase in frustration because these crimes are happening despite the warnings and prevention advice from law enforcement ST. ALBANS -- From shoplifting to a variety of break-in's, tis the season for property crimes. The reasons for the increase in these types of crimes during the holidays are many. "A lot of times those are crimes of opportunity, if you allow them an opportunity, and criminals usually don't like to raise a flag so to speak, they'll try and go undetected," says Saint Albans Police Chief Joe Crawford. Saint Albans Police are currently investigating a rash...

A shoplifting dog leaves store employees scratching their heads. KSL's John Hollenhorst reports. (Video at link.)

... Police departments across the country say that shoplifting arrests are 10 percent to 20 percent higher this year than last. The problem is probably even greater than arrest records indicate since shoplifters are often banned from stores rather than arrested. Much of the increase has come from first-time offenders like Mr. Johnson making rash decisions in a pinch, the authorities say. But the ease with which stolen goods can be sold on the Internet has meant a bigger role for organized crime rings, which also engage in receipt fraud, fake price tagging and gift card schemes, the police and...

Shall They Now Have Died in Vain? Dean C. Haskins Before now, I never felt compelled to regard myself as a "patriot." It's not that I didn't consider myself patriotic; it's that nothing had occurred in my 49 years that even remotely challenged my deep, abiding trust in our Constitution. My national naivety ended in 2008. My political innocence was the victim of a brutal rape. The media-fueled presidential campaign that ubiquitously ravaged the senses and sensibilities of our general public, held remotely in its grasp a deceptively shrouded secret―an obfuscation so wily, so destructive of the pristine document that...

  Buyer beware! Or in this case, booster beware. Staten Island Mall is posting faces of shoplifters on video terminals.   Slapping the faces of convicted shoplifters on video terminals in the Staten Island Mall is a big hit - or not, depending on who you ask."I think it's fabulous," said Dan Ozimek, a 62-year-old mall shopper. "If you want to do something wrong, you should be prepared to have your face on a screen." "I think it's unfair because people should be forgiven," countered Jason Harr, 24. "People make mistakes and shouldn't have their faces publicized for stealing, say,...

Ask virtually any store manager at the Saint Louis Galleria about shoplifting, and you'll invariably get two responses: One, it's out of control; and two, it's gotten exceedingly worse since August 2006, when MetroLink opened a stop just 500 yards from the high-end shopping center. In the first six months of this year, Richmond Heights police made 345 arrests at the mall. That's nearly double the number of arrests made in all of 2005, before MetroLink opened its Shrewsbury line. This year police are on pace to take 276 juveniles into custody for shoplifting and other offenses — a sevenfold...

After Miami handyman Glenn Rudge was accused of shoplifting an $8 set of drill bits at Home Depot, he thought he'd settled the matter when he showed his receipt to prosecutors and they dropped the charge.But a few weeks later, a law firm hired by Home Depot began sending him letters demanding first $3,000, then a total of $6,000, implying he'd be sued if he didn't pay it. In an escalating battle against theft, retailers are going after anyone suspected of shoplifting, turning over their names to lawyers and collection firms, who pursue the suspects for stiff penalties and split...

lakeland shoplifting was first break Gang stole $100 million from stores, sheriff says LAKELAND | A multiagency investigation that began with a single shoplifting incident about seven months ago has revealed an 18-person crime ring that may be responsible for the theft of up to $100 million worth of medicine and health and beauty goods from convenience and grocery stores statewide, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Thursday. The investigation started with two shoplifters at a Publix supermarket on Shepherd Road in Lakeland on June 26, Judd said at a news conference in Lakeland on Thursday afternoon. Rita Maddox and...

A thief was convicted and fined after being spotted on a video posted on the Web site YouTube. The man was taped slowly circling the store, stealing a laptop computer, slipping the computer into his overcoat and stepping out of the store in the South Island town of Greymouth, local media reported Friday. The whole performance was posted on YouTube — set to “The Pink Panther� music track — and attracted 500,000 hits from around the globe. One viewer recognized the man and alerted police. Dawson Anthony Bliss, 50, was convicted of theft in Greymouth District Court on Thursday after...

Theft rising at U.S. Wal-Mart stores By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO and MARCUS KABEL, AP Business Writers 1 hour, 49 minutes ago Shoppers at Wal-Mart stores across America are loading carts with merchandise — maybe a flat-screen TV, a few DVDs and a six-pack of beer — and strolling out without paying. Employees also are helping themselves to goods they haven't paid for. The world's largest retailer is saying little about these kinds of thefts, but its recent public disclosures that it is experiencing an increase in so-called shrinkage at its U.S. stores suggests that inventory losses due to shoplifting, employee theft,...

See for example this thread first. So if you have irritable bowel Don't stand in line, throw in the towel Just run out the door with stuff from the store then be surprised when the cops scowl!

Nesquick, utensils found in woman's pants By SHAWN MCGRATH Cheyanne E. Dwiggins’ sweet tooth got the better of her on Wednesday and her method of shoplifting became creative, according to police. Dwiggins, 18, was arrested Wednesday morning for allegedly trying to swipe several pieces of candy, a few kitchen utensils and a well-hidden 15-ounce box of strawberry Nestle’s Nesquik from Bauer’s Market, 815 Main St. Shortly before 9:30 a.m., store owner Scott Law watched Dwiggins for about 30 minutes and knew she had pocketed several items, according to court papers. Dwiggins walked up to the cash register to pay for...

DE QUEEN, Ark. - The guitar-shaped bulge in Morgan Conatser's clothing tipped off a music store owner that there might be a crime in progress. Clifton Lovell, owner of Guitars and Cadillacs on U.S. Highway 71 in De Queen, was talking with a customer last week when he saw Conatser, 29, walking out of the store. "I saw him walking out to his pickup truck and the bulges in his leather jacket. I said, 'Hey what have you got there,'" Clifton Lovell said. He said Conatser, 29, replied, "Nothing." Lovell pointed toward the unnatural shapes in Conatser's jacket and pants...

CNN business contributor Andy Serwer reported on a curious policy change at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stores: they’re giving first-time shoplifters a break for inexpensive merchandise. The story was not meant to be publicly announced and could cause an up-tick in shoplifting at the stores. Yet Serwer left out that The New York Times broke the story after being handed internal documents from an anti-Wal-Mart group funded by labor unions. “If you are caught in a Wal-Mart stealing less than $25 of merchandise and it’s your first time, you get a pass,” Serwer reported in a “Minding Your Business” update on...

Wal-Mart is moving away from what it called a zero-tolerance policy on prosecuting shoplifters and will now only prosecute anyone caught taking merchandise worth $25 or more, according to a published report. The New York Times reports the change in policy, citing internal documents from Wal-Mart that say it will now only press charges against those between the ages of 18 and 64 who take at least $25 worth of goods. Formerly its policy was to press charges against anyone who took at least $3 in goods. The paper said the change in policy will allow Wal-Mart to concentrate on...

(CBS4) METHUEN, MA-- Home repair giant Home Depot is getting hammered by the public over a dispute with a customer. The customer is a handyman from Lawrence. On Saturday, he was banished from all Home Depot stores, apparently over a pencil. Now, the store is releasing a statement to apologize for the incident. The used pencil wasn't even for sale. It was out at a register when Michael Panorelli borrowed it and put it in his pocket. Home Depot barred Panorelli from all its stores. It was a 41-cent carpenter's pencil, but the small piece of wood is causing one...

(CBS4) METHUEN-- A Lawrence man has been banned from all Home Depots for one year after accidentally walking out of the store with a sharpened pencil he used to write down some notes after buying over $100 worth of lumber. Michael Panorelli, 51, was with the owner of Salas Auto Repair, George Salas, when the incident occurred. The Eagle-Tribune is reporting that Panorelli and Salas were heading to the parking lot of the Methuen Home Depot when the store’s security guard stopped the two men. Apparently Panorelli put the pencil he used to take notes into his pocket and forgot...

Retail Gangs: A New Breed of Thieves By Margaret Webb Pressler,/Washington Post Staff Writer Sun Jul 31,2005 At CVS, the diabetic test strips and the perfume are now behind locked glass cabinets, with a bell to ring for service. Nearly all over-the-counter medicines are behind plexiglass panels that customers must reach over to get their Advil or Pepcid. And most razors and refills are in clunky, noise-making dispensers that won't let you put back what you take out. The new displays are part of a larger effort by chain stores to combat what has become a significant problem for the...

THE HOME DEPOT STORY Here's the email about the shoplifting arrest at Home Depot: Charlie, My local Home Depot store had arrested my son for shoplifting. They claim he stole a $9.90 skill saw blade. Let me give you a little more background. My son is 29 yrs old, he had just purchased my house for his family, and I told him to go to Home Depot and buy whatever he needed to make changes to the house and charge it to my Home Depot credit account. We figured two to five thousand dollars should be enough to get it...

On the day terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, a Texas state trooper pulled over a rental van driven by a Middle Eastern man toward Houston. Opening the cargo door, the officer found a huge load of ... baby formula. False alarm? Not really. Police later identified the driver as a member of a terrorist group and linked him to a nationwide theft ring that specialized in reselling stolen infant formula, says Sgt. Johnnie Jezierski of the Special Crimes Service of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Proceeds were wired to the Middle East. The driver is still under investigation....

SANTA CLARITA – Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who served as military police commander at Abu Ghraib, said she was never arrested or charged in an alleged shoplifting incident, and the Army only brought the allegation to demote her after the Iraq prison scandal broke, a newspaper reported in Friday's editions. Karpinski was demoted to colonel last week after the Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against her, including: dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated. Karpinski has repeatedly denied...

Women would not be jailed for shoplifting under crime plans unveiled by the Liberal Democrats today. The Lib Dems said putting women behind bars risked damaging families. They said women shoplifters should instead serve community sentences. Party leader Charles Kennedy said: “What is achieved by such a set of circumstances (jailing women shoplifters)? “You have a woman behind bars, separated in many cases from children. Wouldn’t it be better if that person was rehabilitated in the community, rather than being incarcerated?”

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Babies and criminals now have something in common, an affinity for formula.It's an expensive powder that is easily found on store shelves. Mothers feed their babies with it and criminals are making a killing off of it.FBI agent Mike Sutton told NBC 17 he's busted two infant formula theft rings in the Triangle in the past 18 months.In the most recent case, eight illegal immigrants pleaded guilty in federal court last month to stealing and reselling $2.5 million in baby formula."It is a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise," Sutton said.The suspects lived in apartments in Raleigh and Morrisville and...

New Mexico - Lynn Anderson, who won a Grammy for Rose Garden in 1970, was accused of shoplifting a Harry Potter DVD from a supermarket and then punching a police officer as she was being put into a patrol car. Anderson, 57, was arrested on Monday night at Smith's Food & Drug Centre, said police Chief Neil Curran said. She was taken to police headquarters, where she refused the option of a written citation, he said. A Taos County magistrate released Anderson on her own recognisance. An arraignment was scheduled for later this week. Telephone calls to a listing for...

WILMINGTON - Eight illegal immigrants from Honduras have pleaded guilty to federal charges related to a multistate scheme to steal and resell baby formula and over-the-counter drugs.Officials say the products are worth over $2.5 million.The defendants admitted in federal court in Wilmington Tuesday to conspiring and to aiding and abetting the transport of stolen baby formula across state lines. They will be sentenced April 25.Federal prosecutors say shoplifters targeted more than 50 retail outlets beginning in September 2003 and ending in August 2004. More than 121 pallets of baby formula were prepared for shipment out of state, often to Columbus,...

Penniless pornographer Al Goldstein has "screwed" up his life some more — after being caught shoplifting books from a Barnes & Nobles yesterday, police said. And they weren't even dirty books. Goldstein, 68, the ex-publisher of Screw Magazine, was stopped by security on his way out of the chain's Lincoln Center store at 1972 Broadway, with three books, a police source said. They were health books "including at least one on colitis," the source said. Goldstein was charged with petit larceny. His life has been spiraling downward the last couple of years. In March 2002, he was found guilty of...

Boosting For Billions July 11, 2004 Approximately $10 billion worth of merchandise is stolen from stores every year.  (Photo: CBS/60 Minutes) “When you talk about shoplifting, not a lot of people think about organized crime. Most people think when you say shoplifting, it's the opportunistic shoplifter"Craig Matsamato, security consultant for major retailers Retailers are just beginning to realize that a huge chunk of stolen merchandise is being taken by well-organized gangs from South America.  (Photo: CBS/60 Minutes) (CBS) "Boosting" is organized shoplifting, and if you think it's a petty crime, think again. As Correspondent Steve Kroft first reported in February, approximately...

Shoplifting Charge Dogs Iraq General Military Sources: Gen. Karpinski Caught Stealing Perfume In 2002 Jun 3, 2004 5:45 am US/Central NEW YORK (CBS) An American general caught up in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is now at the center of a new controversy involving allegations about her past, but she's calling it a smear campaign. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who claims she has been made a scapegoat for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is the subject of an investigation by the Army Inspector General involving an alleged shoplifting incident in October of 2002, one year before the abuses began, reports...

<p>PRINCETON BOROUGH - To the Princeton University Store, a surge in shoplifting arrests during the past few months is the result of a business move: a new, cutting-edge surveillance camera system.</p> <p>To the police, the dozen arrests they've made at the campus shop are the product of good investigative work by highly motivated security officers.</p>

'Boosting' arrives in Triad malls 3-23-04 By Russ Rizzo Staff Writer News & Record GREENSBORO -- A national epidemic known as "boosting" has reached the Triad, and investigators think they have just scratched the surface of its devastation for retailers. Boosting, or organized shoplifting, is blamed for a significant portion of the more than $10 billion in merchandise stolen from the nation's retail stores each year. It involves skilled and organized groups of thieves who work together to lift thousands of dollars in goods at a single take. That's what police believe is behind the $40,000 in stolen merchandise officers...

<p>High-profile shoplifting cases like Winona Ryder's Beverly Hills shopping spree last year and local cases of security guard assaults on suspected shoplifters give the impression that retail theft is an outside job.</p> <p>But a recent survey shows retailers lose more inventory from insiders -- employees -- than they do from shoplifters.</p>

Best-dressed honoree charged with shopliftingHighland Park woman was featured in 2002 'Vogue' profile of Dallas 07:04 AM CDT on Friday, September 26, 2003By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News A Highland Park woman named best dressed by Vogue magazine last year has been arrested on charges of shoplifting nearly $2,000 worth of merchandise from Neiman Marcus at NorthPark Center, police said. Brooke Stollenwerck Aldridge, 48, was arrested on the evening of Sept. 15 and released from the Dallas County jail just after midnight, jail records show. She could not be reached for comment Thursday. Ms. Aldridge, who was named...

<p>A civil-service board Wednesday upheld the firing of a former Alexandria police officer who shot at a suspected shoplifter and two children at the Alexandria Mall.</p> <p>The officer's attorney, Michael Brewer, intends to appeal the decision to the 9th Judicial District Court.</p>

Stores brace for increase in shoplifting By Jessica Lowell Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Not everything that leaves stores in Cheyenne this holiday season will be paid for. Just as store managers see more shoppers at this time of year, they also see more shoplifters. “People think they are less likely to get caught,” JCPenney store manager Wally St. Clair said, partly due to the crowds that flock to stores for holiday shopping at the end of the year. “If you are going to get up to 30 percent of your yearly business in the fourth quarter, you...

“The Director Made Me Do It”: The “Winona” Defense By Henry Mark Holzer FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2002 Criminal defense lawyers are constantly trying to find new ways to acquit their clients. Remember the "twinkies" defense, when a criminal defendant claimed he killed because the confection’s ingredients affected his mind? In the just-concluded Winona Ryder trial, her lawyer propounded yet another spurious defense. The jury didn’t buy it. Ryder was charged with three crimes: burglary, vandalism, and felony grand theft (the latter sometimes euphemistically called "shoplifting"), for helping herself to over five- thousand dollars’ worth of designer-expensive clothes and accessories...