SHOPLIFTING

Harmless thrill or serious crimes?

Picture the following scenario. The front door of a department store opens, and trough it enters two teenage girls dressed in style. They walk down an aisle to the cosmetics section. A uniformed security guard follows but stops when he is about 30 feet from them, assuming a stance with his back. He watches the girls as they casually finger the lipsticks and mascara.

They glance at the guard, who keeping his eyes on them. Emotion wells up inside them. One of the girls moves to the nail polish and picks up a couple bottles. Her nose wrinkles as she pretends to evaluate two similar shades of red. She sets one bottle down and picks up another of a slightly darker hue.

The security guard lowers his gaze and turns to look in the opposite direction. As if on cue, the girls slip lipsticks and bottles of nail polish into their handbags. Their faces looks calm, but their emotions are now boiling. They sty in the aisle for a few more minutes, one gazing at emery boards, while eyebrow pencils occupy the other’s attention.

The two look at each other, exchange nods, and begin walking to the front of the store. The security guard steps aside, and they smile at him as they pass. Moving to the cell-phone accessories directly opposite the cashier, they look at the display, whispered comment about the leather cell-phone cases pass between them. Then they start toward the exit.

With each steps, the fire inside them heats up and increases the pressure of fright and thrill. As the girls cross the threshold, they feel like screaming but their lips remain closed. Once outside, an emotional rush paints their faces redder than any makeup could. The storm inside them dies down, and they sigh deeply with relief. The girls briskly stride off, but they stop giggling. One thought fills their minds: ‘We got away with it!’.

The two girls are just imaginary, but the scenario we have described is only too real. Shoplifting occur an estimated one million times each day in the united states alone, but it is a global problem. As we shall see, it causes tremendous harm. Most shoplifters, however, pay little heed to the devastation they cause. Even many who are able to pay prefer to steal. Why?

WHY DO PEOPLE SHOPLIFT?

If there is any truth to the legends, Robin Hood felt a liberty to steal. English folklore tells us that he robed from the rich and gave to the poor. The clergyman quoted above also believes that poverty is a valid motive for stealing. He says f shoplifters: “I have every sympathy for them, in fact I think fully justified.” He suggests that large stores should open their doors to the poor one day each year and allow them to take whatever is on the shelves without paying.

Many shoplifters, however, are driven are driven by motives than poverty. In Japan the police arrested two of their fellow officers for shoplifting. In the United States, a board member of a nonprofit food cooperative was caught stealing from the cooperative’s store. Teenagers with money in their pockets frequently steal things they don’t need. What drives such people to shoplift?

‘It feels good’

Thrills. Fright. Power. Like the two girls in the preceding article, some who shoplift get a big dose of these sensations, and the desire to drink from that emotional torrent keeps them stealing again and again. After stealing for the first time, one woman said: “I feel excited. I’d gotten away with it and it was thrilling!” about her feelings after stealing for some time, she later commented: “I was ashamed of myself-but also exhilarated. I felt really alive. Stealing and not getting caught gave me a tremendous sense of power.”

A young man named Hector says that for months after he stopped shoplifting, he felt the urge to steal again.* “It followed me around like an addiction. I would be in a mall and see a radio in a store window and think, “It would be easy to take that thing. I could do it and never get caught.”

Some who shoplift for the emotional do not want the items they steal. One Indian newspaper states: “ Psychologist say the thrill of doing the forbidden is what drives these people.”

… Some even replace the stolen goods.”

Other Reasons

Depressions affects tens of millions of people. At bad times, afflicted ones act out their depression through bad behavior-such as shoplifting.

The family of a 14-year old girl was stable and well-off materially. Despite her advantages, a hopeless feeling hung over the teenager “like a cloud.” “I couldn’t get away from it,” she said. She began using alcohol and drugs. Then one day she was caught shoplifting. Two at-temps at suicide follows.

If a well-behaved youth suddenly begins shoplifting, parents might take emotional trouble into account. Dr. Richard MacKinzie, who specializes in adolescent health, said: “I believe that any kind of behavior that is unusual for your child should be thought of a possible depression until proven otherwise.”

Some young people shoplift because of peer pressure-such theft maybe the price of admission into a group of friends. Others may shoplift to dispel boredom. Professional shoplifters make their living by theft. Whatever the reason, thieves take millions of dollars in goods stores every day. Someone has to pay the bill.

SHOPLIFTING

Who pays?

In Japan a store owner caught a young boy stealing and called the police. When the officers arrived, the young boy took off running. The police gave chase. As the boy was crossing a railroad track, he was struck by a train and killed.

Because of the publicity that ensued, some condemned the store owner for calling the police. He closed his business until the furor died. After he reopened, shoplifter evaded again. However, memories of his recent ordeal made him fearful of confronting the thieves. His store became known as an easy target. Before long, he had to close his store for good.

Granted, that case was more tragic than most, but it serves to illustrate an important truth. Shoplifting is very costly-in many ways in to many people. Let us take a closer look at the high price of this crime.

How the stores pay

Shoplifting costs the world’s merchants many billions of dollars every year. Some people estimate that the losses in the United States alone exceed $40 billion. How many businesses can afford to lose their share of such sum? Many stores are overwhelmed. When thieves invade the aisle of a store, the work of a lifetime maybe endangered.

“Together with competition, shoplifting is one more thing to worry about. I don’t know how much longer we can stay in business,” says Luke, a store owner in New York City. He cannot afford an electronic security system. Regarding the thieves, he says: “Anybody could be doing it, even my good customers.”

Some believe that Luke’s problem is not serious. “These stores make a lot of money,” they say, “so, what I take makes no difference.” But are retail profits truly so great?

Stores in some places add 30, 40, or 50 percent to the price they pay for an item, but that percentage is not clear profit. The merchant uses the additional revenue to pay the operating cost, such as rent, taxes, employee salaries and benefits, building maintenance, equipment repairs, insurance, electricity, water, heating fuel, telephone and security systems. After expenses, his profit maybe 2 or 3 percent. So when someone steals from a store, part of the merchant’s livelihood goes out the door.

What About Petty Theft?

While in a store with his mother, a small boy goes by himself to where the sweets are located. There he opens a package and slides a candy bar into his pocket. Does such small value shoplifting affect the store?

In its brochure Curtailing Crime-Inside and Out, the U.S. Small Administration say this: “Petty thievery may not seem like a major crime to the casual crook who pockets a ballpoint here, a pocket calculator there. But to the small business fighting for survival, its murder.” Because profit margins are so small, in order to recoup an annual shoplifting loss of $1,000, a retailer must sell an additional 900 candy bars or 380 cans of soup every day. So the harm to a business is great if many little boys are stealing candy bars. Therein lies the problem.

Tens of millions of people, young and old, rich and poor, from all races and backgrounds, are stealing from markets and stores. With what result? The U.S. National Crime Prevention Council reports that almost third of all businesses in the United states are forced to close because of stealing. There is no doubt that business in other countries are under the same threat.

The Customer Pays

Prices go up when people steals from stores. Hence, in some areas consumers pay $300 a year in higher prices because of shoplifting. This means that if you earn $60 a day, you work the equivalent of one week’s income in this way can be crushing. The cost do not end there.

An entire neighborhood may suffer when the shop on the corner closes. Shoplifting is reportedly what recently caused a drugstore in a close-knit American community to close its doors. To get their medications, many elderly and infirm residents now have to travel a mile and a half to another pharmacy. “Try that in a wheelchair,” one official said.

The High Price Parents Pay

Bruce is a man of high moral standards who teaches his children to be honest. One day his daughter was caught stealing. “I was devastated,” he says. “Imagine getting a phone call telling you that your daughter has been caught shoplifting. We spent years raising our daughter to be a good person, and now this. We never thought that she would rebel in this way.”

Bruce was consumed with worries about his daughter and her future. Further, he resigned his position as volunteer religious teacher. “How could I, with a good conscience, instruct them about raising their children? I did not feel right.” His daughter seems to have thought little of how her crime would affect him.

How the Shoplifters Pay

When some managers caught shoplifters in times past, they often issued a stern warning and let the theft go. Today proprietors frequently have even first-time offenders arrested. The thieves then realize that their crime has serious consequences. A young woman named Natalie found this out for herself.

“The more I stole, the more confident I became,” Natalie said. “I figured even if I got caught, the lawyer and court fees would still cost less than if I had paid for all the killer clothes.” Natalie was wrong.

She was caught stealing a dress, and the police took her away in handcuffs. At the police station, she fingerprinted and locked in a cell together with other criminals. There she spent hours waiting while her parents arranged to bail her out.

Natalie says this to anyone thinking of stealing. “Just buy the stupid dress or jeans.” If you choose to steal, you’ll regret for a long time.”

A criminal record is cause for regret. To their chagrin, convicted shoplifters may find that their offense does not pass into oblivion but shows up to haunt them again and again, like a stain on a dress or a shirt. A shoplifter may have to declare his crime when seeking admittance to a university. He may have difficulties entering a profession, such as medicine, dentistry, or architecture. Companies may think twice about giving him a job. And these problems can arise even though he has paid the penalty imposed by the court and never steals again.

Shoplifting can costly even the offender is not convicted. Hector, mentioned earlier in this series, discovered that. “I always got away with it,” he says. “I was never caught stealing.” But he had a bill to pay. He says reflection: “I think that young people should understand one thing: You reap what you sow. Even if the police never catch you, you will pay.”

Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, and the things that shoplifters are not without a price. Anyone who actively shoplifts does well to leave that practice completely. But how can a shoplifter find the strength to stop stealing for good? Will this crime ever be eradicated?

PUTTING AN END TO SHOPLIFTING

Shoplifting, like other bad practices, tends to influence a person’s thinking, causing him to justify himself. So, just as a gardener pulls out weeds by their roots, those who want to stop shoplifting need to root out bad thinking. ‘Make your mind over,’ admonishes the Bible at Romans 12:2. And at 1 Peter 1:14, it exhorts: “Quit being fashioned according to the desires you formerly had.” The following five points may help a shoplifter changes his mind about stealing.

Aids to correct thinking

First, shoplifting is against the law. Stealing maybe common where he lives, and he may get away with it; but the shoplifter is still breaking the law. -Roman 13:1.

What happens when many break the law? According to the bible, “law grows numb.” (Habakkuk 1:3,4) In other words, the beneficial restraint of the law diminishes, resulting in breakdown in civil order. Every time someone shoplifts, he awakens the foundation of law-abiding society. When that happens, every one suffers.

Second, shoplifting destroys trust. Such dishonesty erodes human relationship, making it hard for people to understand and deal fairly with one another. -Proverbs 16:28.

“My biggest sin of all is too trusting.” Thus spoke a clothing store owner after thieves forced her into bankruptcy. She once trusted her customers and employees not to steal from her. Now she feels her confidence was misplaced.

One person may lie to one another and cheapen his own standing with that one. But shoplifters throw a pall of suspicion over all who enter a store after them. They cast honest people in the role of potential thieves. Does anyone have the right to do that?

Third, the practice of shoplifting can lead to more serious crimes. In time, shoplifters may find themselves taking ever-greater risks. -2Timothy 3:13.

The Final End of Shoplifting

Fourth, and most important, one who shoplifts is at odd with Almighty God. His Word tells the thief to “steal no more,” and it warns of judgment against those who defy Him. (Ephesians 4:28, Psalm 37:9, 17, 20) But Jehovah forgives thieves who change. They can find peace with God. -Proverbs 1:33.

Fifth, shoplifting, like all other crimes, will soon be a thing of the past. When God’s Kingdom takes full control of the earth as promised in the Bible, humans will treat one another with integrity and honesty. This means relief from the high price of shoplifting. -Proverbs 2:21, 22; Micah 4:44.