Thieves, Thieves Everywhere

So many thieves lately, so little time....If you've wondered where I've been, I've been busy trying to catch all these fucking assholes stealing from our store.

We used to have these signs all over our store that said things like "Smile, you're on camera!" or "If you steal you will be prosecuted", things like that. Over the years, as the signs would rip or become worn, we would just take them down and not replace them. Lately, we've had so much theft in the store it's unbelievable. It's pretty much everyday we would find an empty package of something, or a beer bottle taken out of a six pack. I never thought those signs did anything, but apparently they do.

Last week we had some asshole come in, he was in his 20s and went straight over to our energy drinks. Our stocker thought he saw him stick a drink in his pocket, so he went and told the cashier who then kept an eye on him. She watched him while he walked around the store. Eventually he came up to the register to buy a small ice cream sandwich. She asked him to empty his pockets, he did and had nothing on him. She ended up getting his license plate anyway.

When I came in the next morning, they had left me a note telling me about what happened and to see if I could look it up on camera. I did, and saw this guy shove a Monster energy drink down one of his many pants pockets. He then went over to our one blind spot in the store and started cramming packages of Oreos and Nutter Butters in his other pockets. He must have known he was being watched because he went up to buy the ice cream to probably distract them. When he went to go pay for his ice cream, he said he left his money in the car and went to go get it. That's probably when he unloaded all the goodies from his pants, so by the time he came back in and the cashier told him to empty his pockets, they really were empty.

But like I said, the cashier got his license plate anyways so I made the call to the police that next morning. We have some really good police officers in the city, but some of them just suck. They are lazy and obviously don't like filling out reports, and whenever I call about something, we always seem to get those types in. I even get interrogated by the dispatchers like I've done something wrong.

So when the cop came in to watch our video tape, he called in the license plate and was told the car was registered to a woman in a city about a half hour away. He then basically said he probably couldn't do anything about it and that MAYBE he could ask his boss if he could drive to that city and go knock on their door. I asked him to give me the address himself and he said no.

So, if you can't do the work and I offer to do it and you say no, then this thief gets away with it? How is that fair? Is it because he only stole about $8 worth of stuff?

Sadly this happens to us a lot. Many of the thieves never get punished because law enforcement just doesn't do anything sometimes. It pisses me off. This is why so many people steal.

Maybe I should start handing cartons of cigarettes to the thieves so that brings the total of the stolen merchandise up a little more? Would anyone care then?

About a week ago we plastered the store with those "Smile, you're on camera" signs again. Strangely we haven't noticed anyone stealing.