To Catch Some Thieves

Stealers are gonna steal! I was reminded in the comments about those Orb K (alleged) thieves, of previous incidents with not-so-honest customers. 

The most simple were the after-school crowd when I worked at a Casey's. I had to keep an eye on the circular mirrors mounted at the back corners of the store. Those young'uns were a pain in the rumpus, trying to take candy while the store was crowded. Lucky for me, they noticed me watching, being paranoid young thieves constantly looking over their shoulders.

More sophisticated were the would-be thieves when I worked at an insurance salvage store in Springfield, Missouri. We got truckloads and freight cars of merchandise from stores who turned in losses such as fires or floods or who-knows-what. Some of our merchandise was really nice. Like returns from JC Penney. Nothing wrong with it. Just returned for unknown (to us) reasons. I got a really nice comforter from that merchandise.

Anyhoo... we wrote our prices on such merchandise with a Magic Marker. That's because customers liked to switch price tags. This put the kibosh on that option. Still, they would bring items to the register, with the premise: "I really want THIS lamp, but it's marked $10. The other one just like it is only $5. So I think I should get my lamp for $5."

Well. We had to explain that the $5 lamp was not working, but the $10 lamp would light up when you turned it on. Some customers did not like this reveal, and left both lamps and walked out. No big deal. We just put them in a cart, and back on the shelves.

Other customers were a bit more devious. Like the guy who put about 10 packs of jockey shorts in his zipped-up coat. The young cashier, son of the floor manager, asked the guy to unzip his coat, since he had come in with it unzipped, and now it looked full of something. The guy actually DID unzip, and those underwear packages fell out. He left without paying for the one pack he had brought to the counter.

The boot customers were more determined. About a third of our store was devoted to cowboy boots. We had men's, women's, and kids' sizes, from basic $19.99 boots to the more exotic ostrich, elephant, and alligator. This was in the days before the exotic skins were an issue. Some boots were quite pricy. We had a department manager just for the boots. 

We also had a security guard, in uniform, standing at the front door. He was mainly checking for a ticket for the carpet and wallpaper department in the basement, but was watching for any kind of theft. The highlight of his days was when foreign gals came in to look at the prom dresses. Forget the dressing rooms! They stripped down right there in the aisle to try on formals! Not caring about the cameras that broadcast their section of the store.

Anyhoo... one day a guy walked out with a pair of new boots on his feet. That's the first thing Dennis, the security guard, looked at when customers entered: the shoes on their feet. This guy went out, and Dennis followed. He said, "Hey, Bud. You didn't come in wearing those boots." The guy took off running through the parking lot. Dennis gave chase. A long chase. Out onto Glenstone Avenue, and then up on a railroad overpass. Finally, the guy gave up.

"I give up! Just take the boots! Do what you have to do. I'm tired of running!"

Dennis DID take the boots from him. With the comment, "Buddy! All this for $19.99? You could have at least stolen a GOOD pair of boots!"

Tomorrow: employee theft, and the dentist embezzler.