Watch this brazen Walgreens shoplifter fill a garbage bag with stolen stuff and ride a bike out the door

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Originally published at: Watch this brazen Walgreens shoplifter fill a garbage bag with stolen stuff and ride a bike out the door | Boing Boing

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You can’t steal from a store that is complicit in the USA pharmaceutical pricing scheme. Theft vs. Repurposing lol

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Yeah, I feel much worse for the guy desperate enough to do this than the corporate giant

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o_0 I don’t think retailers have any say over what drug companies price their product at.

Anyway, I don’t find brazen theft cool, but at least it is against a company vs people. Though if it happens enough they will just pull up shop and then you have take a bus somewhere to get your heart meds or what ever.

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Interesting. If I can peg someone or some company with some sort of injustice, real or imagined, It is ok for me to steal from them. This opens up so many opportunities.

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There are a couple of bits of info one needs to note (I live in SF).

  • The security guards are NOT allowed to “manhandle” shoplifters in San Francisco. Too much liability if the thief got injured and all. In fact, there are many reports that merely approaching the “suspected shoplifter” may constitute “discrimination” and that’s a firable offense.

  • Even with a whole bagful, it’s still petit larceny.

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That first point is the case in a lot of places.

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I don’t condone this, but I understand it.

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Despite this, US wage theft still dwarfs larceny in dollar value, and is not a criminal act.

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How do you feel for the people who need a local, well stocked store not having one any more?

Walgreens has shut down 17 San Francisco stores because of out of control shoplifting.

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Sometimes the news coverage makes the issue worse. There were several brazen shoplifting thefts from government liquor stores in my province. After the media covered the issue and said that it was super easy to just walk in and walk out with armfuls of booze, then the number of thefts tripled. Basically all the low level idiots saw this as a free pass to steal. After some violent incidents the stores installed controlled entrances where there are locked doors and you have to show your ID to be buzzed in, which dramatically reduced theft.

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The guard’s halfhearted attempt to yoink the bag as the thief dontgiveafuckingly slipped past them was a nice touch.

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…and the Walgreens in Hayes Valley has about every product now behind security glass or behind the counter - so the store is almost unusable. For people that order a lot on Amazon like me, less of an issue - but for people that rely on retailers that tend to be poorer it’s a problem.

Hard to believe people are defending stealing regardless of whether it’s from an individual or a big company. Where’s the line? Can I just steal from anyone richer than me, or is there a rubric you can use to let me know who I can steal from and what I can steal? Any company? Does it have to be publicly traded?

Is that the kind of society you want to live in? Not me.

(Edit: typo)

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This is the thing. I’ve always been stunned by interpretations of law that make it difficult to defend your own stuff. As your anecdote points out, the breakdown of this social norm (“don’t steal”) leads to society as a whole not being able to have nice things. And honestly, not everyone doing this kind of thing is doing it because they need it, they’re doing it because they can. I’ve known too many middle/upper class kids that indulged in petty theft just because. It’s bigger than just any narrative about Walgreens; we can address need without normalizing allowing theft.

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I think that is fairly common - all sorts of things from suicide to certain types of crimes are influenced socially.

And while the surge in Bay Area shoplifting may be largely organized crime rings, public reports of the easy success of brazen theft are likely to encourage individuals to do it as well.

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I got so fed up trying to buy razor cartridges at local grocery stores (“ring buzzer for assistance”; ring buzzer, keep ringing it, wait 10 minutes, leave in frustration) that I feel like I have no choice but to order it online. So much for supporting local retail.

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I doubt this is desperation. It’s well known that much of the shoplifting in San Francisco, especially of places like Walgreen’s and CVS, is committed under the auspices of organized shoplifting rings. Stealing bread to feed the family this is not.

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The Purge: Walgreens Edition

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I wouldn’t claim that this is the only factor at play, but I’m guessing that such theft is much less likely when the store is a locally-owned independent shop where the clientele knows the owners. The anonymity of a large corporate chain store is going to make it more susceptible to brazen shoplifting.

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My wife works for a large retail store in CA, and they are not allowed to call 911 unless actual threat of violence.

What you’re seeing there in that video might be a headline to you, but it’s a Tuesday for my wife.

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