Shoplifter steals pack of meat, runs, and forgets his son.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2008-03-21 11:37pm

Reuters Oddly News wrote:Fleeing shoplifter forgets son
Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:43pm EDT

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A shoplifter looking to make a quick getaway from a Dutch supermarket after stealing a packet of meat left police a crucial piece of evidence -- his 12-year-old son.

In his haste the 45-year-old thief made a solo dash to his car, batting away a supermarket worker who had flung himself on the vehicles' bonnet in a bid to stop the escape.

Police in the southern Dutch town of Kerkrade said they managed to contact the thief via the boy, but he had refused to return and collect his son. The man told officers to get hold of the youngster's mother instead.

The thief later turned himself in Thursday, a police spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Dumbass.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-03-22 12:03am

Only one stupider than the father is the guy that jumped on his car to stop him from stealing some meat. Possibly the mother for marrying him, too.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2008-03-22 12:10am

Wow, lucky kid. Daddy first ditches him in an attempt to steal some meat, and then says he can't be bothered to pick the kid up. I'm sure that won't at have any negative psychological impact on the kid at all.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-03-22 01:04am

Oni Koneko Damien wrote:Wow, lucky kid. Daddy first ditches him in an attempt to steal some meat, and then says he can't be bothered to pick the kid up. I'm sure that won't at have any negative psychological impact on the kid at all.

He's been raised for 12 years by this callous, raving imbecile. I think that any further negative psychological impact is pretty much irrelevant by now.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2008-03-22 05:18am

In my city we get alot of females using their infants stroller to conceal items that they are stealing. Alot of the women bring their kids with them to steal so that if they get caught the officer may pity them and not take her to jail and just write a ticket.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2008-03-22 07:40am

Death from the Sea wrote:In my city we get alot of females using their infants stroller to conceal items that they are stealing. Alot of the women bring their kids with them to steal so that if they get caught the officer may pity them and not take her to jail and just write a ticket.

Here there's a better reason than that, the fact is that laws designed to protect the identity of children mean that the press cant print the names of those involved.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2008-03-22 07:51am

Here's a fun fact - my store caught shoplifters with a total of £56000 of stolen merchandise on them over the last financial year. That's over $100000. It's less than 1% of turnover, but it is still a hideous amount and directly effects our payroll. And yes, a lot of people try and conceal goods in their prams, and expensive meat is one of their favourite things to take. Using children as a decoy is not unusual.

The saddest thing I have seen at work was when a father and son were involved in the theft of a TV. They both came in the store to stake it out. Then the father started the car and sent his son in - who picked up a 19" TV and ran out of the store with it into his father's car. Sickening. We didn't catch them, but we got the faces/car registration details on one of our 170 CCTV cameras.

cosmicalstorm · Post by **cosmicalstorm** » 2008-03-22 08:03am

Im a uni student right now, a lot of students shoplift frequently, the most common way of doing it in my hometown is to have a hole sliced in the back of the backpack, with a little practice you can stuff something in there in the blink of an eye. They rarely check the custormers bags in the register so the odds of getting caught are very low, one of my pals claims to have "saved" seven thousand dollars over the past year alone by doing this. And that makes sense because the only punishment when getting caught here in Sweden is usually fines in the $100-$300 range.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2008-03-22 08:56am

I know in a lot of state that would be grounds for the child wellfare to step in.
But having worked by way through college at a local gas station I've had my share of shoplifters and runners, especially teens trying to grab the beer and run. I remember one time 5 kids had come in and two had tried to take the beer while the others were at the counter pretending they weren't with them. And of course when I accused them a fight ensued. But at that point I was 270lbs and was taking dual martial arts. So needless to say someone got hurt and it wasn't me.

But our store lost an average of 50k a year to shoplifters and since our chain had 16 stores in that town it adds up..
Sucks that I can't do martial arts anymore cause of my back

.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2008-03-22 09:33am

Ubiquitous wrote:Here's a fun fact - my store caught shoplifters with a total of £56000 of stolen merchandise on them over the last financial year. That's over $100000. It's less than 1% of turnover, but it is still a hideous amount and directly effects our payroll. And yes, a lot of people try and conceal goods in their prams, and expensive meat is one of their favourite things to take. Using children as a decoy is not unusual.

My uncle-in-law spent some time on shoplifting duty when he was in the police and it was absolutely soul-destroying. He'd spent virtually the whole day at first supermarket that called him out arresting the same damn scroats day in, day out with never a proper punishment to dissuade them in sight. It was one of the things that drove him out of the force: he just couldn't take the sheer pointlessness of it anymore.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-03-22 10:32am

It's sad that shoplifting and vandalism are taken so lightly by the criminal justice system. They're classic examples of "gateway crimes"; if someone has gotten away with countless incidents of shoplifting and vandalism, he will develop a strong contempt of the law which could easily lead to him committing more serious crimes down the road.

But instead, we have countless police involved in the War on Drugs and the war on prostitution.

Raesene · Post by **Raesene** » 2008-03-22 03:53pm

cosmicalstorm wrote:Im a uni student right now, a lot of students shoplift frequently, the most common way of doing it in my hometown is to have a hole sliced in the back of the backpack, with a little practice you can stuff something in there in the blink of an eye. They rarely check the custormers bags in the register so the odds of getting caught are very low, one of my pals claims to have "saved" seven thousand dollars over the past year alone by doing this. And that makes sense because the only punishment when getting caught here in Sweden is usually fines in the $100-$300 range.

A pity that many of the future elite of a nation are criminals

Without the preparations, many shops only have you pay a fine; with them, you'd face a judge for sure. Preparations for shoplifting (double bottoms/backs, metal lining to try to prevent theft-prevention systems from giving noise etc) would result in a harsher penalty (a severe fine on probation) in Austria, as it is considered as planned and usual. If convicted, you'd also get an entry in your criminal record, which can harm your job prospects if a character is required.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-03-22 08:08pm

Raesene wrote:A pity that many of the future elite of a nation are criminals

Pre-empetive "The current elites of our nations are criminals".

No, what's really turning off companies off from prosecuting shoplifting is the potential for litigation. Wal-Mart, for instance, has a policy of not physically interfering with shoplifters - it could potentially cost more to physically stop them, and then end up paying out in a lawsuit, than it would to simply eat the cost of being stolen from.

Now, maybe if there were better laws to protect stores from theft, maybe shoplifting wouldn't be such a big problem, because then stores would do something about it, and then police could do something about it, and then the courts could do something about it to nip these potential career criminals in the bud.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2008-03-22 10:15pm

Sounds like something my father would do.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2008-03-23 01:29pm

Keevan_Colton wrote:
Death from the Sea wrote:In my city we get alot of females using their infants stroller to conceal items that they are stealing. Alot of the women bring their kids with them to steal so that if they get caught the officer may pity them and not take her to jail and just write a ticket.
Here there's a better reason than that, the fact is that laws designed to protect the identity of children mean that the press cant print the names of those involved.

You mean they print the names of the adult if they have a juvenile with them? or that they just can't print the juveniles name? the latter applies here.