I saw a shoplifter today.

reply to post by Shoomoo


When I was 6 yrs old I went into the store beside my grandparents house and stole a snickers candy bar, and before I walked out the door the lady in the store grabbed my by my pant's and jerked me backwards, screaming at me about stealing and pulled the candy bar out of my pants, and told me to get out and do not come back without my parents. She called my grandmother and told her, in turn my parents found out. My parents didn't need to say anything to me though, I had learned my lesson, the lady in the store scared me so bad, I never tried it again. That memory has stayed with me all my life, once while working in a convience store I caught a little boy stealing, and did quite a bit of yelling, told him I had called the police and made him give me his mother's numer. His mom showed up and spanked his booty. I bet he never stole again either.

It is good this boy was caught now, ya know nip it in the bud and all that.

It sounds like this kid was on his way to becoming a politician.

thats something you see all the time in manchester

Originally posted by v3_exceed
So, from what I gather here, it's ok for say...me to accuse your wife of shoplifting because she maybe takes something from one shelf and puts it on another? Since that is the level of proof we are dealing with here.

How are you sure thats the level of proof when you admit that you saw or knew NOTHING until they told the boy to go to the register? Do you know for sure the kid didn't try to pants/pocket the item and then because he thought he was seen, decided to not do it and quick stick it on the shelf, but by then it was to late?

But I can scream at her and berate her until she admits in a fit of tears that she was going to steal, since that's the only choice I would have given her and your "OK" with that? No harm done?...

I won't comment on this because you just went from a kid to an adult and they should be treated differently, so your comparison makes no sense. If this was my KID on the other hand, I sure as hell WOULDN'T mind if he got an a@@ chewing for trying to steal something. I agree 100% hitting the boy is definitly out of the question, but no way your going to see me upset about him getting yelled at for his attempt to take something thats not his.

If this would ever happen in the described fashion to my kid, my litigation lawyer would have their @sses in seconds. As you stated, no crime was committed by the kid, but the adults assaulted the kid verbally. Which is a crime. But like you said, your OK with it.

And this is why the youth of todays society are so F'd up and the world as we know it has gone to s---! Glad to hear you'll teach your son some personal responsibility....instead lets teach him daddy will bail him out of anything and then try and get money out of the potential victim.....way to add to the downfall

Of course they did the right thing!

I'm sick of todays political correctness going mad and people pussy footing around the problems in todays society.

What next? Maybe the childs mum & dad can sue for the kids "hurt feelings"?

If they had beat the hell out of the child then yes of course they would be in the wrong and I would want them to be charged with assaulting a minor.

But at the end of the day the kid needs to learn right from wrong and if thats achieved through tough love then good I say.

I really don't understand where all this "lets talk to the children and listen to their problems" crap has come from.

I was shouted at for stealing or attempting to steal as a child even if it was something as small as a penny sweet. I probably ended up crying aswell but you know what I haven't stole anything else in my life because I've learnt right from wrong.

lol, i was listening to this when i came across this thread;



you see, stealing is bad, and im not supporting him at all. but the shopkeepers sound very boorish, they could have handled it better.

Not sure what country this took place in, but didn't a priest recently say that it was okay to shoplift? Maybe he was in the congregation and didn't hear the "full" sermon.

English Priest: Shoplifting OK at Times

[edit on 3/20/2010 by sodakota]

reply to post by Shoomoo


You should have cuddled the little guy and bought him a copy of Abbie Hoffman's Steal this Book.

SUPERMARKETS

Talking about food in Amerika means talking about supermarkets-mammoth neon lighted streets of food packaged to hoodwink the consumers. Many a Yippie can be found in the aisles, stuffing his pockets with assorted delicacies. We have been shoplifting from supermarkets on a regular basis without raising the slightest suspicion, ever since they began.

We are not alone, and the fact that so much stealing goes on and the supermarkets still bring in huge profits shows exactly how much overcharging has occurred in the first place. Supermarkets, like other businesses, refer to shoplifting as "inventory shrinkage." It's as if we thieves were helping Big Business reduce weight. So let's view our efforts as methods designed to trim the economy and push forward with a positive attitude.

Originally posted by john124
The little bastard hopefully learnt his lesson not to steal from anyone.

Let him cry, the little sh*t deserved worse.

Although don't be surprised if the shop worker gets arrested for assault.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by john124]

What the hell, why not stick needles in his eyes and shave his head. Kids gotta learn only violence instructs.

Originally posted by habfan1968
reply to post by murphyhurtme

 

But by intervening on the child's behalf would you not be adding to the problem the child already has? You just justified to the child that he can get away with stealing from someone and not only would he get away with it, some nice man would come to his aide and help him get away with it.

nah, the kid deserves to be punished. what he did was wrong. but you don't have to resort to violence to teach children. and you don't have to get in their face and scream and cause them psychological damage. no i'm not saying punishing kids is wrong, but there are certain lines that should never be crossed.

Originally posted by Kailassa

Originally posted by murphyhurtme

if i saw a store owner corner a ten year old kid and scream at them, i would do something. and if i saw someone actually hit a child like you suggest, it would go even worse. you never put your hands on a chilld, and i'm not talking about a spanking i'm talking about hitting a child like they were a man. if i ever saw that even if it's their child they are gonna have more to deal with than a scared kid. believe that.

A spanking's worth a thousand words, as they say.

An 8 year old kid used to ride around East Malvern throwing rocks through windows and breaking letter boxes off.
I waited when she was due, (this was her regular after-school activity,) and when she broke off my newly mended letter-box I chased her, dragged her off her bike, put her over my knee and spanked her thoroughly.

The neighbours came out and cheered.

The no-good parents threatened me and took me to court, but did themselves no good by turning up drunk. I represented myself, (I don't trust lawyers, the one the court wanted to provide told me to lie and say I had not spanked the brat,) and the judge agreed I was acting lawfully in loco parentis, (in the place of a parent) and the girl's parents had to pay court costs.

It was too funny. This was the only way they could have been punished for being dreadful parents, and they brought it on themselves.

Kids need to be taught early to respect other people and their property.

yeah well you are lucky that wasn't my kid. if someone puts their hand on my child i am going to jail, because i would protect my family at any cost to myself or anyone else without question even a second thought

[edit on 3/20/2010 by murphyhurtme]

reply to post by murphyhurtme


Not a very intelligent response in my opinion.

Whilst I do not advocated spanking someone elses child I would definately have approached the kid and scared the hell out of her.

How would you react if an 8 years was throwing bricks at your windows?

Talk to her and explain her actions were wrong? Please...

Originally posted by v3_exceed
reply to post by Shoomoo

 

IDIOTS.

After that word, nothing you had to say about this incident was going to have credibility, so the rest was ignored.

Originally posted by EMPIRE
Did he get past the register or leave the store with the goods? If not he didn't shop lift.

Not necessarily. Some courts have held that merely concealing an item, with the intent to commit the theft, is sufficient evidence of theft. Regardless, no charges were filed in this incident, so no "proof" of theft is required.

Addressing the OP

The only thing I believe the store operator should have done, differently, is to have called the parents to the store. Even if they are parents who don't care, they should know about it. Also, if they had to leave work or their television, maybe they would be inconvenienced enough to take some action. In my opinion, to the store operator Maybe the kid learned two lessons, from this; 1) Don't steal. 2) What the store operator did was a good thing.

The whole point of the shopkeeps is that they could have done a different method confronting the kid. Not just break their vocal cords at a young kid for something that is not actually considered a shoplift.

I say not considered a shoplift, because he actually did not leave the store or even go near the register. I heard the "go to the register" request actually in the back, where he put the mint at.

reply to post by Death_Kron


i would call the cops, if the kid is throwing bricks at people's houses that suggests to me that there may be psychological problems, or problems at home. what it doesn't suggest to me is that i should fist fight a nine year old girl.

What the employees did was just help that kid out. He took the candy, they probably have it on surviellence. He got caught. Now here is the question what is the kinder action, calling the cops or embarassing him infront of everyone and then letting him go to his parents and then having to never come back in the store again with a harsh lesson and knowing that if he does go back in they are going to watch him like a hawk? If they had called the police, then it would mean that they would have to give the police the security tapes, show up in court, and the kid probably would end up starting to do more bolder things that are not legal. Yes it is just a box of mints, but the cost is alot more than you can imagine, as that is profit that affects the bottom line of the store and everyone who shops there. The store will eat that loss, and then have to raise the prices to cover the cost. 1 box of mints, to cover the cost of such, they would have to sell 4 to 10 boxes to cover that loss. What they did was correct.

[edit on 3/20/2010 by murphyhurtme]

I bet this kid will look back on this years from now and be grateful that someone cared enough to scare to stuffing out of him for trying to take what didn't belong to him.

I have some memories of pivotal times in my life that I'm thankful for. They have helped shape who I am today. Some of them involved getting caught and fear.

reply to post by murphyhurtme


They didn't commit violence against the kid, they caught him trying to steal something and rubbed his nose in it.

These days it takes balls to punish anyone, unless they are arrested, in which case they are tried in a jury, and even then, murderers have people trying to get them off.

Originally posted by murphyhurtme
reply to post by Death_Kron

 

i would call the cops, if the kid is throwing bricks at people's houses that suggests to me that there may be psychological problems, or problems at home. what it doesn't suggest to me is that i should fist fight a nine year old girl.

I did mention that I wouldn't spank someone else's child although I don't think you can classify spanking as "fighting".

Calling the cops is a good idea obviously but that isn't going to help when your window is already broken is it?

It doesn't nescessarily indicate that a child has problems at home because they are throwing bricks at someones window, I'll admit its a possibility but you need to realise that some kids are just bad kids.

I wouldn't stand there and let anyone throw bricks at my windows, my car or any other item of my property regardless of their age, mental capacity or gender.