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Pay us or we’ll call the cops: Stores giving shoplifters choice of punishment - but is it coercion?
National Post ^ | February 27, 2015 | Leon Neyfakh

Posted on 02/28/2015 3:13:00 AM PST by rickmichaels

Imagine you’re browsing at Bloomingdale’s when a security guard taps you on the shoulder and accuses you of shoplifting. He takes you to a private room, sits you down, and runs your name through a database to see if you have any outstanding warrants. Then he tells you that you have two options. The first involves him calling the police, who might arrest you and take you to jail. The second allows you to walk out of the store immediately, no questions asked—right after you sign an admission of guilt and agree to pay $320 to take an online course designed to make you never want to steal again.

Which would you choose?

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: shoplifters; shoplifting
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1 posted on 02/28/2015 3:13:00 AM PST by rickmichaels
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To: rickmichaels

I wouldn’t be shoplifting
But it’s a no brainer. Record or no record? Actually if one is provably guilty? You pay for the course.
Might be a good deterant too.


2 posted on 02/28/2015 3:17:55 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Vaquero

And you think shop lifting is a crime? Seems we DO have an option on what to call the alternative “punishment”.


3 posted on 02/28/2015 3:21:27 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: rickmichaels

I’ll take the deal. Of course, you won’t catch me shoplifting since I don’t do it. But this sounds like a good deal to me versus a ride downtown and booking at a police station. For all the lawyers and activist complaining about it, the answer is simple... tell your people to tell the store they’ll take the “call the cops” option.


4 posted on 02/28/2015 3:21:32 AM PST by BRK
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To: rickmichaels

5 posted on 02/28/2015 3:31:42 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: rickmichaels

What is the warrant is for something big, like rape or murder? Are they going to offer a person like that this “deal”?


6 posted on 02/28/2015 3:32:36 AM PST by jocon307 (Tell it like it is.)
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To: DaveA37

I think the current regime is criminal. Some poor jerk lifting a bag of underwear at Walmart is a crime.....but he is trumped 8 ways from Sunday by the current criminal activity emanating from the White Hut. And wait till we see the ‘shrinkage’ in our 401Ks.


7 posted on 02/28/2015 3:44:28 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: jocon307

Ah, no.


8 posted on 02/28/2015 3:45:21 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: jocon307
What is the warrant is for something big, like rape or murder? Are they going to offer a person like that this “deal”?

Just read the headline, didn't ya...?

9 posted on 02/28/2015 3:48:56 AM PST by freebilly (Just win, Baby...!)
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To: BRK
I don't think you notice, but the scenarios says "accused" of shoplifting. Coercion? How about KIDNAPPING and EXTORTION. This is a stupid idea on the part of the store.

Call the cops.

10 posted on 02/28/2015 3:54:42 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: rickmichaels
First of all...how does a security guard at Bloomingdale's know if you have a criminal record? Do security guards up north have the power of arrest or something? Yikes!
11 posted on 02/28/2015 4:02:26 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Obama;A Low Grade Intellect With Lower Morals)
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To: rickmichaels
I'm for it. My wife works at a supermarket and the store policy is "let them go." Believe it or not, they have repeat shoplifters who never get punished.
12 posted on 02/28/2015 4:02:31 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: rickmichaels

National retail establishments, worried about image and perception, will let you leave with a gift card if you create a large enough “scene”. I have witnessed this. These outfits are focused on employee theft (aka shrinkage) and the public is robbing them blind.


13 posted on 02/28/2015 4:06:34 AM PST by Artie (We are surrounded by MORONS)
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To: rickmichaels

Hmm...I worked at Bloomingdale’s as a kid. They had no security guard. They sent me (a 5’0” tall, 95 pound weakling) to confront shoplifters. Didn’t last long on that job.


14 posted on 02/28/2015 4:10:05 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: rickmichaels

Since I do not shoplift, any store floorwalker that detains me for more than thirty seconds is going to be sued for illegal detention. Kidnapping if you will.
Once he/she/it forces you to go somewhere against your will, he damn well better have the goods on you or he is committing a crime. If he is armed, that will add more weight to you case.
If I am not mistaken, in most states, you have to take an item outside the store in order to commit the crime of shoplifting.
I am the guy that did a u turn when asked by some kind of store security at Walmartto see my receipt . I marched over to Customer Service and returned damn near $200.00 in groceries.


15 posted on 02/28/2015 4:12:50 AM PST by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan by the day)
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To: rickmichaels

The profit margin on catching a shoplifter is surely higher than on making a sale.

How long before security guards are given quotas for making arrests?

It all adds up to yet another good reason for shopping online.


16 posted on 02/28/2015 4:14:39 AM PST by samtheman
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To: DaveA37

Shop lifting is wealth distribution, fundamentally like a wealth tax.


17 posted on 02/28/2015 4:18:51 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: rickmichaels
when a security guard taps you on the shoulder and accuses you of shoplifting. He takes you to a private room, sits you down, and runs your name through a database to see if you have any outstanding warrants

I don't shoplift, so I am not going to any back room with any two-bit security guard. Bring on the cops, and a huge lawsuit.

18 posted on 02/28/2015 4:25:19 AM PST by southern rock
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To: Tupelo

Concealing an item is good enough in Washington state.

DK

Good for you for returning the groceries...I won’t shop in a store that treats reg customers as thieves.


19 posted on 02/28/2015 4:31:51 AM PST by Dark Knight
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To: Vaquero

“I think the current regime is criminal. Some poor jerk lifting a bag of underwear at Walmart is a crime.....but he is trumped 8 ways from Sunday by the current criminal activity emanating from the White Hut. And wait till we see the ‘shrinkage’ in our 401Ks.”

Both a bum stealing a dime and a corrupt official embezzling millions are as guilty since they have both violated Lord’s Commandments.

In no way the first may look into actions of the latter for an excuse.

Sin remains a sin, if one is ready to commit it for lesser benefits and/or unable to put hands on something bigger it only shows his level and doesn’t make said person less evil.

IMHO.


20 posted on 02/28/2015 4:38:31 AM PST by Paid_Russian_Troll
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