My boss foiled a pair of shoplifters today

He came back in the store after his lunch and spied these guys down one aisle - they had several bags of chips and packages of toilet paper artfully piled on top of their basket - underneath, it was FULL of booze.

He simply snagged the cart and told them, "Nope, not in my store," and they booked out the door - nothing he could really do as they hadn't left the store with it yet but I was glad of the catch since booze is my department.

16 bottles of Jack Daniel's (3 1.75 liters and 13 750's)
5 bottles of Johnny Walker black label
13 bottles of Grey Goose vodka

Plus some steaks on the bottom. Total booze bill came to over a thousand dollars plus about $50 in meat.

I'm not sure how they planned on taking it out - it was about noon. Probably counted on it being busy and figured they'd slide out. Bastards. :grr:

they weren't going to pay for it?

they wouldn't have run.

You'd have known it too. They just obviously scooped a bunch of stuff off the booze shelves (it was all stuff that was next to each other) and covered it with the chip bags.

They were acting suspiciously as well, with one of them trying to block the view of the cart and both of them swiveling their heads around and acting nervous. And, though not everyone who has money dresses like they do, I would be willing to bet all these two had in their wallets were a couple of old condoms and the number to their bail bondsman.

An innocent person would have gotten self-righteously angry - they ran.

We can only buy beer and wine in grocery stores in Georgia.

I was surprised when I first moved here from Vermont and saw that.

You should see some of the security cam vids they have, where they literally walk out with thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

Booze, clothing, electronics...they target big ticket items they can sell on the black market.

Cashiers sliding items was a big problem at a store where I used to work. The store eventually had to install cameras over the registers to prevent the theft.

But we've had an ongoing problem with things (mostly booze) getting stolen at night and in that case, I do have some deep suspicions about inside knowledge and/or cooperation. They've used the emergency door for a getaway on several occasions (there's a seal on the door that's been broken repeatedly) and that door's alarm was not working. Hard to imagine someone just discovering that on their own and since we've fixed it, NO ONE has tried to use it. That says inside accomplice to me (security is investigating - I don't like thieves).

But it wasn't shoplifters, it was bargain hounds loading up on the 'store closing' sale at the local Albertson's.

:-)