Got a big fish tonight....

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Why, oh why, does all the exciting stuff happen when I'm not at work?

Tonight, we happened to have LP watching the cameras all night. Sometime, this woman came in, all jacked up on booze and God knows what else, and stuffed about $1,000 worth of stuff in her sweatshirt.

She put up quite the fight when LP tried to apprehend her. LP had to call two guys off of the truck to help her subdue this bizotch. It has to be pretty hairy for LP to be calling guys off the truck to help her with an apprehension.

Oh well, score one for the good guys.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Found out a little more about what happened tonight.

1. We could take our security camera footage of the shoplifter and title it "How Not to Shoplift." She started her spree by stealing a pair of scissors and went over to electronics, happily cutting open packages and stuffing the merchandise down her sweatshirt. She also got a shopping cart and put a TV in it, along with other stuff, and tried to push that out the doors. Basically, she did a very poor job of hiding the fact she was trying to shoplift.

2. The cops had a hard time subduing her. They got her into the LP office, then she fought back and managed to open the door and get out of the office, then the cops caught her again and handcuffed her outside the office. Then they took her outside and frisked her, and all kinds of DVDs, watches, makeup and jewelry fell out of her pockets onto the sidewalk.

3. She managed to hurt herself while fighting the cops and the employees, so the rescue squad had to be called. She also threatened to sue the store and whipped out a cell phone to call her lawyer, but the cops managed to take it away from her.

4. (best part to me). The cops found she had a crack pipe on her while they were frisking her. Probably explains why she put up such a fight. She was all hopped on crack or cocaine, and the employees who had to help subdue her didn't want to be too close to her because she reeked very strongly of alcohol.

[Becks]

Wow.

Some people.

Any chance the security tape will end up on YouTube?

[SuperDan]

I love the ones that hurt themselves and threaten to sue. As the LP guy and a member of management have both told me (I'm going to have to look up this law myself one of these days), Indiana state law prohibits shoplifters from taking any action, civil or criminal, against someone who knew they shoplifted and was trying to apprehend them, if they resist and are injured. Basically, this means we can't tell someone to stop and punch them after they do, but if they try to run, we're taking them down however we can and making sure they stay down.

Sounds like your shoplifter was a real piece of work, IP. I've had shoplifters that bold too, walking right out the entrance doors with two heaping cartloads of merchandise not even bagged. Like yours, they appeared to be high on crack (based on LP guy's observation) and put up one hell of a fight (that's ok, I like restraining cute female shoplifters).