Weirdest thefts?

[Acolyte]

The only theft I can remember is one I was honestly glad to have happen. When I was cleaning out a bunch of ancient hardware at work, I came across this old...well, beast of a computer. It didn't boot, and a quick inspection showed that it was probably some old server. Stacked to the gills with 26.6k modems and 500mb hard drives.
Basically, worthless. Plus, the dust bunnies had long since evolved into herds of Monty Python-esque maneating dust rabbits. Plus, the thing weighed a good 50 pounds, at least. I had to leave it by the dumpster to get a stool to heave that sucker in.
When I came back, I saw two guys booting it down the alley, the BeastBox held between them. I saw them running and yelled 'Thanks, guys! Just saved me a whole pile of trouble!'

Best theft evah.

[Arcade Man D]

Well, most of the time, the skeeballs end up under or behind the lanes, and the air hockey puck is behind the video game twenty-five feet away.

The paddles were actually stolen, though.

Actually, no, I'm pretty sure that the skeeballs were stolen. We used to have 9 for each lane, plus one spare per lane in the back office. Now we have 8 per lane, and 1 in the back office. And I routinely check behind the lanes. And in Bozo. Which is right next to Skee-ball for some inane reason.

I've caught people trying to steal the basketballs. It's why I decided to take a permanent marker and write a large *name of company* on each and every ball for the basketball games.

As for the pucks? We did find one under a game we never move because it is impossible to move assembled. But there's still more missing than that. And we actually clean under movable games, so yes, the pucks have been stolen.


Though my personal favorite was when the basketballs got on top of the cages for their games. Those were a joy to get down.

[CrazyShoeGirl]

This seems like a good thread to make my first post.

My store doesn't get that many thefts, being a shoe store. But about six months ago, when I was tidying up the store, I noticed that someone had stolen two left insoles. My co-workers and I still cannot figure it out.

[Discourtesy Clerk]

A week ago, I found an empty wine bottle in my go-back cart...with the cork in.

Upon careful forensic inspection, it seemed the thief had screwed the cork out, drained the contents into another container, recorked it, and placed the bottle back on the shelf. All this in an open aisle, between two departments, with employees all over the store and security cameras everywhere. Sneaky bastards.

[wj_737_700]

Early teen years, my brother and I each snagged one of those flashing yellow lights you see at construction zones...
...Returned them in the middle of the night a few months ago to the same company when they were replacing the gas lines in our neighborhood, by leaving them on a backhoe they had left on the street.

Please edit quotes ~Ree

You could have gone for the gold and stole the backhoe

[Jack7957]

You could have gone for the gold and stole the backhoe

It would be a little hard to hide that though.

[blas]

Stupid druggies and well........I guess REALLLY needy people who couldn't afford single rolls of toilet paper at the gas station.......destroyed the toilet paper dispensers in both of the bathrooms (as in the whole dispenser was ripped from the wall) to score a few free rolls of toilet paper.

[toranoko]

Some of my sister's friends stole a piece of a DDR machine from a local arcade. It was funny to watch, they just walked out with it hiding in someone's pants, they were the uber baggy HotTopic pants so that was easy. Then they wrapped it up and gave it to her later that night since it was her birthday. It is actually in my room right now since she didn't take it to college.

[Gurndigarn]

You could have gone for the gold and stole the backhoe

It would be a little hard to hide that though.

But, believe it or not, it's happened. Wish I could find the story-- probably from NewsOfTheWeird.com-- but I'm feeling too lazy to do any digging. Near as anyone can tell, some local kids were trying to build a motorbike track. Without realizing the difference between diesel fuel and regular gasoline, and said fact slowing down construction until the machine was found.

[Gurndigarn]

Actually, no, I'm pretty sure that the skeeballs were stolen. We used to have 9 for each lane, plus one spare per lane in the back office. Now we have 8 per lane, and 1 in the back office. And I routinely check behind the lanes. And in Bozo. Which is right next to Skee-ball for some inane reason.

If it's one of the remaining original Bozos, there's a Very Good Reason for it. If it's one of the two-player version 2s, uhhh... your boss gets a kick from replacing the plexis and LED rings, maybe?

Though my personal favorite was when the basketballs got on top of the cages for their games. Those were a joy to get down.

Get a broom, and poke it through the mesh on top. (Works best on flat metal mesh tops, but can work on netting, too. Having had a Rage In The Cage*, I had to learn all the tricks).

* Who-- and let me ask this again-- WHO was the idiot that designed a basketball game where the primary fastener was self-tapping sheet metal screws? I can't help but notice that the game I put together years ago is for sale for $400-- cheap for a basketball game-- and has been for quite a while with no takers. I've debated calling up the current manager and bugging him about it, but never got around to it.

[Rapscallion]

There are a few posts in this thread that seem to be condoning or enjoying the theft of stuff.

We don't condone theft, and I'd like you to consider what you'd feel like if it happened in your store and on your watch. Let's think of all angles, folks.

Rapscallion

[Arcade Man D]

If it's one of the remaining original Bozos, there's a Very Good Reason for it. If it's one of the two-player version 2s, uhhh... your boss gets a kick from replacing the plexis and LED rings, maybe?

Well, it's 2 player, so probably a version 2. Although I think it's next to skee-ball because they're both just a pain to move and they've been like that forever. And they apparently bring in more tokens next to each other.

Get a broom, and poke it through the mesh on top. (Works best on flat metal mesh tops, but can work on netting, too. Having had a Rage In The Cage*, I had to learn all the tricks).

Never had Rage in the Cage, but my word, Super Shots are always annoying. My boss wouldn't let only one be transferred out, because they just love to fail. And of course, now that that's gone, our other basket ball game has decided to act up.

But a new weirdest theft? One I just remembered, though it wasn't really a "theft", per se. One of the regulars was playing ItG 2 and failed one of those Insanely Hard Songs, he blames the makeshift pads we have. He got angry, and yanked on the bar, and managed to tear it out of the pad. He officially has dibs on that bar if the game gets scrapped, just for that.

[DisgruntledBadger]

funny ones I've seen

While I was still working in a (now defunct) sort of wholesale grocery store, a woman came in one day and stole a bunch of shopping bags off of the counter.

It was weird in that she carried a bunch of crumpled ones in with her, set them on the counter, then took the stack of un-crumpled ones...staring me in the face the whole time. Perhaps she thought that if she maintained eye contact with me, I wouldn't see what she was doing?

I worked at a horseback riding day camp for the summer in high school. Many of the kids were entitlement-whores-in-training. They'd often try to pocket things and then screech about how much their parents were paying us when we called them on it. The thing of it is, they invariably tried to take things like plastic hoofpicks that they could've got out of a catalog for $1.99, or the feed scoops that we got at a local auction for $5 for a three-pack. People are very strange.

[Blueberry]

This one guy came up to me at the counter, grabbed my pen, and said:
I'M TAKING THIS NOW.
Sure sir, go ahead.
is the look on his face.
I was okay with it. The pen was dry anyways.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Is it theft is they grab bread bags, uses them to freeze fish, then call us all pissed up because they lost the fish?

Called the BAKERY department to give shit to my dept. Manager because our BREAD bags are not fit to freeze FISH in?

Our bread bags are not fit to freeze BREAD in!

Those bags literally SNAP open when frozen. She just wanted free bags and swiped them.

Steal n complain. Amusing.