(Not) A Good Thief

[PepperElf]

I'm thinking either resale or for trade. Like how Tide is the most shoplifted detergent, simply because people steal it to trade (often for drugs).


The thing is... if you're buying $1000 worth of ANY heavily stolen-for-trade item it just might make people take notice and question the purchase.

When it comes to that much in cigs, I would ask for ID to match the name on the credit card. Though, I have known some people to send smokes to their friends up in NY since it be cheaper here. Or bring it with them on a trip.

True, although in NY we also have Reservations that people use for this too. And for gas. The one that Sis goes by when they go to their favorite beach is a good 30 cents cheaper there (the gas, not the cigarettes, although that is also probably true - or truer even)

[blas]

Around here, we just to go to Minnesota and buy ciggs in bulk there, since their smokes are still a dollar or two cheaper than there. Gas is even cheaper over there.

I'm a smoker, it's pretty sad that from about 07-08 till 2010, ciggs went up nearly $3 a pack in attempts to encourage everyone in Wisconsin to quit. Yeah, they just gave up other stuff so they could smoke. Well done.

[BrenDAnn]

Iowa used to be one of the cheapest states around to get cigs, Then they raised prices and raised taxes, etc. Now, it's $5 for a cheap pack where I work, and damn near $10 for I beliebe Merits or some such. Marlboro & Camel both run between $6 and $7. Still, someone buying that many cigarettes? Big, waving red flag!!

[taxguykarl]

Around here, we just to go to Minnesota and buy ciggs in bulk there, since their smokes are still a dollar or two cheaper than there. Gas is even cheaper over there.

Similar situation in my neck of the woods. Indiana has lower tobacco and gas taxes--and 10 miles from my house.

[Caractacus_Potts]

I worked at a Walgreen's in a sketchy location when an equally sketchy looking kid walks in, slaps a credit card on the counter and says he wants six cartons of Marlboros. I pick the card up, flip it over and start dialing the 1-800 number on the back.

Kid: What ya doin'?
Me: I just need to call the...

No reason to keep talking, the kid was already out the door and picking up speed across the parking lot.

We had one guy would shoplift stuff and then turn it in for refunds.

At another Walgreen's location we had a guy doing the same and we also told him no more returns without a receipt. Then we had to move the barrel outside the front door to just inside the door so the cashier could keep an eye on it when we found him fishing through the barrel for thrown out receipts.

[Shalom]

we found him fishing through the barrel for thrown out receipts.

Wonder if it was the same guy, or if there's a web board somewhere for shoplifters to trade secrets, because he did the same thing: find a receipt, steal whatever was on it, and then try to get his "refund".

I still remember when he came in trying to get a refund on a 120-pack of One Touch test strips. We told him to take himself off, because 1) Aide of Right didn't sell 120-packs, only 100s and 50s, and 2) it had a Chain of Verylarge Stores security sticker on it.

(I think that was the same guy; we had a few regular scammers in the overnight hours.)

[Jester]

I think it was in a short story I read once; "The first rule of a good thief is knowing when not to steal."

As a former thief, I can tell you this is very true. Part of the reason I was so successful when I was shoplifting in junior high (early Eighties) was because not only did I know how to steal, but I knew that there were certain places I just would NOT steal from. (For example, I paid for ALL of my music, as the music store (A) had a better security system than most, and (B) was the one place I couldn't have lived getting banned from.) Also, I was pretty adept at spotting security, and when I did, I knew they had zeroed in on me, I stole nothing, either walking out empty-handed or buying something.

Well, they'll have plenty of currency for when they're behind bars....

No they won't, as the first round of cigs would almost definitely be confiscated by the police, and the second round was never actually purchased, as the guy was caught, if I read the story correctly. (And if I didn't, well, as I said, the cops probably would have confiscated said smokes.)

Ciggies are one of the easiest things to resell.

Yep. Cause smokers get desperate. One of my more unsavory dorm-mates in college would buy plenty of smokes, and then when fellow smokers would run out, rather than giving them one as most smokers do, he would sell them for 25 cents a cigarette. No, he wasn't very popular in the dorm....the smokers didn't like him because of this, and *I* didn't like him because he was perpetuating the Jewish stereotype that I was trying to not be pigeonholed by. That, and he was pretty much an ass. (His nickname in the dorm was "Squaredick." 'Nuff said.)


Speaking of the cost of cigarettes, since I come from a smoking family and most of my friends have smoked at some point, on a whim a few years ago, I figured out how much I have saved by never picking up the habit. To simplify things, I made some simple generalities. I couldn't know any of these things, of course, but it helped with the math. First, I figured if I had started, it would have been when I was 16, in 1986. Second, I figured I probably would have smoked a pack a day. Finally, since prices have varied so widely from 1986 until now, I figured an average of $5 a pack. Even if that is too low, it is still a decent barometer. (I know they were far less than that in the Eighties.) Crunching the numbers told me that I saved approximately $45,000! Now, some would say that I've made up for that by my spending on alcohol, but I would have spent that anyways, and chances are good that if I had smoked, I would have drank even MORE.

Beer, please.