Apr 21, 2012
Here at the West Valley Blue Boutique, nothing gets us quite as fired up as catching a shoplifter! It affects our business and therefore our jobs, so we definitely keep our eyes peeled for people trying to steal our awesome merchandise. And it always seems like shoplifters try and steal the most ridiculous things. Why sir, would you try and get away with a $3.00 sticker when you have a wallet full of $20 bills? What about the gaudy Mardi Gras mask I had people try and stuff in their purse in the middle of June…don’t thieves know that holiday is months away? I guess it’s safe to say that most of the people we catch shoplifting are not exactly captains of industry.
Take our most recent offenders for example. Just a few nights ago we had the pleasure of dealing with a very interesting couple who thought it would be no big deal to steal from us…boy were they wrong! The woman, who came in with her boyfriend, was several months pregnant and apparently looking to spice things up with some of our lingerie. But it seems that she didn’t really want to pay for it. After trying on several items of lingerie and a teeny weeny bikini, the couple decided they needed to go outside for a smoke. Yes, you heard me correctly, unfortunately. After another one of their breaks, as well as the man going outside several other times to “check” on his dog, my employees began to get suspicious.
They checked the inventory count on a babydoll that they let the woman take in the dressing room and guess what…we were missing one. My assistant manager asked where the item had gone to and both people told her it had been put back. Not really believing them at this point, she went to the area they had spent a lot of time and start inspecting everything. She gave one of the robes a little shake and Voila!, out came broken pieces of one of our large sensor tags. With her suspicions more or less confirmed, she had the other sales associate keep the couple occupied while she called the police and explained the situation.
The police were here in no time – which you would hope considering the station is less than a block away – and questioning the couple. Despite the fact that the lady was pretty “out of it” and barely coherent with the police, it didn’t take long for them to find out that they had outstanding warrants. Apparently, this wasn’t their first go-round with criminal activity! After searching the car and finding a bra, shoes and the missing babydoll (all ours) along with some random porn (surprisingly, not ours) and a dog (that part was true at least!), the police had enough to take these two on down to the station. After animal control took the dog away and the police impounded the car, the sales girls could finally finish up and go home to decompress from the evening’s excitement.
The next day my assistant manager, who was still pretty amped about catching the shoplifters, managed to look up our offenders on the County inmate website. The man had been released, but our lady perpetrator was still behind bars because it turns out she had two prior convictions for the same crime. Three strikes you’re out I guess, or in, as the situation may be!. And $25,000 is a pretty high “get out of jail price tag” for anyone.
So ladies and gents, the moral of this story is please don’t try and shoplift from us. Our sleuth skills are strong, so more than likely we’ll figure you out and make you pay. And if by some strange chance we don’t manage to, don’t forget about karma…she can be a real bitch!
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