The Bunker Blog

Happy New Year, friends. I just wanted to let you know that you can read the Bunker Blog on your mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) just as easily as you can on a non mobile web browser. The Bunker Blog is optimized for mobile viewing. If you are viewing this post on your phone or mobile browser, you already see what I mean. If not, you can see our mobile site simply by scrolling to the bottom of this page and clicking on the “Switch To Mobile Site” link. Once you are done, just scroll back down and click the “Switch To Desktop Site” link.

Also, if you have a QR Code reader on your phone, you can just scroll down to the QR Code in the sidebar and scan the code. You’ll automatically be taken to our Mobile Site on your phone.  We want to make sure that the Bunker Blog is accessible to you, even in today’s mobile age. So, go ahead, give out mobile site a look, and be sure to let me know how you like it.

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According to a special report released by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) in November, shoplifting for the purpose of selling stolen merchandise for profit by adult offenders has tripled since 2008. If you haven’t seen/read this report yet, you should. It’s definitely full of some really good info. Here are some interesting findings:

92% of adults and 86% of juveniles said they had no inside information about shoplifting
in the store where they were apprehended. What’s really interesting to me about this finding is that, of those that did have inside information, Security/Loss Prevention personnel were the culprits in a lot of the cases.

Even though 90% of offenders say they have never sold anything they stole, the percent
of people who admitted that they have sold items that they shoplifted specifically for profit and
to get the cash has doubled in juveniles and has tripled in adult offenders since 2008. According to this survey,  6% of adults and juveniles have sold items they shoplifted for profit. In 2008, the number was 2% for adults and 3% for juveniles.

Now, it’s way to early to call this a trend, but with the current state of our economy, it is a possibility that we will see even more of an increase in “Shoplifting As A Business” over the next year. It is a scary thought.

It is also interesting to note that, of those who did admit to shoplifting for profit, the vast majority sold the items to friends/acquaintances or at least locally at flea markets, etc. (88% of adults and 87% of juveniles). Only 12% of adults and 13% of juveniles stated that they sold items online or to a fence.

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You may have already seen this story about a La Crosse, WI doctor and his wife caught shoplifting over $1500.00 from a Milwaukee area Macy’s. But, did you realize that they also had their kids in tow, and that they hid some of the items in their kids’ stroller?

I won’t get into the economic situation of the doctor except to say that he worked for a non-profit clinic, so in all likelihood, he isn’t “rich”. But, his wife stated to police that he made $150,000 per year, so they ain’t exactly poor, neither.

Dr. Sumit Sinha and his wife Tania attempted to steal over $1500.00 worth of “Christmas gifts” from Macy’s. They were recorded on cctv, and were detained by Macy’s loss prevention. Tania Sinha admitted the theft to local police, and told them it was her idea. She also has a prior arrest for shoplifting in 2007.

Sadly, this all unfolded with their kids involved. I guess they couldn’t afford a babysitter, either.

More about this HERE and HERE

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Diane Lyons caught her 6-year-old daughter, Shiane, shoplifting stickers in her local Carrollton, OH, Discount Drug Mart. What does mom do? She promptly turns her daughter in to the manager. Not only that, but she calls the police, who arrive and put the little girl in the police cruiser to try to teach her a lesson.

I’ve read a lot of buzz about this. The news story indicates that Lyons considered asking about the reward, but decided not to do so. Because of that, there’s a lot of swirl that maybe Mom was just trying to get a quick buck by turning her daughter in.

I disagree. If that was all she wanted, she could have stopped at alerting the manager. It was the store’s policy, not a police policy. And, lest we forget, she said that she decided not to go through with asking about the reward.

No, I think Mom just wanted to teach the little girl a lesson. We may question how far she went to do so, but hey, I say at least she did something other than make excuses for the kid. Let’s face it; a lot of  parents would have either done absolutely nothing, or worse, would have rewarded the kid by buying her the thing she was attempting to steal.

But Lyons did no such thing. She made it very clear to Shiane that stealing is wrong, and that it is a BIG deal. She let her know that Mom would never uphold her in theft, and that even her own mother would turn her in for stealing. Now, I ask you, what message do you think that 6-year-old got from that experience? 

For the hundreds of stories about parents using their kids to shoplift, about adults using kids to steal or even about adults running off and abandoning their kids to get away after shoplifting, we finally get to write about somebody with some parenting skills. You may make fun, you may say that Lyons went too far, you may even believe that she did it for the attention or even for the reward. I say Good Job, Mom. There should be more parents who do not tolerate theft from their kids out there.

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