Here are a few shoplifters who aren’t very good at what they do!
10 - The Business Card Matthew Crowder ran a Facebook page where
he posted pictures from what he called "raids." These "raids" were Crowder-speak for shoplifting.
In his posts, he bragged about pampering his family with the spoils of his "conquests."
Crowder made it sound like he was slaying dragons for these items when,
in reality, he was committing petty theft.
In 2016, Crowder's poor decision-making came full circle. He walked into another
consignment store looking to "raid" valuable loot. This time, the only treasure that caught
his eye was standing behind the counter. The petty thief flirted with the cute cashier.
After a moment of conversation, he gave the clerk his business card.
Crowder then went back to business as usual and finished his "raid."
Once the store realized what had happened, they called the police. Thankfully, Crowder did
all the work for them. This business minded burglar left behind a card with his name
and address on it. On top of that, he immediately took to Facebook to brag about what he shoplifted.
Unfortunately for him, his biggest fans that day were police officers.
Officer Dobrick of the Albuquerque police said it wasn't a surprise because the guys
who commit these crimes are usually dumb. He also said to all businesses in the area that
if Crowder walks into their store, he’s only there to rip them off. Crowder had
outstanding warrants for shoplifting in three other Albuquerque counties.
9 - The Magnet Thief Would-be magnet thief Nicholas
Allegretto basically turned himself in when he waltzed into a Cambridge police station
to complain about a store owner. Allegretto told police that his image had been used to defame him
and cause his family turmoil. His boss saw the picture and fired him on the spot.
When the authorities investigated the situation further, Allegretto was promptly arrested.
Turns out, he walked into a hardware store and, after pretending to shop for a bit,
decided to pocket a valuable magnet. He was stopped as he headed towards the exit,
and workers took the magnet back. Allegretto, though, got away.
Angry about the shoplifter, the owner made a wanted poster with Allegretto's face on it and
put it up in his store. He also posted it to Facebook and the local papers, which was how
Allegretto's friends and family recognized him. Feeling like he had been wronged,
the magnet-loving crook thought it'd be wise to tell the police. After his arrest,
Allegretto was hit with over $1000 in fines. The shopkeeper couldn't believe Allegretto walked
into a police station. He told reporters that Allegretto wasn't the sharpest tool in the box.
8 - Grandma Had Enough In Campbell River, Canada,
the local Walmart has a high volume of calls to the authorities. They seem to be a popular target
for shoplifters who are willing to do anything to take what they want. One day, somebody's grandma
decided she'd had enough. The whole incident was recorded by a man following the criminal.
The video starts with the shoplifter ahead of him trying to take his unbagged goods out of
the store. When the would-be criminal grabbed his bike, the man with the phone asked him if he was
going to pay for his stuff. The shoplifter responded with a "yea" while he continued
towards the door. However, little did he know, a lone vigilante was already on top of him. Like
a giant G appeared in the sky, Grandma pushed her cart in front of the thief and scolded him.
Before he could react, Granny grabbed his mask and tore it off. Even with his face exposed,
he still tried to take the cart. However, seemingly emboldened by Grandma's bravery,
the cameraman grabbed the criminal's cart. After a brief struggle,
he let go of the carriage and opted for his backpack instead. The thief rode
off empty-handed with nothing but shame after Grandma thwarted his pathetic robbery attempt.
7 - The Purse
In Hillsboro, Oregon, Sarah Michelle Jarvis struggled with a man over her purse.
She yanked on it, desperately trying to pull it from his grasp. However,
the man's strength was too much for Sarah, and she was clearly fighting a losing battle.
It sounds like the opening scene to a Marvel movie, but not everything is always as it seems.
In a now-viral YouTube video, the altercation kicks off with Sarah and a seemingly random
man struggling over a purse at RiteAid. Sarah had stashed some product in her bag,
and a loss and prevention employee caught her red-handed. He chased her out into the
parking lot and then dragged her back into the store by her purse straps.
The situation escalated when Sarah started kicking and punching him. That wasn't a good idea,
and he took her to the ground. She flopped and kicked around for a bit before jumping back to her
feet and releasing the purse. She tried to leave but walked right into a waiting officer's arms.
The first question that comes into mind is, why didn't she just let the purse go and run?
The man was clearly much stronger, and she had no chance of leaving with the bag. While we can only
speculate, the reason seems obvious if you listen closely to the beginning of their struggle. Sarah
told the Loss prevention officer that he shouldn't take people's purses or their percocets. The want
for her drugs could explain why she fought so hard for the bag and her erratic behavior. Even
with the video evidence, the charges were dropped, and she walked away scot-free.
6 - TV For Nowhere John Ray Lomack is a name steeped in infamy
at a Target in downtown Seattle. The homeless man was marked as a "prolific" shoplifter. He
gained this title by hitting the same store over twenty times and getting away with around $6000
worth of products. In the previous incidents, he even hurt some employees while escaping with his
ill-gotten gains. This prompted Target to ban him from the store and instruct their employees
to call the police if he showed his face. This didn’t stop this confident criminal
as he walked in again with a mask covering his face. He was still recognized, though,
and the cops were called as he was obviously scoping out a 70" inch TV.
Lomack headed straight for the exit with the oversized television on his cart, but security met
him at the door. They didn't fight with him, but they did grab the TV and stopped him from pulling
it outside. What ensued was a struggle straight out of a late-night comedy sketch. Lomack pulled
the TV from different angles while the employees steadily pulled it back. He eventually made it
outside and, after a short rest, dragged his prize down the street. Lomack's victory was short-lived,
as the employees found two cops and pointed them in his direction. When confronted by the officers,
the homeless man put up a struggle but was apprehended and taken to jail. Despite an
overwhelming record of 18 felony convictions, the judge released Lomack with no consequences.
5 - Marshalls Robber In an arrest that looked more like a WWE match,
Franklin Nunez fought off two officers as he desperately tried to escape from the Marshalls he
chose to rob. The officers arrived on the scene to confront Nunez after employees called 911.
Before a recent policy change, employees had to wait 30-minutes after witnessing a shoplifting
attempt to call 911. You could argue that policy was in place to avoid in-store confrontation.
After all, security cameras probably caught them in the act anyway. Nonetheless, the policy got
a facelift, and employees could call 911 on a shoplifting attempt in progress. Some of
the patrons recorded Nunez's handicap match with police and posted it to many social media sites.
In the video, you can see Nunez stiff-arm one officer while fending off another. They
eventually bring him down, where the struggle continues. Some sources report that Nunez
appeared to be going for the officer's weapon in the video, although there’s no confirmation.
Nunez rises up like the Undertaker and shakes off both officers as he runs out the door. This
seemingly superhuman shoplifter was only caught after ten more officers showed up.
4 - New York Shoplifting King Isaac Rodriguez found out how heavy
the proverbial crown is after becoming the shoplifting king of New York. Like a reverse
Robin Hood—surrounded by concrete and only taking for himself—Rodriguez went on a roll
during his spree. He broke New York's record for most retail theft arrests with a whopping
46 and was arrested 57 times total in 2021. Those arrests included several other charges,
including some violent ones. However, Rodriguez kept getting thrown back on
the street. The police commissioner blamed new bail reform laws for the spike in crime.
The items the Klepto King chose to steal were the weirdest part. He lifted random things like soap,
baby formula, and lingerie. Rodriguez often came to the same store several times in one
day. Walgreens alone felt the wrath of the King 37 times in one year. How he carried
out his crimes was pretty interesting. Rodriguez had no elaborate plan or scheme to fall back on.
Instead, he just walked into a store and began filling a bag up. When it was full,
the King of thieves walked on out like he owned the place.
The King finally landed in jail when a judge set his bail at $15,000.
Good luck stealing and reselling enough body lotion to pay that off.
3 - Grand Theft Gucci Ekaterina Zharkova,
a California resident, loved luxury so much that she was arrested twice for stealing a
ridiculous amount of designer goods. Zharkova's scheme was relatively simple. She walked into a
TJ Maxx or Nordstrom in Orange County. Zharkova whipped out empty shopping bags and filled them
up when no one was looking. She kept this up for over a month without any real resistance
and made off with thousands worth of designer products. She might have kept going unchecked
if the investigator that witnessed her crimes wasn't in the right place at the right time.
Zharkova wasn't just stealing the products to feel like an heiress with a large inheritance.
Her plans were more entrepreneurial in nature. She took all her stolen
items and tried to sell them on an online consignment store. If she hadn't been caught,
she could have made a lot of money doing so. Zharkova stole over $300,000 worth of
designer products from TJ Maxx and Nordstrom in the short month she was operating. Her
spree was ended by an investigator who caught her red-handed and arrested her.
Apparently, this wasn't Zharkova's first
dance with the law. She had been arrested in March for a similar crime. In that instance,
she was caught with over $950 in products and a tool to remove tags from items.
She was released on a $20,000 bail and ordered to appear in court for her arraignment. When Zharkova
didn't show for her first court date, a judge issued a warrant for her arrest. The authorities
also got a warrant for her car and apartment, where they found her secret stash of products.
This prompted another arrest and a much steeper bail set at $320,000. Zharkova was charged with
four felony counts of grand theft, seven misdemeanor counts of petty theft, and
one felony count of receiving stolen property. If convicted on all charges, she could get nine years
in prison. The Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, seemed fired up by the situation and
put out a stern warning to any would-be criminals. He expressed that these crimes weren’t victimless.
If anyone commits these acts under his watch, they will be arrested and prosecuted.
2 - Integrity Control Officer NYPD Sergeant Eva Pena must have thought she was
above the law. On an average September night in 2019, Pena strolled into a Macy’s department store
and decided the brand-name clothing she wanted was too expensive to pay for. Instead of putting
it back on the rack, CCTV footage captured her removing the price tags and stuffing the clothing
in her purse. Her haul? Six different items from Guess and Tommy Hillfinger totaling $360.
Here’s the kicker, as a Sergeant in the NYPD, Pena made just over $100,000 per year overseeing
the Bronx Housing Authority. According to the New York Post, her role involved “Integrity Control
Officer,’’ and she’d recommend punishments for those beneath her who committed small infractions.
She also posed for pictures with Commissioner James O'Neill at a recent police event. Did she
really think she was above the law? Or did she have some kind of leverage on O’Neill,
leverage enough to warrant petty theft she clearly could have afforded.
Loss prevention officers at Macy’s caught Pena red handed on CCTV. They detained her in a security
office and called the police. About an hour later, Pena was suspended from her role with the NYPD.
The following Friday, Pena drove herself to court in a white Mercedes Benz with a $1,000
Louis Vuitton in hand. Perhaps flaunting her wealth could actually help her case?
If people see how well-off she is, maybe they’d question why she’d shoplift in the first place.
Either way she walked into the courtroom with a wide smile,
stood by her lawyer’s side and pleaded not guilty.
1 - San Fran Shoplifting Queen In just 13 months, Aziza Graves was arrested and
charged after shoplifting from Target 120 times, making off with over $40,000 worth of products
during her crime spree. She used the self-checkout lane, paid between one cent and one dollar,
then left before the sale was completed. Police finally caught up to her in November of 2021,
but a judge released her on bail. The judge requested she wear an ankle bracelet,
but the shoplifting Queen of San Francisco had other ideas.
She never wore the ankle bracelet and went right back to stealing. Thankfully,
she didn't get far. Police caught her in the act a month later. This time, they insisted that
Aziza be held without bail. Clearly, she has no intentions of being an upstanding citizen.
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And let us know in the comment section whether or not you think
the penalty for shoplifting should be tougher in general!