Which Items Are Stolen Most Frequently?

Interviewer: Are there any items that tend to be stolen a lot more than others, that you see?

Apparel Is Frequently Shoplifted

Jacqueline: I have noticed cases in which a number of blouses and dresses are stolen, and that’s kind of odd, because these are larger-sized items. These are not easy to conceal, but the people tend to drape them over their arm and even have it draped over their arm and pay for something else, and then walk away with it still draped over their arm. This way they can say, “Oh. It was a mistake,” that they didn’t realize it was still draped over their arm. That’s a technique.

There Are Several Often-Used Techniques for Shoplifting Apparel

Another technique is sometimes the individual will go into a dressing room and put on undergarments and then they will claim, “Oh, I forgot, completely forgot to take it off.”

Smaller Items, Such as Articles of Makeup, Are Not Commonly Prosecuted

In my experience, it’s a large number of dresses, blouses and undergarments that are pretty commonly shoplifted. Now, you would think that smaller-sized items, such as lipsticks are more prone to be shoplifted but in my experience they are not.

Is Shoplifting Considered a Capricious Crime?

Interviewer: Did you ever have an unusual shoplifting case that illustrates the “capriciousness” of shoplifting?

Jacqueline: Well, I did have a very strange case where a woman, who was in her mid-50s, and she was very elegant, really unusually well-dressed and attractive. She had come to see me and had been accused of taking a quantity of jeweled belts.

She was very agitated over the episode, and the shocking thing to me was that she was really so well-to-do that the impetus for the crime was purely psychological; some kind of trigger had caused her to do this.

She wasn’t what you or I would consider a criminal. As we spoke, she claimed she had forgotten that she had these items. She could’ve bought anything she wanted, really.


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