Your example is flawed because Target has cameras and a security staff watching for shoplifters, and they will detain you as you walk out the door, and they will provide video and eyewitness testimony to the prosecutor. It's a slam dunk case.

The shoplifters who do manage to walk out undetected are of no interest to the police, as there's no basis for a case against them.

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cogman10 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Target has security cameras on the outside and staff constantly walking around wrangling carts. That's why I picked this exact example. The evidence is pretty much the same.

At many locations, cars at grocery stores get broken into pretty frequently. Yet it's unusual for cops to ever do anything about those cases. That's not due to a lack of evidence, most grocery stores have cameras throughout the lot.

Hell, it's even less of an excuse today due to the amount of surveillance via flock cameras cities have adopted. Yet cops still don't do a thing about this sort of theft.

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stackskipton 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Cops don't do anything about theft if it does not rise to level of a felony period. Most shoplifters don't get arrested until they hit felony level either.

Reason they get arrested for felony shoplifting is big box stores gift wrap those convictions. They have watched them, tracked exact items they have stolen down to UPC with price, have all the video/spreadsheet and it's all handed to cop/prosecutor on DVD. Those cases are so easy for prosecutor because conviction rate is ~100% and any testifying required is all paid for by big box store.

On bigger note, as society, we don't know how to handle people who have antisocial behavior. I'm not talking big stuff but low-level stuff that still impacts quality of life.

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cogman10 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Which is why I picked the $1000 bike. In the majority of states that's beyond the threshold for felony theft.

	▲	stackskipton 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Because Cops rarely chase people. Vast majority of time when shoplifters get arrested, it's because they are still at scene of the "crime". AKA, they enter big box store, facial recognition fires and off duty cop there is notified or cops are called. They show up, take the person into custody and get their gift wrap. Person stealing the bike is long gone before cops are notified.

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mikkupikku 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> On bigger note, as society, we don't know how to handle people who have antisocial behavior. I'm not talking big stuff but low-level stuff that still impacts quality of life.

Singapore has it figured out but nobody here likes to admit it. Fines are broadly ineffective and imprisonment too costly, when what most people really need is to get get smacked hard with a stick a few times.

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SoftTalker 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Kids picking up carts aren't going to detain anyone. It's the detaining that makes it work. The cops just come pick them up, they have eyewitnesses and video. Easy work.

The security guards that do the actual detaining are often off-duty LEO picking up extra hours. Even Kroger here has an armed officer at the exit door. So they can legally detain you and even arrest you.

True that they don't care about the bike outside. It's not their property.

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hackable_sand 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

To be fair, the only valid exchange with Target is to just take things off the shelf and leave.

That's what Target is there for.

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ahhhhnoooo 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They cannot detain you. Cops can detain you, Target staff can insist you have to stay, but they cannot easily and practically bar you from leaving.

They can initiate a citizen's arrest, which would permit them to detain you But if they are wrong, and you've committed no felony, that guard is civilly and criminally liable for false imprisonment -- a pretty serious charge. Most store security are unwilling to risk their own personal necks to protect the company's interest in $20 of shampoo or whatever.

	▲	djoldman 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		In IL, a "shopkeeper" can definitely detain someone: > (a) Detention. Any merchant who has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed retail theft may detain the person, on or off the premises of a retail mercantile establishment, in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time for all or any of the following purposes: > (1) To request identification; > (2) To verify such identification; > (3) To make reasonable inquiry as to whether such person has in his possession unpurchased merchandise and to make reasonable investigation of the ownership of such merchandise; > (4) To inform a peace officer of the detention of the person and surrender that person to the custody of a peace officer; > (5) In the case of a minor, to immediately make a reasonable attempt to inform the parents, guardian or other private person interested in the welfare of that minor and, at the merchant's discretion, a peace officer, of this detention and to surrender custody of such minor to such person. https://ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/072000...

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FireBeyond 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Hah, my phone was stolen and being sold on eBay. I found it because the person who bought it on eBay got my contact info and asked me to unlock the phone, I refused, he demanded a refund from the seller and gave me the seller's info, who lived about ten minutes away from me.

I found my phone. On my phone, and each and every phone I bothered to try, the IMEI failed checksumming because the last two digits had been transposed. Effect: seller looked "legit" (hah), and I couldn't find the listing by searching my actual IMEI.

What was on his page of listings? 100+ phones, most "activation locked", all "no chargers, cables, accessories.

Same with laptops. "No chargers, no cables, no accessories", many "locked".

All ridiculous prices (like $500 for a 'like new' m3 pro MBP).

Gave this info to the police.

They could not care less.

"Well, he probably didn't steal them himself..." (i.e. even they felt pretty sure it was all stolen).

"Isn't it still a crime to knowingly sell stolen property?"

"..."

Could not care less. They had a slam dunk case in mine alone. My phone had been stolen, a police report had been filed with them, and it had shown up in California where someone who bought it on eBay gave them the seller's info, someone who lived near me.

Nope.