The Five-Finger Discount Comes at a Price

We must have at least one shoplifter a day at Hobby Lobby. One that gets caught or at whom we shake our fists as they run through the parking lot, at least.

Today this woman tried to leave with a shopping bag containing a few t-shirts, and when she set off the security sensor my fellow employee began to question her. Soon a manger was called, and although I continued to help other customers, I overheard their conversation. The woman claimed to have been helped by someone in the back, and she said something about "just wanting to exchange some shirts". However, her shifty story and a lack of a receipt or any employee to confirm that she had been helped by "someone in the back" soon forced her to confess. As the manager began talking with her, I heard her say, "Well, I'm out of here,", and the manager replied that she could leave and we would take down her plates and she would inevitably be caught, or she could cooperate and this would play out a little more smoothly.

Shortly after this, I took my lunch break. In the break room upstairs, the atmosphere was tense, and for a few minutes I couldn't figure out why three or four of our managers were just standing there, as if waiting for something. I saw the woman again, but I didn't recognize her as the shoplifter. Soon a police officer arrived; he interrogated her with questions like, "Do you know what you did?" and "Do you understand that it's against the law?", to which she simply responded "Yes" in an increasingly strained and shameful tone. I overheard the cop saying that if she even sets foot in the parking lot after today she can expect the police to be called and to be detained again. I didn't know they did that to shoplifters, but I guess it makes sense. Why would you want to allow someone who had stolen from you back into your store?

Witnessing the prosecution of a shoplifter just reaffirms my belief that all sin stems from self-deception. The people who shoplift from our store almost always strike me as ashamed of themselves; of course, everyone who steals knows that it is wrong, but to be motivated to steal one must delude oneself at least as far as to think that one can get away with it. Although, not every shoplifter has been remorseful. A punk couple with lip piercings that I checked out last week set off the sensor, but instead of returning when hailed by an employee, they made a bee line for the door and skipped, yes, skipped to their car. I guess they thought that skipping made them look somehow less guilty than full out running, but I felt personally slighted because I had checked them out. They stole something from right underneath my nose, and then they obnoxiously skipped through the parking lot.

The woman today must have deceived herself, either into thinking that if she shopped farther from home, she was safer (I heard her say that she usually shops at the store across town), or maybe that she really could just swap out some merchandise without having to answer to anyone (She also said that she doesn't like the hassle of returns and exchanges). Whatever the case, I couldn't help pitying her a little bit while that cop was questioning her, and before the cop came, as she just sat there, surrounded by managers and employees taking lunch, probably wishing she could melt into her chair. Her apprehension and anxiety was tangible.