What’s with all the shoplifting videos on social media from the US?

23 comments

1. You guys are a little more civilized over there.

2. Some cities have stopped prosecuting shoplifters, so they end up with more shoplifters.

3. Most stores won’t prosecute until they steal a certain value, usually $800+. Most retailer worker aren’t paid enough to chase and take things back. During my retail worker era I was in an area that I fully expected to get shot at if I tried stopping a shoplifter. I actually had a knife pulled on me and got rape threats from a grown ass man for not being able to fix a soft serve machine when I was 17ish.

   We aren’t paid enough to care and simply won’t bother since our health insurance won’t cover the hospital visit if we get shot.

   Edit: before anyone asks the machine was fully beyond my repair. The pump that takes the liquid custard was like running stupidly hot and basically cooking the custard? We called our location owner and she had to call a special repair guy to come out.

4. Some cities have drastically reduced the punishments for shoplifting, and many stores have policies against employees interfering with shoplifters for the safety of the employees.

5. It has seen an uptick recently because of police having a weak response to it and prosecutors not going after non-violent crimes. It has also been aided by social media and instant communication allowing groups of shoplifters to coordinate those type of “flash mob” robberies.

   You see videos of it online because no one posts videos of people calmly exchanging money for goods and services.

6. Something something algorithms? You evidently like shoplifting videos so you are shown more of them?

7. It’s not due to the US doing anything. Theft, like most crimes, is regulated by states.

   I’m guessing these videos are from California. California greatly reduced penalties for non violent theft under a relatively high value. In some districts (not the whole state), the prosecutor is choosing not to prosecute the shoplifters. Criminals, not being stupid, are as aware of that as the rest of the population and so in these very, very limited areas, theft is greatly up.

   Washington, Oregon, and California have a lot in common politically, so there may be places in all three states where it’s happening, but California is the one I know about.

8. Algorithm.

   Also videos of people not shoplifting won’t get views.

9. I haven’t seen this at all. It has to at least partly be your algorithm deciding you like videos of people shoplifting.

10. > but on social media I keep seeing video’s

    Annnnnnnd disregard

11. What’s more frightening is how many people don’t know what an algorithm is.

12. Could simply be that the US has and exports a lot of media. Gen Z jokes about it as an anti corporate stance, but I don’t think many of them actually do it.

    As others have said here, it’s common for stores not to prosecute until they can get a larger theft case out of you for continued shoplifting. Target, for example, will let you shoplift until a certain dollar amount (in the $1000s) and then they’ll press charges.

13. You keep watching the videos, so the algorithm puts more in front of you to keep you engaged.

    The criminals will get punished in time. What do you expect the store to do? When the workers are making $12 an hour you can’t expect them to tackle and fight shoplifters for you. If it’s an owner-operator of a small business that’s one thing. Taking an assets protection job at Target is quite another. It’s much safer to let the big retail chain take the hit than put yourself in harms way to prevent $100 of merchandise from being stolen.

14. You don’t see those videos coming from areas that take petty crime seriously. Walmart still has plain clothed security people in Tennessee who hold shoplifters until uniformed police arrive. We still have plenty of brick and mortar retail. Also, once it’s announced that only felony theft will be prosecuted, organized retail theft becomes a thing. Gangs steal just below the limit, move to the next store, rinse and repeat.

15. That’s not from the US, that’s from San Francisco /s

    The videos you’re seeing are almost always from cities which have taken a very light stance on petty crime. So much so that organized shop lifting is becoming more and more common. When it becomes more common, the more chances it will end up on video and when it ends up on video, there’s now “news for the sake of news.”

    It is largely irrelevant to everyone to know about organized shop lifting in California, but that’s what is broadcast. Now… car break ins, that’s gotten so bad several companies have stopped sending their employees there because it costs too much for insurance lol.

16. Nuts took over various legislatures and DA’s offices and brilliantly announced that they were not going to prosecute theft.

    Now the stores close and these same morons blame everything but themselves.

17. Because watching a video of someone paying for their stuff and leaving isn’t interesting.

18. Its region dependent. Where i live in the Mid Atlantic, shoplifting is very rare and random.

19. This question is kind of funny because I moved to the States and people here are under the opposite impression, in terms of yeah there is shoplifting here but it’s crazy how much shoplifting/theft there is in London.

    Haven’t seen any of the videos you are mentioning. It’s probably on social media because it’s weird though?

20. All I know is the news I get from the state of California itself and local news keeps showing me these damn shoplifting videos, car crashes/street take overs car theft/break ins and the homeless situation and how they’re trying to deal with it with Gavin Newsom. I’m like damn. It’s in the news a lot for NYC too and I’m not even on TikTok or Fox News. I mean I hear about other states too but jeeze not on those levels.

21. Ok… A lot of things to correct before answering.

    >I keep seeing video’s from the US of groups of people entering stores and stealing loads of stuff

    This is not shoplifting, this is a “smash and grab” robbery where person or persons rush in and grab whatever is easiest to take and rush out. Shoplifting, generally is a concealment theft.

    >US decriminalising shoplifting

    The idea that theft of any sort would be decriminalized in any capitalist society is…for lack of a better word, laughable. Theft is a crime. Whether the theft is $0.25 or $1,000,000.00. That said, the legal costs for the store and the State prosecuting and jailing a theft under a certain amount is fiscally irresponsible. The cost per inmate (State prison) in the US averages about $46,000 per year, add to that court costs of $300-$600. In my state (MD) the retailer can make a civil demand of up to three times the amount stolen. Let’s look at the math: A shoplifter taking a $15 set of earbuds will, when caught, return the item (net $0) pay a demand of $45 Total $45 to retailer. Pay $450 of court costs upon conviction and 1 year of jail time (-$46,000) $46,000-$490= not worth it

    >or because the stores get sued for detaining shoplifters.

    Stores don’t get sued for **detaining shoplifters**, stores get sued for **kidnapping, assaulting**
    **shoppers, and racial discrimination**. Loss Prevention / Asset Protection are *not* (usually) police officers, and have *no authority* to detain anyone. Every single thing you do when stopped is voluntary. we use our voice and assumed authority to give the impression that you have no choice… but you can just run. What we have the authority to do is ask for the return of stolen items.

    So, in answer to your question: It’s hard for the police to track a group of organized robbers. Often the videos are released by the police to help ID anyone in the group and help make an arrest. Often they are shown on a news channel or youtube to shock.

22. Back in 2020, there was a big push by people who didn’t know the downstream ramifications of Defunding the Police. In addition, corrupt District Attorneys aren’t prosecuting the people committing the crimes; which incentivizes said people to commit more crime!

23. The us hasn’t decriminalized it. Individual cities and states probably have