Thieves in Sebastopol

[tomcat]

What would you do?

It's the Christmas season... Lots of customers in the stores checking out the goods for sale.
A store counter person has stepped away to help a customer and someone walks by the counter and slips an $85. pair of clippers into their pocket and heads for the door.

OK, what would you do if you saw them do it?
What would you do if you were the owner and didn't see them?
What would you do if you knew the person who stole the clippers?

This is just one of the many things that has happened lately, but this kind of thing is happening more and more in Sebastopol... just ask any store owner in town.

My feeling is that we need to do more to support our local store owners and BUST anyone we see stealing and anyone we know who is stealing.

Store owners need to be encouraged to set up better security, such as video and share photos of the perps with other store owners and police.

This thieving has got to STOP!

[Dixon]

A store counter person has stepped away to help a customer and someone walks by the counter and slips an $85. pair of clippers into their pocket and heads for the door.
OK, what would you do if you saw them do it?

I would immediately tell store staff about it so they could bust the thief. I would do so quietly, so as not to give the thief warning. I feel that if we love one another, we take responsibility for keeping the community safe; part of that responsibility involves busting those who would victimize others, including not just rapists and murderers but also shoplifters, vandals, and charlatans such as "psychic surgeons" and purveyors of pyramid schemes.


This thieving has got to STOP!

Thieving and other forms of victimization will never stop entirely as long as we're human, because selfishness is hardwired into all organisms for good evolutionary reasons. But we can resist it! Those who lack the love/empathy/morality to resist baser impulses such as stealing create a situation in which society (i.e., you and I) must apply consequences to deter their hurtful behavior. Bust them! Sometimes the fear of consequences corrects people's behavior when their love/empathy/morality is insufficient.

Dixon

[tomcat]

How do people feel about store owners using video cameras in their stores? I know one owner who hasn't used cameras because they are afraid that customers may feel mistrusted.
I would want to use cameras to find out who was stealing. Everyone cannot be watched all the time.
If a thief finds an easy 'mark', they will probably hit again. It would be nice to know who needs to be watched a little closer.

[Dixon]

How do people feel about store owners using video cameras in their stores?

No problema. If people are uncomfortable with video cameras, they should direct their ire at the thieves and vandals who necessitate them, not at the store owners.

A few years ago, at a mental health program where I was working, money kept disappearing from a locked cabinet, clearly stolen by some staff member. I advocated for cameras, but they didn't install any, more's the pity.

Dixon

[Magick]

I hope we can refrain from camera surveillance but I think that raising awareness around the issue and watching each others backs is a much more community based approach. Building trust and awareness are good old fashioned tools that build community. Big Brother cameras are invasive and build mistrust and lessen awareness because people will think the camera will do the work for them. Not necessarily true though.
Maybe we need to focus our attention, as economic conditions worsen, on services for the homeless, like a shelter, more access to drug counseling and a youth corp to help kids transition into meaningful work if they can't afford or qualify for college. Sincerely, Magick


How do people feel about store owners using video cameras in their stores? I know one owner who hasn't used cameras because they are afraid that customers may feel mistrusted.
I would want to use cameras to find out who was stealing. Everyone cannot be watched all the time.
If a thief finds an easy 'mark', they will probably hit again. It would be nice to know who needs to be watched a little closer.

[tomcat]

Video Cameras do seem to be used in most places now. I did not like them at first, but I have gotten used to them now. I figure if I'm in public, I have no privacy.

A camera in a store will probably not stop a thief, but upon review of the tape, it might let the store owner know who the thief is.

Building trust and awareness are very good things to do, but I don't think that will stop a determined thief. Kinda like putting a lock on a door only keeps the fairly honest folks out.

I like the ideas of more services for the homeless, drug counseling and youth corp.

I remember when I was high school age, that some of the kids of wealthy parents seemed to steal more than those kids with poor parents... I wonder why? Maybe for the rush? Possibly this is happening in Sebastopol...



I hope we can refrain from camera surveillance but I think that raising awareness around the issue and watching each others backs is a much more community based approach. Building trust and awareness are good old fashioned tools that build community. Big Brother cameras are invasive and build mistrust and lessen awareness because people will think the camera will do the work for them. Not necessarily true though.
Maybe we need to focus our attention, as economic conditions worsen, on services for the homeless, like a shelter, more access to drug counseling and a youth corp to help kids transition into meaningful work if they can't afford or qualify for college. Sincerely, Magick

[Dixon]

...Building trust and awareness are good old fashioned tools that build community.

That's a good thing, but it has little to do with preventing theft. People often invoke trust as if it's totally good with no dark side. But I must insist that it's possible to be too trusting, or to trust the wrong people. Thieves love it when we trust them; it increases their income. Too much trust can get you robbed, raped or worse. Too little can make you a paranoid recluse. As with most things in life, the trick is finding the best balance.


Big Brother cameras are invasive and build mistrust...I don't see cameras as building mistrust at all. I see them as a response to mistrust that already exists, often as an appropriate response to hurtful behaviors like theft, rape, etc.


Maybe we need to focus our attention, as economic conditions worsen, on services for the homeless, like a shelter, more access to drug counseling and a youth corp to help kids transition into meaningful work if they can't afford or qualify for college. I agree with you 100% on these suggestions, Magick, and to the extent that theft is caused by problems like poverty, drug addiction and unemployment, such action would decrease theft a bit. But even if we entirely wiped out all the aforementioned social problems, there would still be theft, rape, vandalism, murder, etc., because those behaviors aren't just socially-caused aberrations; they're based on evolutionarily-conditioned drives and tendencies that are universally part of human nature. Just for one example, the filthy rich Wall Street fat cats who've successfully ripped us all off didn't do it because of poverty, drug addiction or unemployment; they did it because of something dark in the human soul--and because they were pretty well assured of being exempt from consequences. So, in addition to your excellent suggestions for social reform, we'll still have a need for watchfulness, reasonable laws, and consequences to deter those whose consciences are insufficient to the task.

Blessings;

Dixon

[tomcat]

Latest... young guy comes into a Sebastopol store and chats up the counter person while looking at some goods... nice looking kid... real charmer.
After he leaves, 5 pair of ear rings are found to be missing.
Tis the season.