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What Kind Of Person Shoplifts, Robs Or Burglarizes?

Interviewer: Of the shoplifting cases you have dealt with, is there a particular type of person that commits petit larceny? Are they usually first-time people, or more hardened people?

Stuart: It runs the gamut. There are a lot of first-timers, as I said. But there are people who in essence do it as a career. They have been caught five times. They may have done it 100 times and got caught five times. It is worth it to them to keep going, whether it is to feed a drug habit or support their families and themselves.

If it is a first-timer, maybe they have made a mistake. You hope you never see them back. You get them an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. They are given a second chance. Hopefully, they take that second chance and they do well with it.

Interviewer: Is there any particular flavor of person who tends to commit burglaries and robberies?

Stuart: Again, it runs the gamut. There are professional burglars who have been burglars. Tools are not a handbag and a crowbar. They are professional burglar’s tools that are standard; that can figure out electronically how to deal with an alarm system or a locking system almost as you see on TV.

They are breaking into either very wealthy homes or they are breaking into very expensive warehouses. These are not places that just have something. They do their research. They find out.

Then there are the drunk kids who go to the Dairy Barn store which happens to be closed. They want a beer. So in their stupidity, they break the window and steal cases of beer and some packs of cigarettes. They do not even touch the register.