NationStates Jolt Archive

well today at work a man was caught shop lifting.

but here is where you guys and gals of nationstates come in. the managers and various other people in the store had been watching him for the past hour or so. i knew he was being watched and that the cops were already at the front of the sotre waiting for him to come out, and i knew that he had well over $1000 worth of merchandise he was planning on shoplifting which i know anything over $500 is a felony. knowing all of this i help the man because thats what we are supposed to do with customers and i was supposed to act like nothing is going on. i talked to him and while i was talking to him i could of easily of said something to him that may of made him think twice about doing it, maybe a suttle hint about our security. that may of saved him from making a huge mistake in his life. but i didn't. do you think i should of?

im on the edge of deciding if its right or not to stand idly by watching someone about to commit a crime and then jumping on them once they do.
do you think that maybe the sotre should of done/said something before he actually commited the crime? do you think its right that they were just watching him and waiting for him to take the last step in making what he was doing illegal?

(by the way, i am also new to the forums)

welcome to NSG :)
that's a tough problem... and for a change round here i'm stumped for an opinion :p on the one hand, the guy may well learn more from getting caught ('pounced on') after committing the crime. and not being caught he may well just do it again somewhere else. so as far as society is concerned, you probably did the right thing.

but from the other viewpoint you could have helped this man out. big time.

problem is, i suppose, you can probably safely assume the shoplifter would just rob somewhere else in due time, so getting caught may well have been inevitable...

Believe me, he's learnt a better lesson by being arrested then if you told him that he was being watched. If you told him, he would've just gone to another store at gotten caught there. You've done him a favor by allowing him to be taught a lesson.

Believe me, he's learnt a better lesson by being arrested then if you told him that he was being watched. If you told him, he would've just gone to another store at gotten caught there. You've done him a favor by allowing him to be taught a lesson.
Or, worse, he could've gone to another shop and not got caught there.
He chose his actions of his own free will and has nobody to blame but himself.

welcome to NSG :)
that's a tough problem... and for a change round here i'm stumped for an opinion :p on the one hand, the guy may well learn more from getting caught ('pounced on') after committing the crime. and not being caught he may well just do it again somewhere else. so as far as society is concerned, you probably did the right thing.

but from the other viewpoint you could have helped this man out. big time.

problem is, i suppose, you can probably safely assume the shoplifter would just rob somewhere else in due time, so getting caught may well have been inevitable...

i see your point and i kind of agree with you, but because he shoplifted such a large dollar amount worth of merchandise he is pretty much screwed in what his punishment option are. most likely a very hefty fine and a couple years in jail. this is a lesson but do you think that maybe it is a little too big of a lesson? this pretty much follows him for the rest of his life and will also affect his family as well.

i see your point and i kind of agree with you, but because he shoplifted such a large dollar amount worth of merchandise he is pretty much screwed in what his punishment option are. most likely a very hefty fine and a couple years in jail. this is a lesson but do you think that maybe it is a little too big of a lesson? this pretty much follows him for the rest of his life and will also affect his family as well.

thing is if you had all the facts you could make such a value judgement as to whether the punishment fits the crime. but you didn't and can't hope to... so that's where laws come in. its not up to you to make that judgement - a judge does that :P

its a shame you couldn't help him, and it is a case of both sides being right... but as a single case perhaps warning him and helping him out would have been best for him. but in the long run, or in the big-picture, laws can only work if they're followed, and fewer other people will suffer as a result if the laws work accross the board.

he knowingly did what was wrong and he deserves what he gets. if you break the law you have to accept the penalties. i dont see anything wrong with waiting for someone to break the law either. people shouldnt have to be told to behave themselves every 5 minutes. its one of those stages you learn about in between being a child and being an adult.

i see your point and i kind of agree with you, but because he shoplifted such a large dollar amount worth of merchandise he is pretty much screwed in what his punishment option are. most likely a very hefty fine and a couple years in jail. this is a lesson but do you think that maybe it is a little too big of a lesson? this pretty much follows him for the rest of his life and will also affect his family as well.
Big fine and two years in jail for shoplifting??? What kind of police state do you live in?

He'll probably come out of jail as a junkie or something.

I don't think you should have second doubts about what you did. The guy had plenty of opportunities to decide not to go through with it. The way I see it, people need to make these kinds of moral decisions themselves. If you stop him, you take away his chance to make the right decision and be a better man for it. If he ends up making the wrong decision, his punishment is well deserved.

Big fine and two years in jail for shoplifting??? What kind of police state do you live in?

He'll probably come out of jail as a junkie or something.

It wasn't "just shoplifting", read the post.

He stole over $1000 worth of products. That is enough to typically turn it into grand larceny.

i see your point and i kind of agree with you, but because he shoplifted such a large dollar amount worth of merchandise he is pretty much screwed in what his punishment option are. most likely a very hefty fine and a couple years in jail. this is a lesson but do you think that maybe it is a little too big of a lesson? this pretty much follows him for the rest of his life and will also affect his family as well.
Maybe it's a first offence and he'll get off relatively lightly.
Maybe he'll realise the error of his ways in prison, spend the time wisely and productively, get some qualifications and come out to a better life.
Maybe if you'd warned him he'd've gradually got worse and worse until he finally got arrested and charged with murder after a botched armed robbery.

You will never know "what if", you cannot do anything about it, other than learn from it so that you might make similar decisions better in future. There is no point worrying about it at all. The only thing you can know is that this chap should be very happy that it's not me handing out the sentences...

I can understand your dilemna, but in the end it was his choice to steal the merchandise. You can't make his decisions for him.

Yeah, if you stopped him before he commited the crime it would just teach him to more careful next time.

Maybe it's a first offence and he'll get off relatively lightly.
Maybe he'll realise the error of his ways in prison, spend the time wisely and productively, get some qualifications and come out to a better life.
Maybe if you'd warned him he'd've gradually got worse and worse until he finally got arrested and charged with murder after a botched armed robbery.

You will never know "what if", you cannot do anything about it, other than learn from it so that you might make similar decisions better in future. There is no point worrying about it at all. The only thing you can know is that this chap should be very happy that it's not me handing out the sentences...

Or me.

My jail systems would be LABOR CAMPS. Effective, fund-raising crime deterrent. ;)