So I’m doing the weekly shopping in Aldi. If you have an Aldi near you and haven’t tried it out, you might just want to give it a go. Prices are good, products are good, why not? Because you can’t write a check or use a credit card? Hmm. Seems a strange reason for not saving money, but if that’s your choice, that’s okay by me.
In any case, the cashier of my particular lane suddenly shows no small amount of distress. She’s frantically waving, trying to get the attention of someone further back in the store. Turns out she was trying to get the manager-type, which she finally did, and he came up to find out what was going on.
The story was that a group of people had been packing up their groceries (at Aldi, you pack ’em yourself), and at some point therein had decided to go back to the freezer section, pick up some more food, and pack it up. You may have noticed that they didn’t pay for their new items in that process.
While I don’t know if this actually happened, as I was busily checking to see if there were any good impulse purchases around, it’s possible. If it wasn’t done by the group in question, it could certainly have been done by someone else. Which made me think about stealing in general.
What is it that people hope to accomplish? One would suspect that people steal because they can’t – or won’t – pay the posted prices for particular items. Fair enough. So they take it instead. Which means that the manager of the store then has to spend time dealing with the issue, new security measures are put into place, and in no time, prices have gone up, resulting in – you guessed it – even higher prices. Anyone see a pattern beginning to form?
Comments
48 responses to “Why Do People Steal?”
This is about people stealing.
People steal because whatever item is an easy temptation. if they think nobody sees them and the victim probably expects it to be taken anyway, they feel entitled to take the item.It is not aboutbeing poor because people of all social strata steal.
Accusing the government of stealing is foolish. governments from the dawn of time regulate happenings in th community,and deal with social problems.people who see taxation to help the poor as unfair theft, should consider how the poor see, lazy individuals who want others to do their work while they get rich shuffling paperwork at most. They love to keep the poor man poor to maximize their profits.
But being poor does not make you a thief, neither does providing for those who are poor because of the nature of the system.If you want to live in a capitalistic society, you want poor peoiple to exist, so they can breed and supply you with cheap labor . therefore you have to pay to keep them alive(just barely) in order to nake the stinking profits to which you feel entitled. To me, the man who gets rich but wants his worker to work cheap is a thief as much as anybody ever was.
The bleeding heart liberal in me would say people stole because they had no choice and that society had failed them
The cod psychoanalyst in me would say people did it for the adrenalin rush
I’d been pickpocketed before, had my bag stolen. My family home was broken into some years back.
Then Years later I moved house and job, I’d been living there for a few weeks and someone stole my bike. My bike that was chained up in the back yard. My bike that someone had brought bolt croppers with them to steal. My bike that was stolen WHILE I WAS AT HOME ASLEEP.
It wouldnt even fetch much money.
I now feel like the house is being watched and as a woman living alone that creeps the hell out of me.
So, yeah – know what I think now?
In conclusion; that thieves are scum
they steal just because they want to do so… and also they think that the best way to make money.
I got caught in Dollar General today stealing hair gel. Where I live the unemployment rate is sky high. I am not trying to make excuses. I am currently unemployed and looking for work. I steal things ranging from food to personal items, like the hair gel. I feel like crap every time I do it, but here I am doing it over and over again. I know that it is wrong and that God will judge me for it. I NEED TO STOP !
I am 64 year old man and nicking things is the only thrill I have left in life when I do it I feel alive.
I can imagine what it’s like to be in the shoes of someone who steals but when I chose this as a topic for my english class I came up with a few characters but they seem so sterotypical and not very believable I want to know more
I have no patience for family members who steal. We were all raised in the same household, knowing the difference between right and wrong and yet there are still those family members who feel that stealing is acceptable. These family kleptomaniacs have the philosophy; “what’s yours is mine!” It is not that they are poor or are lacking in any way. In actual fact the family members that take from others are well off. If you address the issue, they make a huge scene and make you out to be the idiot by claiming they borrowed it and how dare you accuse me. All the while you know that you will never see it again. This stems from early childhood beginning at the age of one. The child is use to getting everything for nothing and taking what they want without any consequence. If the parents do not address the issue, the child does not feel any remorse or guilt for their action. Consequently, it manifests throughout the rest of their life believing they can take whatever they want. They are extremely self-centered, insecure, and disrespectful; caring only about themselves and their needs. It is necessary for them to steal to feel a sense of gain and control over others. They are spiteful and jealous yet have no explanation for it. Unfortunately, they will never accept the fact that what they are doing is wrong no matter how small the item. What’s worse is they have taught their children to do the same thing and joke about it. Regrettably, that child may suffer the repercussions of their parent’s inclination to steal with a criminal offense.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
i still dont understand why people steal.