Shoplifting, or thieving fashion

Shoplifting, just like many other trends, came to our country fr om America. The Internet is full of sites, where Russian shoplifters boast their stolen items and upload photos of the loot. The geography of the accomplices is quite broad: Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Perm and Volgograd.

Shoplifters can discuss safe stealing techniques forever. What retail chain uses what protection, wh ere surveillance cameras are located. The possibility to equip special hardware, like jammers or receivers, which allow eavesdropping on the security frequency, is discussed.

According to them, stores rip customers off; therefore, the “customers” may also rip the stores off. Shoplifters know that their deeds increase the stores’ prices by 1-3%, but believe that such pennies are not too much for honest buyers. Some of them call their thefts a hobby. Others are actually addicted to the adrenaline rush.

Alexey Salmin, Advocate of the Law Firm "YUST", provides a legal assessment: “Stealing is not considered a crime but rather an administrative offence, if it is done by theft, fraud, misappropriation or embezzlement; if the value of the stolen property does not exceed one thousand roubles; if there are no qualifying signs of a crime indicated in Articles 158-160 of the Penal Code. Absence of any of the above transfers the stealing committed by the person to the penal law sphere. If there are qualifying signs, and even if the value of the stolen property was less than one thousand roubles, the deed is to be considered a crime. The lawmakers list among the qualifying signs the stealing committed by a group of persons acting in concert or by a group of persons with burglary. One should also keep in mind the consequences, which may later affect the life of “small-time robbers”. For example, the information on bringing of the person to administrative liability remains in the databases, which are frequently accessed by security specialists of many ventures. The law enforcers often fail to react or react too late to the facts of shoplifting. Such crimes are highly latent, and the retailers often do not contact the law enforcement agencies”.