I'm always a little cautious around people who scream, regardless of gender.

One of the whiniest posts in a while

Hey O.P, if some homeless person steals from you, I hope you're cool with it. And not think of them as being a "Piece of Shit" for stealing your shit. If you do think that then you're participating and "encourage race- and class-based profiling, BTW".

PS, I DO hope a homeless person steals from you. Because, I'd really love to hear your fictional thoughts here in the I,Anonymous column.

What the fuck Hippie bullshit is this? I could see giving the shoplifter a break for stealing food, but fuckin' beer? If you are too poor to buy beer you shouldn't be drinking beer. You should be out looking for a fuckin job.

I remember when Ansel Herz posted a thing about how stealing is not necessarily wrong, because it is just wealth redistribution in a capitalist society.

Then his camera got stolen, and several blog posts went up demanding it back and asking for information so the thief could be identified and his camera returned.

I guess it is all fun and games until your stuff gets jacked.

I'm afraid of screams, and stealing becomes okay if you simply fear confrontations. Or loud noises. I can't go to the loud noises place. I am scared. Did I mention that I am scared scared scared?? Girls get scared.

People who work in retail should not be chasing down shoplifters. First, they don't get paid to do so, they are not trained to do so, and typically an employer will not only NOT reward them for doing so, they will typically punish them. Take it from someone who knows. I worked at Barnes and Noble in downtown Seattle and they let homeless people steal and punch employees in the face and if employees attempted to retaliate in any way they were fired or reprimanded.

#6 Maybe you should consider living in a smaller town or a quiet suburb. You don't seem suited to city life. Nobody should stay in an environment where they are are scared all the time, it isn't healthy.

Oh, and shoplifters and thieves deserve whatever happens to them. Thieves fucking suck.

And so the run of feel-good I, Anonymous posts comes to an end, and we return to passive aggressive whiny Seattle moaning, mixed with a little New Age-y moralizing. All is again right with the world, at least in this regard.

This mindset is the reason why people vote for Trump.

Fuck off anon. People that steal beer are pieces of shit and they deserve to be yelled at, at a minimum.

@3, @5
Stealing from Safeway et.al is VERY different than stealing from your fellow man.
Go read about the difference between private and personal property as it pertains to socialism, etc.

Regardless, theft prevention isn't part of a grocery clerk's job and shouldn't be. Hopefully the clerk this post is about are just power-tripping assholes rather than just afraid to lose their jobs.

The profit margin on little grocery stores is usually low: and if that clerk is actually the owner, or one of the family of owners, and that is the hundredth time he has caught a shoplifter walking off with the profit of his work, then yeah I understand the screaming.

But I come from the lower middle class, and knew family who ran their own little stores, where shoplifting stole the bread out of their children's mouths.

It must be nice to be so privileged that you can feel sorry for the thief stealing booze, and not for the working guy trying to make a living.

@12: If you have to split hairs and redefine words to make an action "ok," than that should tell you that the action is not right.

Even if you simply cry "socialism" and demand people read primers on what you decided certain things mean.

The anon should leave.

This sounds like the Cliff Notes version of Les Miserable.

@12, stealing is stealing. It's wrong No Matter What. Lets say, for the sake of argument: That person steals from you. Then sells your stuff to buy food. Are you okay with that?

Or, will you call the cops and report the theft and wanting the person prosecuted If they get caught?
It's re-distribution of wealth right? Ha-Ha

All the way around, this is what happens when having a little class is no longer a valued attribute.

If you felt that bad, just go over and give the theft $10 bucks or offer him a bottle beer. Typical Seattle bs, its not about helping people its about looking better than others...

@5 in fairness I think it was other staff writers complaining on slog how shitty it was, especially since Ansel was an unpaid intern.

You shittin me with this bs??? What a load of crap.

Poor little liberal! Never had a business, and never will! See you when snowmegeddon hits and the shelves are empty!

Stealing is wrong. Not acceptable. Maybe this clerk had to pay back the till for the theft, can't get beer on foodstamps or E.B.T. He was within his rights.

It's time to up your gentrification game and start shopping at Whole Foods.

The thief was not Jean Valjean stealing bread to feed his starving family. He
stole frigging BEER. The clerk and random guy were right to wail on his pitiful butt.
Another thing. The picture with the post is even more misleading than usual.
I,Anon did not say that the thief was a tiny child, nor that his accusers were huge
slobbering-with-rage psychotic giants.

@10 - Right on the money - not that such is a rational response. Otherwise, if you, anon, really feel that it's ok for other people to have there stuff stolen then permanently prop open your front and back door open and help out those in need. Also, remember the person climbing into your bed is just looking to get warm or for a little love - don't yell, just embrace.

LW, you saw someone steal and then someone got upset about it. Words were exchanged, feelings were hurt - how do you let that affect you personally? And by the way, yes he did have to search the person's bag because that's how he recovered the stolen property. Maybe the store clerk wasn't having such a great day either and having to deal with this nonsense over beer - not medicine for someone's sick child - sent them over the edge.

@27 - She's bothered by the way things were handled, the yelling and name calling etc. She doesn't condone the actual theft, just wants us all to respect the theif's feelings and not get upset about their behavior, which is obnoxious, I agree. Suggesting that she should then be ok with getting raped is one of the more idiotic things you could have written. What the hell is wrong with you?

1. The special snowflake who composed this particularly whiny I Anon seems unsuited to the rough-and-tumble of living in a major metropolitan area.

2. Guessing Special Snowflake hasn't ever worked retail. If he or she had, or had spent even a few seconds out of his or her own apparently easily disturbed bubble, he or she would realize that shoplifters hit the same "easy" places over and over again, because they can, & because, not being dumb, they would vastly prefer to pilfer places where management evidently gives no fucks -- #7's Barnes & Noble jumps immediately to mind -- over places where they're called out or confronted. Will an unchallenged beer thief modulate his beer stealing? Not likely. He'll more likely return, & tell all his friends.

3. Addiction and mental health issues play a part in shoplifting. I once worked at a business in a "bad neighborhood" that was targeted over and over by the same obviously badly addicted thief, to the tune of thousands of dollars of lost merchandise over several months. Finally one of the regular customers, no angel himself, caught the thief, took him out to the parking lot next door, and broke both his wrists. Regular Thief was white as a sheet as he lurched away, yet was back six hours later, still trying to pilfer stuff while sporting two new white casts on his wrists. That episode taught me a fair bit about vengeance and addiction. I think there is a middle ground between I Anon's prissy but-my-feelings! approach and wrist breaking. Beer retrieval and swearing -- naming and shaming -- seems like a practical middle ground.

@28 - I was thinking spooning not rape. A little love does not equal rape, that's not love. You took it there, so look to yourself for insights on that. You could have at least said "if I was referring...". Otherwise we seem on the same page, it's a bit obnoxious to ask the victim to worry about the thief's feelings.

@31 - Right, you talked about her leaving her door open and someone climbing into her bedand giving her a little love and told her not to resist and you meant spooning. If you want to take back what you said knock yourself out, but spooning ? Seriously?

@31 Again on you. I didn't say "don't resist," I said "don't yell" -- Like "get the hell out of my bed," which would be punching down, as she noted. Her and some other posters thoughts on the matter were all about understanding and empathizing. I mean really, the victim shouldn't yell back even if the thief is yelling at you, and she appreciates the store probably has "a strict policy on stealing." Yeah, they need a policy. It's a hilarious anon. Also,If you didn't notice my response wasn't an angry "I hope they cut your head of and rape you dead body," but focused on just opening yourself up to the community at large, be giving and understanding yourself. I was laughing and imagining a person just wanting a little love. I was actually thinking snuggling, and perhaps you wouldn't have rushed to rape if I had said that, but that's the only measure I will give. I don't equate "a little love" to rape and don't think rape is funny, which is the only reason I have responded. So, yes, seriously.

Well, in other places they cut peoples hands off & or shoot them dead even over for less. Hell, I saw someone tied & dragged from the back of a car down a rocky unpaved dirt road for trying to do a dine & dash. That there is the definition of being a bit extreme.....

If you condone bad behaviors then they continue and they get worse. For the store clerks yelling at the individual - they were definitely not in the wrong. Theft adds up pretty fast and it hurts businesses, hurts the employees more when the lower on the ladder people get cut from their jobs to break even after the losses, especially when it comes to small chains or that Ma & Pa location.

As for the whole "Oh no, me scared!" bit.... grow a spine. Men getting violent when yelling? Women are by far worse because they know they can get away with casting malicious behavior towards other individuals, even inflict physical harm and get off without consequence. Men pretty much get lynched as so much as to momentarily glance at a woman even if unintentional. So don't go starting that mess. >:C

If you think a "strict no-stealing" policy encourages racial profiling, maybe you're the one with racist thoughts about what a thief looks like...

@35: I know, right?

You're kidding right?

Maybe chasing down a theif isn't the best idea but they have every right to be at this guy. Amazingly homelessness doesn't make stealing 'okay' and many stores wind up closing because of shit like this. I gotta agree with #20, offer the guy money or buy him a beer if you really care, but let's face it, this about proving how 'moral' you are. Not about helping someone.

your life will generally never go great if you insist on stealing beer, how about you let the poor maligned chap shop at your house instead.

that they screaming is hyperbole on your part, more likely there was some yelling going on.

@33 Your attempts to walk that comment back are ridiculous and comical.

Dang, this was the trolliest troll I've seen in a while.

Am I the only one who's disappointed that there was nothing "gross" in this "I,A."?

With a title like that, you'd havethought it was gonna be about somebody taking a dump in the dairy case, or a "made to order" deli sandwich full of maggots, or whatever it is Trumps smears on his head-tendrils to hold them in place.

So it's gross to yell at a thief?

It's wrong for someone who actually works for a living to be upset that someone else won't?

Lets get real this wasn't Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving niece, this was a bum stealing a beer.

The only thing "gross" about this, is that the OP was such a delicate snowflake and thinks that's everyone's problem.