Shoplifters At Oregon Lowe's Couldn't Be More Blatant As They Steal Electrical Wire

Remember when video stores would put the empty VHS case tapes on the shelves and fill them once a customer came to the front desk to pay for a rental because the actual VHS tape was worth more than a kilo of cocaine? Yeah, well that's where we just might be heading at stores like Lowe's in Keizer, Oregon where shoplifters rolled in, headed for the electrical wire, and started filling their carts.

Blatant shoplifting may soon lead to Lowe's locking down its goods like it's a Video Connection. This isn't just a San Francisco issue where rampant shoplifting caused stores like Walgreens to just close its stores. Keizer is a city of 36,000 outside Salem where it appears the locals have themselves a big problem.

"It was so blatant, that’s what riled me up," local resident Andrew Sullivan, who filmed the incident, told the local newspaper. "They were just strolling through the parking lot, just riding the carts."

Sullivan says he went to the police with his video, as any responsible citizen would do. "This just happened!!!! Keizer PD WILL NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. PD didn’t even wanna talk to me!," he wrote on Facebook.

Sullivan, who's an electrician, says the thieves went after the Romex wire spools. The big boy stuff. They knew exactly what would turn over with ease. Copper!

Keizer Police Lt. Andrew Copeland told the Keizer Times that very little would be done to the thieves if they are caught. “Once you’ve stolen from Lowe's once and know they can't stop you, there’s no real consequence,” Copeland told the newspaper. “Second thing is, these people know they can’t go to jail."

We're talking fines, a citation and then they're released.

As for how interested Lowe's is in prosecuting these cases, Copeland noted that store management didn't bother to report the crime until the day after the theft.

Where do losers like the Lowe's shoplifters learn such behavior? Perhaps they watched this summer as San Francisco thieves went to town running stores out of business. As of July, Walgreens had closed 17 stores over the last few years due to shoplifting.

In a poll released this summer, 70% of San Francisco voters said their quality of life has plummeted over the past few years and 44% of the voters said they were likely to move out of the city.

While San Francisco reaps the rewards of insane laws and ways in which it deals with criminals, Keizer, Oregon appears headed down a similar path, unless the residents rise up and demand action in their city.