Shoplifting valueless gift cards

[Lemon]

On the way in to work today I caught the last part of a story on some kid that got nabbed while shoplifting pockets full of unactivated gift cards (from Wal-Mart I think). I haven't been able to find the story online.

Has anyone else heard anything on this one? I would love to find out more because I have always wondered what the issues would be with "shoplifting" something that has no value. The morning news people just laughed at him for shoplifting something worthless but I would love to hear what the charges are for such an act... out of curiosity.

[slmpickens]

i by no means know if this is true, but my guess would be that he'd be prosecuted the same way as if he'd stolen something of value (albeit, little value). i would think they could argue that his intent was to shoplift something of value, even though he wasn't smart enough to do that.

[Macpherson]

Can't help with a link to it, but it doesn't surprise me. This holiday season is going to be brutal for criminal activity. Desperate times will lead to desperate measures.

[Arkansas]

When my youngest was 7 or 8 he went through phase of collecting those gift cards. He would pick out the ones he wanted and stick em in his pocket. Didn't know it was a crime. I bet he had about 150 or so at one time.

weird

[mizary]

are you allowed to go around town and collect every copy of citybeat you can find? I mean they are free right?

is stuff like that legal?

I saw a homeless woman take all the dog crap bags out of the dispenser at the park. What the heck was she going to do with them??!!

Stuff like that angers me.

--mizary

[Tweeks_Coffee]

I saw a homeless woman take all the dog crap bags out of the dispenser at the park. What the heck was she going to do with them??!!

Uhmm, you sure you want to know that?

[Yale Delay]

I saw a homeless woman take all the dog crap bags out of the dispenser at the park. What the heck was she going to do with them??!!

Stuff like that angers me.


Was it cold/wet out??? I have had a few homeless freinds so I have a good theory on what she was doing with them, bassically you get plastic bags, as they are waterproof, you then stuff them with newspaper for insulation, you then can sleep on them as a matress or gererally use them to keep you warm.

[WalterSobchak]

On the way in to work today I caught the last part of a story on some kid that got nabbed while shoplifting pockets full of unactivated gift cards (from Wal-Mart I think). I haven't been able to find the story online.

Has anyone else heard anything on this one? I would love to find out more because I have always wondered what the issues would be with "shoplifting" something that has no value. The morning news people just laughed at him for shoplifting something worthless but I would love to hear what the charges are for such an act... out of curiosity.

I would imagine this person might have been shooting for the resale factor on these. Same kind of thing as phone cards. Hey buddy got a $50 Best Buy gift card, sell it to you for $10 (I never said it was a good idea). Or it could have been for something like this (http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kennewick_pasco_richland/story/343251.html).

[Fourthisto]

I have always wondered what the issues would be with "shoplifting" something that has no value.Ah, but in theory value could be added to those cards. Just like the illegal "blank" ATM cards that you could potentially program with someone else's account numbers/PIN/whatever.

There's a lot of potential value in one of those blank magnetic strips on a plastic card.....


I saw a homeless woman take all the dog crap bags out of the dispenser at the park.

Stuff like that angers me.You're only mad because you have to PAY for your Ziplock bags! SUCKAAAAAA!!!

[Duemellon]

There is a greater scam involved in shoplifting unactivated gift cards.

Get the card & the numbers. Return the cards to the store OR have your inside person "activate" them. If the card is returned to the store & someone buys it, BINGO, you have an active account which you can make online purchases with. You just have to keep checking that batch every day for activation.

[OldManIndieKid]

There is a greater scam involved in shoplifting unactivated gift cards.

Get the card & the numbers. Return the cards to the store OR have your inside person "activate" them. If the card is returned to the store & someone buys it, BINGO, you have an active account which you can make online purchases with. You just have to keep checking that batch every day for activation.Nice theory, except that it doesn't work that way. You know that strip of silver stuff that you have to scrape off to expose the number? That's the security mechanism. If someone steals the cards and "steals" the numbers, that silver crud has to be scraped off. If they are returned to the store, they won't be resold because they are obviously compromised.

[Duemellon]

Nice theory, except that it doesn't work that way. You know that strip of silver stuff that you have to scrape off to expose the number? That's the security mechanism. If someone steals the cards and "steals" the numbers, that silver crud has to be scraped off. If they are returned to the store, they won't be resold because they are obviously compromised.How's about he was in need of decoding the magnetic encoding?

Or wanted to make the "coolest" deck of cards evah?

[nearlygod]

I college, I had a friend who liked to "steal" the free school newspaper. At one point, he 10-15 stacks that reach to the ceiling of his dorm room. He saw nothing wrong with it since they were free.

[mizary]

I had a friend that covered a wall with the free aol cds.

You never see AOL discs anymore. :(

--mizary

[GQuagmire]

There is a greater scam involved in shoplifting unactivated gift cards.

Get the card & the numbers. Return the cards to the store OR have your inside person "activate" them. If the card is returned to the store & someone buys it, BINGO, you have an active account which you can make online purchases with. You just have to keep checking that batch every day for activation.

Yeah...umm...I'm certainly not an expert on gift cards, but I don't see how in the world this could work. If it did, you could just go to the store and write down card numbers without buying them. If the cards did actually have the number printed on them, it would have to be hidden in a way that would void them from being re-sold (or sold for the first time) if it was revealed.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see initially that someone already debunked the scam.

[silentpaul]

I had a friend that covered a wall with the free aol cds.

You never see AOL discs anymore. :(

--mizary

Yeah, now I have to buy coasters.