Circumstantial Theft: Would you do it?
 

The Circumstance:

You are the employee of some sort of retail store. You look in the computer and certain items aren't there. Would you take them?

I would, and have. I could not steal from someone personally, but if it's a corporation and it makes a very insignificant difference, then I don't have good enough morals not to take it.

Obviously the bible thumpers would say no, and the cleptomaniacs would say yes, but what does the GFF general public think? Why or why not?

depends on the item. I'm too lazy to resell hot shit, so it'd have to be something I want or need.

Also if I can sneak it out of the building without being caught.

I wouldnt take it

doesnt really matter if the item was so insignificant that its abscence wouldnt be very noticable, what if most people came to that conclusion? then there would be a bigger problem, especially if your stealing from work, then it reflects upon the people you know and work with and you might get them in a hole if you get caught or something.
Though Im not above accepting whats already been stolen from a major retailor, a friend of mine snagged some ps2s from a walmart he worked at and gave me one, and though I found it dishonest, he had his reasons and whats done was done

In short, I wouldnt risk it

Also, theft of digital media on the other hand is another topic, in case if anyone wanted to hold that against me

Theft or Copyright Infringement? They're not the same thing.

Personally, I wouldn't. In this age of surveillance states, the odds of getting caught are too high and the permanent repercussions even if they don't press charges (which they would) are too damaging to my reputation to risk it.

Nope. More out of principle than out of fear. I notice quite a bit of you are afraid you can't get away with such a theft. :p

Eventually that item is gonna be slapped into the computer and when the company asks what happened to it, shit is eventually gonna hit the fan when there's some sort of block between the two sides.

I, personally, wouldn't do it knowing the risk that's involved.

I could steal from someone personally, though. It's a bit heartless on my part, but I do it during parties. Since there's so many people there, it's hard to point the finger on who dunnit.

That's assuming they have a paper record and will really be looking that closely... not the case in most places I've worked. I don't see what risk it entails, especially since you yourself pointed out that it's hard to pick out who is guilty if there's many potential culprits.

Personally, I absolutely would, assuming I or someone else had a use for the item. This of course after a good check of the place for surveillance cameras, etc. Even so, just move it to an area without them, and take it a few days later, few places keep surveillance footage very long.

I'd probably take whatever the item would be and run out of the place, just to say I did. Yet, I would plan out what I would do to get the item and make sure I don't get caught, even though my plans never work out anyway.

As I should have stated in the original post, in this particular situation the security cameras are out of service........ :)

If I understand your scenario correctly, you're talking about taking items that are on the shelf or in the stockroom, presumably for sale or use, but for some reason aren't tracked in inventory?

It would depend on the value of the item for me. When I worked retail, I only took things that were marked for trash (outdated medicine, which is still good for up to a year after expiration, toys that were out of their packaging, etc.)

Now that I'm in white collar employment, it's more about stealing office supplies. Everyone takes pens and such, but what about other things? I've taken a package of printer paper, or blank envelopes, but I draw the line at blank CDs, batteries, or any kind of electronic equipment.

There's not a chance in hell I'd take anything from my place of work deliberately. I may have accidentally come home with the odd pen but that was always inadvertent. Wherever I've worked, I've always felt bound by my honour to not steal from them. It has nothing to do with getting caught, I just wouldn't feel right.

Ya just don't bite the hand which feeds you.

they pretty much are since youre downloading or distributing digital media without proper ownership, the latter being a more of an infringement action.

Also as a side note, there were times when I was younger, especially when I worked at mall stores, and Id ask my supervisor or managers if I could take a small item or non sellable item, or even abuse a privilage and usually they'd okay it. If you really want to take something, asking works, especially if you ask often and show communication, which I would think would increase honesty points

Since I work for the federal government, my tax dollars paid for any supplies I might steal, so technically, I'm stealing from myself. Of course, I'm stealing from all of you as well, but I never really liked you guys anyway.

See, that's interesting. I wouldn't steal from my friends or people I know, but I wouldn't care if I was stealing from a corporate entity. Why are you afraid more of the consequences of corporate theft than of personal theft?

We are on the same page a lurker. A corporation has no feelings and people do. If you take let's say... a DVD from a corporation, the 19.99 loss is split between the ownership shares eventually (although corporations have a fund for pilferage already, so unless you broke their max, they're not paying anymore) and is extremely insignificant due to the vast number of shares and owners of those shares. However, you steal a DVD a friend or other people, they lose all of the 19.99. The difference is plain to me.

Yes and no. Mostly out of fear - anywhere with any sort of surveillance or loss prevention system instills enough fear in me to make me put the thought immediately out of my mind. Last time I stole anything from a store was when I was like, 6 years old... my mom caught me and forced me to apologize right to the manager's face.

However, my last office job I had, when they laid me off for no good reason I took the hard drive out of the computer I used, put in a smaller drive, then took the larger one home and used it in my external enclosure. I still feel a tad guilty, but they will never know the difference, never miss it, never suffer a loss because of it, and never spend money they wouldn't otherwise have spent.

I've taken a copy of Ace Combat Zero and Bladerunner from the video store I work at, but only because they didn't belong to the store. AC was returned in the case of different game that had been stolen from us several months prior, so after a couple of weeks it was obvious that no one would miss its presence. Bladerunner I found in the backroom in the case of a different movie, marked as being the wrong disc. Once something like that makes it to the backroom it's probably been up front for several months already.

I wouldn't take something that just doesn't seem to be marked into inventory, because that could still be missed eventually. Besides, I'd feel guilty for stealing from the store. In the case of those two things there's no guilt involved since they just belonged to random customers who never came back to claim them.

Well, where I work right now I stole a space heater hahah. But that's about it. When I worked for Game Crazy I took about $300 worth of games with me when I left. They sucked at keeping track of that kind of crap and of course never caught me.

They basically have the power to arrest me and put this on my criminal record, which could later influence some simple things for me later in life... Being in a situation like that before personally, it absolutely sucks... Lucky, more or less, it happened before I turned 18. <_<

On a personal level, what they don't know won't hurt them... <_<

Anything I've taken from my friends have usually been small items, like memory cards amongst their 3 billion, or a game that was shoved away in a shelf long ago.

To be honest... no. I don't think I could live with myself if I stole from anything, be it a person or a corporation.

Hell, I've dreamed that I was in the middle of a bank robbery, then suddenly thought "Wait, I shouldn't be doing this," and then the rest of my dream was me trying to figure out how to escape without being caught, even though I had no money to take with me.

Also roflin' at your sig, Chaotic.

You can't just say something like that and not tell us what happened. Details.

I most likely would not steal anything, to be 100% certain that they could not track me down in case it does get noticed one day. Mostly though, it's just that I don't want to steal in general. Although a different case could possibly be made for batteries.

One of my relatives works for a hospital and I heard the explanation that the batteries would be thrown out after a single use or if they ever fell on the floor or something anyways, which I find to be a terrible waste. I don't like wasting things either so that may be the only thing I would steal without any second thought. Plus, batteries are overpriced anyways.

Oh fine... Target. World of Warcraft Game Card. Busted. I did buy the game that day, though...

If it was from some faceless corporation, then certainly I would. They could get get along financially even with a bit of pilfering, wheras their staff probably couldn't. I know someone who used to steal cigarettes from his place of work, and that probably evened the score as far as his pay was concerned. If it was a small business, then no way.

I only stole from a friend once. I was about six, she was my best friend and I stole a little decoration off her Barbie carriage. I still feel guilty about it >.> I could never screw over a friend.

In the form of evading train fares, hell yea! Their prices are extortionate and their service is still ridden with lateness and last-minute cancellations. Serves them right for having such a flawed system.