Crime Thread

Quote: Tanko

Two dirtbags kidnapped a doctor in Brooklyn and threatened to shoot him if he didn't comply.

They forced him to withdraw cash from an ATM, and purchase expensive clothes and other items for them. $6,000 was stolen.

They ended up in Connecticut, where they were arrested for kidnap, gun possession, but strangely not robbery. Bail was set at $1 million for one, and $250K for the other, but the judge let them go without posting bail, after they promised to return for their hearing.

'Suspect in doctor’s kidnapping outside Brooklyn Mirage released on ‘promise to appear’ — but appears to give court old contact info'

Quote: rxwine

Doctor was in the hospital at work when he reported it as a kidnapping. Sorry, wanting people to be locked up on someone's word is bogus regardless of who it is.

They should lock you up if you have outstanding warrants or some actual evidence, but not on someone's word...

Quote:

Speaking at the 30th annual Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference, Ellison said his company had not faced the same shrinkage/theft issues as many other retailers had been complaining about. The CEO was asked directly about shrink toward the end of his question-and-answer session.  

"It's one of the areas of the business that we're most pleased with. As a major big-box retailer, you're right, we're one of the few who've not flagged shrink as something that is having a material impact on gross margin or operating profit," Ellison said.

That success, he declared, did not come by accident.

"We've invested quite a bit of technology at different parts of the business in front of the customer and behind the scenes to help us to manage this, and we take a unique and differentiated way," he said.

Ellison shared that technology and security are not what is keeping Lowe's theft rates down. 

"Having spent my entire adult life in retail, at every level, the one thing that I understand clearly is that the greatest deterrent for any theft activity is effective customer service and making sure that you have the right type of merchandising display," he said.

Lowe's "from a margin rate standpoint" saw no major negative impact from theft, the executive said. 
Lowe's CEO Ellison says service prevents theft

While Lowe's uses technology to prevent theft, Ellison made clear that having people on its store floors helping customers leads to less theft. Lowe's had a roughly 1% shrink rate in its most recent quarter, which is below industry averages.
 
"Our margin rate was up year-over-year, and we had very strong operating-margin performance. And we don't anticipate that shrink is going to be a material negative impact to our business for the balance of this year," Ellison added.

The CEO called his company's results "a differentiated performance relative to the other major retailers." But he also quietly placed blame on retailers like Target, Walmart  (WMT)  and Walgreens  (WBA)  for simply not investing in the people needed to serve customers.

Simply paying workers well -- Lowe's is a the higher end of the wage scale for retailers in many markets -- and training them leads to lower levels of shrink, according to Ellison. Fewer people trying to steal also enable the company's security team to operate more efficiently.

"We have a dedicated asset-protection team that I think is best-in-class in retail," Ellison said. "They have great partnerships with law-enforcement communities and the like. And we spend a lot of time on associate training."

Quote: odiousgambit

the woman who allegedly poisoned relatives in Australia just now got arrested, would that have taken that long in the US?

feels a little funny to use the word 'allegedly' on this one

btw I intend to add more to this thread with some different cases, but that may take getting bored this winter to finally do it