The Steal

by Rachel Shteir

  p. 136 “Even today ...”: Saturday Evening Post, April 29, 1961; August 5, 1961.

  p. 136 “Ex-Star Seized as Shoplifter ...”: Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1966, 1.

  p. 136 “You’re under arrest”: Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1966, 1.

  p. 136 “Don’t hold my arm so tight ...”: Ibid.

  p. 136 “mystified”: Los Angeles Times, January 29, 1966, 1; New York Times, January 29, 1966, 13.

  pp. 136–37 “For the past thirty years ...”: Quoted in Lamarr, Ecstasy and Me, 240. For more on Anthony Loder’s testimony, see New York Times, April 23, 1966, 14.

  p. 137 “systematically and methodically”: Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1966, 30.

  p. 138 “Our president was killed ...”: Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1966, 1.

  p. 138 “Gestapo tactics”: Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1966, 1.

  p. 138 “It was my first ...”: Author interview with Ira K. Reiner, July 2008. The jury in the case was initially hung. After the trial, the judge publicly lambasted them about the not-guilty decision. Then Lamarr brought a lawsuit against May’s, which was eventually dismissed.

  p. 138 “When poor people ...”: Earl Warren, quoted in Cray, Chief Justice, 459.

  p. 138 “spoke German”: Author interview with Hedy Lamarr’s lawyer, Joerg Jaeger, July 19, 2010.

  p. 138 “My mother used to . . .”: Orlando Sentinel, August 3, 1991.

  p. 139 “Because of the Jews . . .”: Dworkin, Miss America, 1945, 181.

  p. 140 “Bess Myerson on the Prowl . . .”: Life, July 16, 1971.

  p. 140 “Can’t I just pay . . .”: Quoted in Alexander, Ms. magazine, September 1988, 43. According to Alexander, a psychiatrist is “in the news stories,” an assertion I could never verify.

  p. 141 “So be it”: Philadelphia Daily News, May 28, 1988.

  p. 141 “I was leaving . . .”: New York Times, May 28, 1988; New York Times, July 16, 1988, 31.

  p. 141 “Why Do Aging Women Steal?”: Headline quoted in the New York Daily News, September 2, 2001.

  p. 141 “Midlife Shoplifters . . .”: Ibid.

  p. 141 “As for the women’s movement . . .: Ms. magazine, op. cit.

  p. 141 “would and would not do . .”: Alexander, When She Was Bad, ix.

  p. 142 “It could be you”: Life, August 1988, 32.

  p. 143 “Anywhere else . . .”: New York Times, November 10, 2002, 12.

  p. 143 “You are a lazy . . .”: Quote from movie Girl, Interrupted.

  p. 144 “The security officers observed . . .”: The People of the State of California v. Winona Ryder, vol. 4, 754.

  p. 144 “the actress was seen . . .”: Los Angeles County district attorney press release.

  p. 145 “According to . . .”: Mowbray, National Review, September 30, 2002.

  p. 145 “Ms. Ryder was not . . .”: E-mail correspondence with Sandi Gibbons, press secretary for Los Angeles DA, June 2008.

  p. 146 “Your Honor, may I approach . . .”: The People of the State of California v. Winona Ryder, vol. 2, 3.

  p. 146 “I need . . .”: Ibid., 12.

  p. 146 “At one point she indicates . . .”: Ibid., 19.

  p. 147 “I, Winona Ryder, agree . .”: Ibid., 21.

  p. 147 “lift up”: Ibid., 22.

  p. 147 “My client’s right . . .”: Ibid., 123.

  p. 148 “She just appeared to be . . .”: Ibid., vol. 3, 504.

  p. 148 “Why would they need to . . .”: Ibid., vol. 4, 798.

  p. 149 “This is not a film performance . . .”: Independent (UK), March 13, 2002.

  p. 149 “Felony Barbie”: Slate, November 13, 2002.

  p. 149 “demure” attire: Washington Post, November 8, 2002.

  p. 150 The full list of the items: Exhibits listed in summary of People of the State of California v. Winona Ryder, obtained from the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, 7, 8.

  p. 150 “We’ve presented the truth . . .”: Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2002, 3.

  p. 151 “controversial but not in a . . .”: London Sun, December 2, 2002.

  p. 152 “Shoplifting is a serious crime”: New York Times, December 7, 2002, 12.

  p. 152 “She will carry the scarlet . . .”: BBC, December 6, 2002.

  p. 153 “What’s offensive to me . . .”: CNN.com, December 10, 2002.

  p. 153 “The State can’t point to . . .”: Oral arguments for Lockyer v. Andrade, 583 U.S. 63 2003, 13.

  p. 154 “This still remains shoplifting . . .”: Ewing v. California, 538 U.S. 11, 12.

  p. 154 “You say the principal . . .”: Ibid., 13.

  p. 154 “She may be a double felon . . .”: Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2002, 3.

  10. THE SHOPLIFTING ADDICT

  p. 155 “Do you think that . . .”: Author interviews with theft addicts.

  p. 157 “create public awareness . . .”: NASP website; author interviews with Peter Berlin, May 16, 2006; July 26, 2006.

  p. 159 “Are we calling it a disease?”: The Oprah Winfrey Show, “Living a Secret Life,” November 21, 2004. Also Oprah’s follow-up show, February 1, 2005.

  p. 160 “I put out the olive branch . . .”: Author interview with Terry Shulman, November 2005.

  p. 160 “We don’t do theft . . .”: Author interview with Christine Reilly, July 2, 2006.

  p. 161 “an admitted . . .”: National Association for Shoplifting Prevention v. Terrence Shulman, U.S. CIV 10-360, filed November 2008, 5.

  p. 161 “I am increasingly . . .”: CASA newsletter, January 2009.

  p. 161 “while I’m certain . . .”: Ibid.

  p. 161 “limit discussion”: CASA newsletter, May 2009.

  p. 161 “Likely, we will be filing ...”: CASA newsletter, October 2009.

  p. 162 “You choose a target . . . Author interview with Eda Gorbis, August 2, 2007.

  p. 162 “Consistent with the hypo-frontality of addictions ...”: J. E., Grant, S. Correia, and T. Brennan-Krohn. “White matter integrity in kleptomania: a pilot study,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 147:233–237, Sept. 7, 2006.

  p. 162 “there’s actually ...”: Author interview with Jon Grant, November 2005.

  p. 162 “altered state[s] . . .”: Grant, “Dissociative Symptoms in Kleptomania,” 77.

  p. 162 “slightly higher than . . .”: Ibid., 81.

  p. 163 “would report poor quality of life”: Grant, “Quality of Life in Kleptomania and Pathological Gambling,” 34.

  p. 163 “Stealing is an . . .”: Author interview with Marcus Goldman, February 2006.

  p. 164 “Psychopharmacology . . .”: Author interviews with Eric Hollander, May and July 2008.

  p. 164 “We believe . . .”: Infinite Mind, November 10, 2005.

  p. 164 “From my experience ...”: Author interview with Charlene Alderfer, April 10, 2006.

  p. 165 “We can learn . . .”: Author interview with Steve Grant, April 2006.

  p. 165 “a set of stories . . .”: Phillips, The Beast in the Nursery: On Curiosity and Other Appetites, 6.

  p. 165 “Psychoanalysis . . .”: Phillips, Houdini’s Box: The Art of Escape, 30.

  p. 166 “Patients . . .”: Author interview with Adam Phillips, December 13, 2006.

  p. 167 “A man who ...”: Bollas, The Shadow of the Object, 167.

  11. TO CATCH A THIEF

  p. 171 “God is a loss prevention agent”: Author interview with Jerry Biggs, January 2006.

  p. 172 “My first time . . .”: Author interview with LP agent number 1, February 2006.

  p. 173 “In reality . . .”: Author interview with Gregor Housdon, March 9, 2007.

  p. 174 “a postmodern stage set”: Quoted in Smith and Beaver, The Architecture of Adrian Smith, 22.

  p. 175 “one retailer two blocks . . .”: Author interview with Scott Barefoot, April 2006.

  p. 175 six alleged shoplifters: Statistics about murdered shoplifters, Houston Press, January 8, 2004; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 21, 2005; Missourian, July
27, 2007. Numerous lawsuits such as Dillard’s Department Store v. Hampton 534 U.S. 1131, Robinson v. Dillard’s, No. 95-61721 (Harris County, Texas, District Court).

  p. 175 “psychotic”: Quoted in Houston Press, op. cit.; National Law Journal, Monday, May 28–June 4, 2001. The details of this case make for grim reading.

  p. 176 more than one hundred: June 8, 2003, Associated Press. Also, “Courting Customers: Assessing Consumer Racial Profiling and Other Marketplace Discrimination,” A. M. Harris, G. R. Henderson, J. D. Williams (2005). “Courting Customers: Assessing Consumer Racial Profiling and Other Marketplace Discrimination.” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Policy Watch: Commentaries and Viewpoints 24 (1): 163–171. In this academic paper, the authors analyzed 80 court cases between 1990 and 2002 and found 100 incidences of racial profiling. According to the National Law Journal article cited above, the number of false imprisonment suits from 1984 to 2001 is upward of 800.

  p. 176 “There is a persistent . . .”: Author interviews with Jerome Williams, March 14, 2007; July 15, 2010. It’s also important to note that, while Dillard’s says that it has subsequently provided its loss prevention associates with training in racial profiling, these deaths continue to happen.

  p. 176 “Officers get . . .”: Deposition of Byron Pierce, Dillard’s, Paula Hampton v. Dillard’s, 1997, 30.

  p. 176 “most extensive”: Author interview with Robert McCrie, February 2, 2006.

  p. 177 “not simply ones ...”: Author interview with Brian Kreiswirth, New York assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau, June 15, 2007.

  p. 177 more than twelve thousand: New York Times, June 17, 2003; New York Times, January 14, 2005. New York State Office of the Attorney General Civil Rights Bureau New York City Office, Macy’s Security Monitor Report, November 30, 2005, 3.

  p. 177 “You shouldn’t be . . .”: Brian Kreiswirth, op. cit. Some details about Macy’s practices and lawsuit were also reported in the national media including, notably, the New York Times, January 14, 2005, B3; New York Times, January 15, 2005, B3.

  p. 177 thirty-two states: This number was determined by using a table found on the International Association of Security and Investigative Regulators website and by calling state licensing bureaus.

  p. 178 “Get off me”: Detroit Free Press, August 2, 2000, September 8, 2000. Associated Press, “6 million,” October 31, 2002.

  p. 179 “This can happen ...”: Houston Chronicle, August 8, 2005; Houston Chronicle, August 8, 2005, 3; Houston Chronicle, November 5, 2005, 3; Houston Chronicle, November 16, 2005, 3.

  p. 179 “Today, many of the . . .”: Author interview with Senator Hansen Clarke, July 2008. Thanks to Al Cavasin for background. These events were covered by local media as well as national sources like CNN and the New York Times.

  p. 180 “best practice”: Author interviews with Joe LaRocca, February 2006, June 2006.

  p. 180 “there will always be ...”: LPInformation Convention Daily, June 2005.

  p. 181 “I see what . . .”: LPinformation.com.

  p. 181 “Picking up a piece of . . .”: Stores magazine, May 2006, 24.

  p. 182 “Signaling to others . . .”: Author interview with Read Hayes, May 16, 2006.

  p. 182 “If you walk into Neiman Marcus . . .”: Author interview with Shaun Gabbidon, February 2006.

  p. 182 Along with nineteen: All quotes from Wicklander-Zulawski seminar, attended July 23, 2006.

  12. THE FUTURE OF LP

  p. 185 1 million: There may be as many as 4 million cameras in the United Kingdom. These statistics are widely debated. However, one thing everyone agrees on is that the number of CCTV cameras in the United Kingdom is far greater than anywhere else in the world. The estimated number of video cameras in the United States is 6 million.

  p. 185 shoplifting rose: British Retail Consortium, British Crime Survey 2009.

  p. 185 5.4 percent: Global Retail Theft Barometer 2009, table 1.3, 20.

  p. 185 “To CCTV or Not to CCTV”: Armitage, “A Review of Current Research into the Effectiveness of CCTV Systems.” Martin Gill and Ron Clarke have also expressed skepticism about CCTV as a shoplifting-prevention tool.

  p. 186 “lead to a Wild West . . .”: Author interview with Jay Stanley, April 2008.

  p. 186 “Which is more . . .”: Author interview with David Riccio, September 2008.

  p. 187 “If you see a young lady . . .”: Quote from Walmart training video, May 2006.

  p. 187 “Senior citizens, they don’t . . .”: Author interview with Gregor Housdon, March 9, 2007.

  p. 188 According to the Department ...: Quoted in Schor, The Overspent American, 40.

  p. 188 “You can tell . . .”: Author interview with LP agent, April 2006.

  p. 188 “A lotta academic . . .”: Author interview with LP agent, April 2006.

  p. 191 “everything I could ...”: Author interviews with Patrick Sobalvarro, July 3, 2006; August 20, 2006.

  p. 192 “like a velociraptor”: Author interview with Rodney Brooks, January 2008.

  13. THE DISEASE IS INCURABLE

  p. 196 “This is not a morality play”: Author interview with the head of the shoplifting program of the National Curriculum Training Institute, a for-profit concern based in the West, March 31, 2006.

  p. 196 “going at it from the . . .”: Author interviews with Lisa Paules, May 2006, February 2007.

  p. 197 “dewy-eyed liberal”: Samenow, Inside the Criminal Mind, xviii.

  p. 197 “a person may . . .”: Ibid., 11.

  p. 197 “I am actively working . . .”: E-mail exchange with Steve Houseworth, 2008.

  p. 197 “If you have kleptomania . . .”: Author interview with Steve Houseworth, April 2006.

  p. 197 “People are taught ...”: Ibid.

  p. 198 “Don’t make it complex”: Theft Talk website.

  p. 198 “ ‘You must have eighteen ...’ ”: Author interview with Steve Houseworth, op. cit.

  p. 198 “nationally recognized . . .”: These statistics come from NASP’s website. A 2007 Washington State study of recidivism and NASP’s methods actually showed a slightly higher recidivism rate, in which 7.3 percent were not rearrested for shoplifting or any other crime. By contrast, Theft Talk’s recidivism rate hovers at around 13 percent. But it’s also worth mentioning that there has not been much scholarly work done on the subject. And what has been done targets young people, who might stop sooner or later or hide their shoplifting more effectively after a time anyway. Further, some criminological studies have concluded that education programs fail to help reduce shoplifting recidivism.

  p. 201 “Kleptomania has no definitive . . .”: Koran, Aboujaoude, et al., “Escitalopram Treatment of Kleptomania,” 422.

  p. 202 as “a core . . .”: Hollander, “Brain Function in Impulsive Disorders,” 2003.

  p. 202 “There was a decision . . .”: Author interview with Hollander, op. cit.

  p. 202 “None of these suggestions...”: Psychiatric Times 26 (8), June 26, 2009.

  p. 204 works “like a recipe”: Author interview with counselor, February 2006.

  p. 204 “I confess my heart was . . .”: Dostoevsky, The Gambler, 28

  pp. 208–9 “It’s then that I need to . . .”: Letter from “Elizabeth.”

  14. SHAME

  p. 211 “A warrior’s self-destruction . . .”: Morris, The Nobility of Failure, 15.

  p. 211 “I hate liars . . .”: Author interview with Judge James McKenzie, spring 2006.

  p. 211 “When I was growin’ up . . . ”: Ibid.

  p. 212 Memphis’s per capita: Cited in Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 31, 2007.

  p. 212 “We had fifteen . . .”: Author interview with Andy Wise, July 2010.

  p. 213 “the principle of the thing”: Author interview with Andy Wise, July 2008.

  p. 213 “If you put . . .”: Author interview with “Sandy,” December 2008.

  p. 213 “For me . . .”: Correspondence with Laura McKenzie, 2006.

 
p. 214 “they had nothing . . .”: Author interview with Janis Karpinski, June 2008.

  p. 214 “Shame is the . . .”: Author interview with Jonathan Haidt, October 8, 2006.

  CONCLUSION

  p. 215 8.8 percent: 2009 Global Retail Theft Barometer, 10. While 2010 studies both in Europe and in the United States showed some declines in shoplifting rates in some countries and attributed them, in some cases, to increased security, it will be many years before we have accurate long-term data or know what these year-to-year rises and falls mean.

  p. 215 “The main crime problem . . .”: summary of 2010 Global Retail Theft Barometer. www.retailresearch.org.

  p. 216 “I would ask . . .”: York Press, December 21, 2009.

  p. 216 “one psalm short . . .”: York Press, December 22, 2009.

  p. 216 “Walmart is . . .”: York Press, December 23, 2009.

  p. 216 “it just mimics the theft at the top . . .”: Times Online, December 23, 2009.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ARCHIVES

  Hoffman Family Papers, Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas R. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut at Storrs.

  Lyndon Johnson Archives, the National Archives, Houston.

  BOOKS AND ARTICLES

  Abelson, Elaine. When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

  Abraham, Karl. Selected Papers of Karl Abraham. London: Karnac Books, 1988.

  Alexander, Shana. When She Was Bad: The Story of Bess, Hortense, Sukhreet & Nancy. New York: Random House, 1990.

  Allen, Henry. “Prize Essay on Kleptomania, with a View to Determine Whether Kleptomaniacs Should Be Held Disqualified for Employments of Trust and Authority under the Crown.” London: H. Balliere, 1869.

  Anonymous. Counterfeit Ladies: The Life and Death of Mary Frith and the Case of Mary Carleton. Edited and with notes by Janet Todd and Elizabeth Spearling. New York: New York University Press, 1994.

  ———. Evasion. Atlanta, GA: CrimethInc., 2001.

  ———. The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith. Cambridge, UK: Chadwick-Healy, 1997.