![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/blogger_import\/244-shoplifters.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
well, it’s been a quiet week in lakeland, florida. the weekly crime map<\/a> shows only a handful of robberies, some residential burglaries, a couple of stolen cars, and a graffiti report. even so, i was surpised to learn that shoplifting a $6.49 box of prophylactics from the lakeland sears<\/em><\/a> could still land one’s picture on the local crime stoppers<\/em><\/a> leaflet shown above. a few hypotheses:<\/p>\n 1. awesome technology. <\/em><\/strong>the picture quality was just too good <\/em>to ignore. check it out: the poor lad is caught red-handed.<\/p>\n 2. moral revulsion. <\/em><\/strong>some folks are still sickened by the idea of condoms <\/em>being sold right out there in the open like that. perhaps if the young fellow had grabbed, say, a $6.49 bottle of brut<\/em><\/a> <\/em>the lakeland police might not have made this case such a priority.*<\/p>\n 3. cold cash. <\/em><\/strong>maybe somebody <\/em>is after the reward money: according to the crime stoppers f.a.q., <\/a>“Tipsters remain anonymous and become eligible for rewards of up to $1,000.”<\/p>\n 4. crim theory. <\/em><\/strong>perhaps lakeland is big on broken-windows<\/a> law enforcement or shaming sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5. wistful nostalgia. <\/em><\/strong>the mayberry-gone-wild aspects of this story would seem to evoke durkheim’s society of saints. wouldn’t it be nice if this<\/em> was the picture of serious crime in america? the young rascal would naturally fess up in such a world, where he’d be given a good talking to<\/em> by a kindly officer<\/a>. <\/p>\n
![kindly officer<\/a>. <\/p>\n*oops, scratch that. only four days later, a crime stoppers <\/em>alert detailed the theft of “a pack of socks and three bottles of cologne<\/a>.” i bet it wasn’t brut, <\/em>though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"well, it’s been a quiet week in lakeland, florida. the weekly crime map shows only a handful of robberies, some residential burglaries, a couple of stolen cars, and a graffiti report. even so, i was surpised to learn that shoplifting a $6.49 box of prophylactics from the lakeland sears could still land one’s picture on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.sheriff.ruraltel.net\/home\/runaway.jpg\"){kind=link}