Stole a post from Greg Ellifritz from Active Response Training.
After taking my gazillionth shoplifting report tonight, I think I’ll share a trend that most of you may not know about….
A lot of heroin addicts are professional shoplifters. They aren’t stealing food for themselves, they steal items to sell to “mom-and-pop” corner grocery stores or immigrant-owned convenience marts in the ghetto. These small store owners pay the addicts 50% of the selling price of the items they steal. The addicts run a cart load of groceries out of a store, sell them at the quickie-mart in the hood and then have dope money for a week.
The item that is most in demand is the Tide brand “POD” laundry detergent packs. These are single serving packages of laundry detergent. They come in bottles that have 20-50 little “pods” that each do a single load of laundry. In the hood, the 24 pack of pods you get at the grocery store is broken down into singles and sold for a higher profit to clueless customers who either can’t do math or don’t have enough money to spend on a full gallon of laundry detergent.
I would guess that 75% of our large shoplifting heists over the past few years have involved Tide Pods. My guy tonight stole four bottles of pods and two cases of beer.
So think about this, if each bottle of pods is roughly 50 loads of laundry, how many bottles would the average consumer buy at the grocery store? Unless there is a great sale and the person is stocking up, the answer is “one.”
Keep an eye out while you are doing your grocery shopping. When you see a person loading a whole shopping cart full of laundry pods, stay away. It’s a good bet the person is about to make a run out the door with his cart full of loot.
If given the chance, he’ll steal your purse, wallet, or car too. Be alert. Watch out for the people with a whole bunch of laundry pods in their carts.
A quick check on our local Craiglist gave results. Now, not saying one thing or the other since we know that site is beyond reproach in its offered commerce and intentions by its users.
Anyway, it is good to know. I sure as hell was unaware of it. And no, legalizing heroine use is NOT gonna reduce the shoplifting or other drug-related crimes, they will just simply will not be tallied.
Legalization will take out the most organized part of the criminal industry. The part that can buy off politicians & war with other criminal groups. Sure, we don’t get rid of the little guy on the street that way. The 2nd Amendment takes care of them through attrition.
Hmmm… “the part that can buy off politicians”
No we don’t take them out, we just force them to take an office in DC and call themselves lobbyists.
Unless you think Government is not gonna tax recreational drugs, so no need for lobbyists… but you are smarter than that.
Sometimes people do buy weird things to resell. I have a friend who bought two or three pallets of acne cream from a distributor to resell on eBay because it expired so he got it for like $100 a pallet and resold each thing for $15-$20. He made atidy profit.
Interestingly though, I had read somewhere a long time ago about laundry detergent being connected to the drug trade as a seeming innocuous means of exchange, basically being substituted for money in some cases.
I saw some show where they were counterfeiting liquid Tide that came in 5 gallon buckets. Apparently there is big money on the detergent crime ring.
We are told that drug users are just victims of society and they only commit victimless crimes. I know better. I have a family member who did two armed robberies.
Legalization will not help. It means a lot more people will try opioids and OD and they will still need to steal to support their addiction. A whole lot of damaged and lost lives with the Libertarian approach. If we had the stomach, hanging a bunch of the dealers and users without remorse or mercy would end usage and save a lot of lives like the atomic bombs did with ending WWII and halting the invasion of Japan. We just aren’t in it to end it.
I sure don’t understand the claim that legalization will not help. The street price of a single serving of heroin is what, $10? $50? A fair number of dollars, anyway.
If it were grown, refined, imported, and sold as an ordinary legal agricultural product no different from lettuce or bananas, a serving might cost 10 cents or so, perhaps less. All of a sudden the financial issues facing a junky are similar to, or less than, what a street alcoholic deals with. Neither is going to be functioning in society, but for both, panhandling will get them pretty far.
Even if you still have crime, the total volume should go way down because the total quantity of money needed is way down.
And in addition, the elimination of corruption and dealer violence is a win all by itself.
Fr some reason, Legalizers believe Heroin will become non-addictive the second it is legal and junkies will all take showers, have great jobs and not be affected by the drug.
I’ve never heard anyone claim any such thing. Clearly such claims are nonsense.
What is claimed is that the cost of addiction will go way down, both to the addict and (especially) to bystanders.
The other point, which I didn’t mention before, is that it’s easier to treat people addicted to a legal drug (such as alcohol) because they don’t have to worry about getting arrested as a side effect of seeking help.
Oh, and one other point: legal drugs can be easily offered at good purity and well defined dosage. Again, just like alcohol.
And pray tell us where the unemployed addicts will get the money to feed their habit?
I know… EBT card.
Where do unemployed bums get the money to feed their booze habit?
Pretty much the same way. And before you jump int that wagon, alcohol is not even in the same category of addiction.
As wretched as lobbyists are they usually don’t shoot each other in the street, kidnap teenage girls, or knock over liquor stores for seed money. Unless they’re affiliated with Hollywood that is.