Why Don't We Just Steal Away, Into The Night

It's that time of year again, holiday fruitcake, Christmas music on the radio, relatives showing up at the door, and people shoplifting the hell out of things.

In supermarkets and drugstores, meat, baby formula and over-the-counter medicine are routinely among the most-filched products. "Supermarkets survive on very thin [profit] margins," said Pernice. "Every time a product is stolen, it hurts these stores a little bit more."

Power tools, and surprisingly, weedkiller, are very popular with thieves at Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), which is a client of ADT.

"Power tools are very easy to resell," said Pernice. "You can pawn them online or sell them to workers on a construction site."

Some bottles of weedkiller are expensive, as much as $100 or more per bottle. "I never thought weedkiller needed protection," said Pernice

Games, gaming software and consoles such as the Wii are regularly targeted at electronics stores. So are 42-inch TVs.

Just how do you steal a 42-inch TV? "It's either employee theft where it's done on the inside, or sometimes people create a diversionary tactic," Pernice said. "You set off the alarm in the front of the store and someone leaves with the product from the back."

And with the shape our economy's in, it's getting far more common this year.  Having worked in both electronics and office stores, I know  loss prevention tactics, and I know "grab gangs" exist, I've seen them in action and have been unable to stop them.

But what do you expect?  Two wrongs don't make a right, but when companies are stealing billions in taxpayer money, well...our priorities aren't very good these days.