In broad daylight two men walked into an Oregon Lowe’s, filled their carts with electrical wire, and walked out. The men did not pay for the product, and were questioned by employees at the door, but continued walking.
A video of the men was recorded by a resident named Andrew Sullivan. The items stolen allegedly amounted to over one thousand dollars in value.
As the two men walked out with the carts, another waited in the parking lot with a vehicle ready for the not so subtle get away.
Sullivan said, “I think these guys have done it before because they seemed to have a good system. One guy with the car and two guys with the carts. They knew no one was going to touch them.”
He claims that he was rilled up because of how blatant the crime was. They knew they were in the wrong, they knew they were caught, but they carried on anyway as if they were entitled to crime without consequence.
“It was so blatant, that’s what riled me up,” Sullivan said in a statement to the Keizer times after the video went viral on Tik Tok. He continued, “They were just strolling through the parking lot, just riding the carts.”
Fox reported, Lowe’s employee standing at the door asked the men to show their receipt as they approached, but they kept moving. Another Lowe’s employee is then seen approaching the men in the video, to which the first employee said, “Hey don’t do this. It’s not worth it.”
Lowe’s did report the crime to the local police, but unfortunately these offenders may never face consequences for their actions.
According to Fox, Keizer police Lt. Andrew Copeland said that many Oregon jails are not accepting shoplifters as a result of over crowding during the pandemic.
So what’s stopping every other Oregonian from heading to their local Lowe’s or Walmart and grabbing whatever they want?
Apparently not very much aside from possible fines.
“Once you’ve stolen from Lowe’s once and know they can’t stop you, there’s no real consequence,” Copeland said. Employees are not allowed to physically stop shoplifters in Oregon.