Originally Posted by thespian86

Never had much stolen before. A bike when I was a kid. Other little things I'm sure.

A story:

I did a sociological experiment in high school based on thievery and class. I realized that those who steal millions (white collar) are almost unseen and most are apathetic to it, while "common thieves" are often equated with the lower class and people make comments and judgements on a daily basis involving them. My hypothosis was that I could go into an HMV (CD store) 3 days a week and steal merchandise without being caught, or suspected. To further my point, I went into another HMV in town, dressed in my construction clothing (dirty, ripped, worn in), and a different physical appearance (slouching, less hip looking hair, older out of style glasses, unshaven) with the same attitude/friendly disposition and not be able to pull it off. My hypothesis was to prove that the objective appearance of high social standing (my parents have money, and, in high school, generally spent most of my time with kids in my neighborhood who also had money by default) is more important then the person. To prove my point I had someone, sometimes two people, record me while I was in the store.

I was right:

Dirty Taylor was treated badly, followed around the store, constantly asked if "I need help", would not respond to my humor or nature, did not try to connect with my personal taste in film or music. After the six weeks of three days a week, I picked up a CD, was carrying it around the store, and before I could even go to the cash, or the door, was asked if they could ring me in. Oh, Brother.

Clean Cut Taylor however made friends with every employee, was on a first name basis with the manager, discussed the same music at length with a few of my favorite employees, even got asked out by one employee, and one day, at the end of the six weeks, I walked out with a bag of about twenty stolen items. When the alarm went off, which was part of my plan, I spun around and looked at the manager and said "Do you want me to come in or...?" and he just waved me off and told me to have a good one.

The next day when I returned it I lost all my friends but I got an A+ on my work. And I realized that my research had a lot of flaws (no real sample size, depended on the employee's nature). After my work i returned to the store and gave the manager the edited version of the research and he watched it and emailed me by saying what I did was wrong and very sneaky but that he understood the point, and would make it a point not to discriminate based on the appearance of class.

/tangent.