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Wal-Mart refuses to carry smutty magazines. It will not sell compact discs with obscene lyrics. And when it catches customers shoplifting - even a pair of socks or a pack of cigarettes - it prosecutes them.

But now, in a rare display of limited permissiveness, Wal-Mart is letting thieves off the hook - at least for up to $25 worth.

According to internal documents, the company, the nation's largest retailer and leading destination for shoplifting, will no longer prosecute first-time thieves unless they are between 18 and 65 and steal merchandise worth at least $25, putting the chain in line with the policies of many other retailers.

Under the new policy, a shoplifter caught trying to swipe, say, a DVD of the movie ''Basic Instinct 2'' ($16.87) would receive a warning, but one caught walking out of the store with ''E.R. - The Complete Fifth Season'' ($32.87) would face arrest.

Wal-Mart said the change would allow it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from the chain every year, rather than the teenager who occasionally takes a candy bar from the checkout counter.

It may also serve to placate small-town police departments across the country who have protested what the company has called its zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting - under which employees summoned officers, whether a customer stole a $5 toy or a $5,000 television set. (Anything over $3 resulted in a call to police, the company said.)

The police make up to a dozen arrests a day at some of the chain's giantÂ, 24-hour stores, prompting a handful of departments to hire an additional officer just to deal with the extra workload.

''I had one guy tied up at Wal-Mart every day,'' said Don Zofchak, chief of police in South Strabane Township, Pa., a place with 9,000 residents and 16 officers. He said the higher threshold for prosecution ''would help every community to deal with this.''

J.P. Suarez, vice president for loss prevention at Wal-Mart, said it was no longer efficient to prosecute petty shoplifters. ''If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money,'' he said. ''I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organized group stealing $3,000.''

The changes in Wal-Mart's theft policy are described in 30 pages of documents that were provided to The New York Times by WakeUpWalMart.com, a group backed by unions that have previously tried to organize Wal-Mart workers in the United States.

The group said it received the document from a former employee at the chain who is unhappy with the new policy.

Several current and former Wal-Mart employees said the new shoplifting policy undermines their work and would, over time, encourage more shoplifting at the chain.

But Wal-Mart said it would closely track shoplifters it did not have arrested, and would ask that they be prosecuted after a second incident. (Under the new policy, it also will seek the prosecution of all suspected shoplifters who threaten violence or fail to produce identification, no matter how much they are trying to steal. Not carrying identification is a popular tactic among professional shoplifters to avoid arrest.)

Still, the new policy, which became effective in March, is in many ways a striking departure from Wal-Mart traditions. In the past, the company has proudly defended its aggressive prosecution of shoplifters, saying it helps hold down prices.

Wal-Mart's zero-tolerance policy can be traced to its founder, the late Sam Walton, who tied employee bonuses to low theft rates at stores. Stolen merchandise, he wrote in his 1992 autobiography, ''is one of the biggest enemies of profitability in the retail business.''

Overall, American retailers lose $34 billion a year to theft, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group.

With the new policy, though, Wal-Mart employees ''are confused,'' said a former employee who worked in the loss prevention department at a store outside San Jose, Calif.

''They want to stop shoplifters,'' she said. ''They want to do what they are trained to do.''

But if the shoplifter is under 18 or steals less than $25 worth of products, ''they can't do anything,'' said the former employee, who left the company shortly after the new shoplifting policy was put into effect and spoke on condition of not being identified because she feared retribution.

Chris Kofinis, director of communications at WakeUp WalMart.com, said the policy ''is a head-in-the-sand strategy that is far different than what Sam Walton would ever have wanted, and it's not clear this is the best strategy for Wal-Mart workers.''

Suarez, the Wal-Mart vice president, said there is ''overwhelming'' employee support for the new policy because it will more effectively deter theft.
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http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_4060655
 
Maybe now the "undercover" hillbilly security guards will stop watching me like a hawk... even though I don't steal.

I like randomly talking to them about security stuff, too. They try to ignore me, furthering the hilarity.

Thankfully I only go in there, like, once every three months.
 
I gotta say, being 16 I really want to go into Wal-Mart, buy a Snickers (just to be safe) and as I'm walking out shout "I'm stealing this, but it's cool since I'm 16 and it's only 50 cents"

[quote name='sevdustflyer']So If I steal say... God of War and then return without a receipt I get free money? Sweet.

EDIT: Damn you judyjudyjudy[/QUOTE]My buddy did that at K-Mart last week. I shit you not. He went to the back, got Burnout Revenge for Xbox, took it up to the front and returned it.
 
[quote name='TimPV3']I gotta say, being 16 I really want to go into Wal-Mart, buy a Snickers (just to be safe) and as I'm walking out shout "I'm stealing this, but it's cool since I'm 16 and it's only 50 cents"

My buddy did that at K-Mart last week. I shit you not. He went to the back, got Burnout Revenge for Xbox, took it up to the front and returned it.[/QUOTE]

XD
 
Have they not heard of tranqulizer darts and attack dogs along with safety check alarm. This is just dumb. Wal-Mart supports stealing...??????
 
[quote name='RegalSin2020']Have they not heard of tranqulizer darts and attack dogs along with safety check alarm. This is just dumb. Wal-Mart supports stealing...??????[/QUOTE]

Actually, the unwritten part of this story is that there are many stores that have a similar policy. The reason this is making news is that until now Walmart was actually one of the few stores that pressed charges on shoplifters of any amount of money.
 
The only time I ever "shoplifted" was at Walmart... I stole an Xbox Magazine demo (the one that had the Final Fantasy beta... which sucked). Then I was rewarded by finding $5 laying on the ground, in the parking lot.

Would they have pressed charged for something that was free?
 
J.P. Suarez, vice president for loss prevention at Wal-Mart, said it was no longer efficient to prosecute petty shoplifters. ''If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money,'' he said. ''I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organized group stealing $3,000.''
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Oh come on, as if Walmart pays any of their employees $12 an hour. :D
 
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