A shopkeeper in the US has been using his own novel method of stopping the plague of shoplifters who come into his shop regularly. He simply tells them to either hand over their shoe or he will call the police, relying on the fact that people would rather lose a shoe than be hauled in by the police.

According to him, in the past a good number of people who were arrested by police ended up returning to his shop, sometimes as soon as the same day. This way he claims means that they are too embarrassed to return to the shop to ask for their shoe back, meaning he never sees their face again – exactly what he wants.

There is a fly in the ointment though: the local police force has told him that it is in fact illegal to do what he is doing. Shoplifting itself is only classed as a misdemeanor, whereas blackmail (as the man’s actions are being labelled) is a federal felony, therefore much more serious. They did, however, recommend that he could simply ask for $20 rather than their shoe, since it doesn’t involve taking property off the shoplifter. Oh the hypocracy.

He’s decided to live by their word on the issue until he can come up with another scheme to keep pesky thieves from returning to his store.

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