Second in a series of Lovers’ Eyes for the Month of Love art challenge, based on the prompt “Secrets.”
These Lovers’ Eyes are inspired by 18th century miniatures called by the same name. Lovers’ Eyes were often worn as brooches or pendants and featured a tiny portrait of the eye of a loved one. Sometimes this was a spouse, a child, or a secret love whose full portrait could not have been openly revealed.
The thing about Gale is that he just really wants to be a house husband. Physically he is roaming the countryside with the party. Mentally he is rifling through a pantry wearing a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron.
Instead of sharing posts about how to grow your own food we should post about how to steal from supermarkets
High end stores have less security and are less likely to chase you down
I know everyone says the staff won’t approach or anything but managers and hired security absolutely will and they don’t care if it’s illegal to detain you. Keep an eye out for them
Creating a distraction with a small group of people is less effective than everyone taking something and leaving at once, or one person taking nothing and submitting to a search while everyone else walks by
If someone tries to stop you, check your bag etc. just keep walking, say “sorry I’m in a rush” or whatever but don’t stop under any circumstances. Stores do not have the right to search you, if you decline to be searched they can only ask you to leave
Some stores will keep a record of frequent shoplifters and nab you when your guard is down so don’t do the same place over and over
One trick I learnt from a friend is to go in with a half full trolley from another store, fill your resusable bags from the previous store with stuff in the current store, then walk out (as above, don’t stop for a search)
Stealing from high end department stores is surprisingly easy. Pick one that doesn’t have a lot of security and you can take clothes into the change rooms and leave with them underneath your streets (obviously only if there’s no attendant)
Pay for cheap, bulky items like milk and bread, and pocket small expensive stuff like fancy cheeses
Don’t steal (or at least don’t steal much) from a local store you rely on. Firstly you don’t want to be recognisable in your local community but also don’t shit where you eat
You can resell stuff like skincare and cosmetics, we even bought our game controllers off someone who pinched them from the electronics store and sold them for half price
When it comes to department stores in particular, it’s better to grab a lot once in a while than to take a little bit regularly because the more times you do it mean more chances of getting caught statistically speaking and because you’re more likely to be recognised
Of course, the self checkout is a blessing. Leave your fancy juice out of bags in the trolley and forget to scan it, ring up all your weighted items by whatever’s cheap, slip small items up your sleeve and drop them in your bags
Whatever you do, do it with confidence. If you’re looking around anxiously people will notice
Paying with cash and not using rewards cards can provide some extra protection. Why make it easier for them?
Some stores have plain clothes security, they usually stick out like a sore thumb cos they’re generally failed cops trying to look tough. Keep an eye out for big dudes in jeans and black muscle tees who aren’t buying anything (and anyone wandering around without a basket or trolley), especially in department stores and the like
Avoid pharmacies, they always have a lot of security
If someone tries to detain you by grabbing your trolley or bags, let go and get away, don’t try to wrestle it back (if you do, you could land an assault charge)
Security guards and managers can place you under citizens arrest in a lot of places, and even if they can’t, can you afford a lawyer to argue you were wrongfully detained while shoplifting? Probably not. Just because it’s against the law for staff to do something doesn’t mean they won’t do it!
Stealing from a store is perfectly ethical in Mahayana Buddhism because stealing, like any action that accrues negative karma, has to be perpetrated against a person who experiences harm from your actions. Stores aren’t people and they have insurance for loss
Now that you’ve saved all this money, give some change to an unhoused person outside or fling a couple bucks to someone in need if you can
Source: I’m poor, my kids father was a security guard for many years, and my ex got arrested for shoplifting because they didn’t follow this advice
If ur white, over 20 and got kids (or know someone who is) you can hide a lot in a pram and nappy bag and no one argues with “oh they must have put that in my bag, you know how they are at that age”. Plus cute kids keep eyes off you.
Other good options for self checkout supermarkets
• get carrots or something in a paper bag. Put your higher price items like supplements in that same bag and if you can, under the carrots (or lentils or whatever they offer with brown full yourself bags) and weigh it all as carrots or whatever you can afford
• in general buy something cheap while stealing other things. People are not going to suspect someone who theyyve seen pay from something.
• flat things are your friend, blocks of chocolate for example. They lay flat and don’t create bult in your bag
• big box stores like the warehouse (NZ) and Kmart often don’t have scales, use this. It’s good to buy a big, cheap bin/container and then as you walk around doing you shopping put pricey things in there. This doesn’t raise alarms because it’s easier to carry one big thing than a big thing and many small things. When getting to check out, just scan the bin/container. Then put everything you bought back into the container, on top of things unpaid for.
• wear a mask shopping. Regardless of how you feel about the pandemic wearing a mask will make Identifying you harder.
• when it comes to non self checkout stores, say for hypothetical example, a charity shop by an organization that hates queer people, where things are priced with stickers, find stickers that are easy to remove and swap them with a lower price sticker. If you’re practiced you can do this easily while walking around but it can also be done in the changing room. Although not ideal as an unethical store is still getting a few of your dollars it can make getting a good quality sweater for winter more achievable.
•coats/jackets with big pockets.
It’s safer to do things with some amount of plausible deniability. Go to the bathroom after you’re done shopping then “forget” that you haven’t checked out yet. “Forget” to scan things under your cart. Take your bag of groceries to the pharmacy to get your prescription and “forget” to put it on the counter to be scanned. Usually the loss prevention person won’t yell “Stop! Thief!”, they’ll walk up to you in the parking lot and say “Sir, did you pay for that?” to which you can say “Oh my god, I completely zoned out, I’m so sorry. I’ll pay for it now”. You’ll have to pay for your groceries, but you won’t be arrested. That doesn’t go as well if you have everything stuffed into your pockets
Using a reusable bag looks natural and helps with plausible deniability over just carrying things or putting them in your pockets. Using a t-shirt bag you previously got from the same store (with an old receipt if you’re feeling ambitious) is even less likely to arouse suspicion, but has very little plausible deniability if you do get caught
Grab a soda on the way in, drink some of it as you shop, and when you check out just keep holding it and don’t say anything. 90% of the time you can walk out with it no problem, 10% of the time the cashier will ask “Did you come in with that?” and you can just say “ya” and they’re not about to call you a liar over a $2 drink
Working retail gives a lot of perspective on just how little the average retail worker is looking out for shoplifters (which is not at all). We’re not paid enough to care, and trying to stop someone is just extra work and extra drama. A lot of us steal ourselves, too
Most places don’t have dedicated loss prevention people (Target is a notable exception) because that’d be another wage to pay, but loss prevention people are the exception to the above rule. Looking out for shoplifters is literally their job. Be more careful in places that have them
Everything I’ve said is only my experience as a white man, and may not be universally applicable. Use your own judgment
A little ways into her first year at Hawkins High School Max finds a little “Billy Hargrove was here” carved into a desk at the back of one of her classes.
A while after that, when she’s looking for some space to be alone for a while she finds another written in sharpie on the underside of the bleachers out by the furthest field from the rest of the school.
After that she starts looking for them.
She finds another in the back of the school auditorium, another on one of the tables in the cafeteria. She finds a few more looking around in the boys locker room and bathrooms, and in the girls too.
She finds them outside of school too. Scratched into the side of a boulder out in the woods, scribbled on the wall of a booth at the diner.
Tiny little reminders scattered through out Hawkins, all proclaiming the same thing.
Not everything is a personal attack against you. Your friend may not be ignoring you on purpose but may be feeling drained. Someone isn’t always being short with you because they’re angry at you but may be trying to hold their own emotions together. Please don’t always assume malicious intent. Most of the time, people are just being people and trying to survive their own lives. It’s not necessarily about you.
I love all the Astarion posts with the “where were you 20 years ago how dare you come to me when I am this” quote but all I can imagine is a human Tav sitting there like
