Walmart: No prosecutions for theft under $25

Walmart has a new shoplifting policy. They won't prosecute first offenders that shoplift less than $25 in merchandise.

Wal-Mart is moving away from what it called a zero-tolerance policy on prosecuting shoplifters and will now only prosecute anyone caught taking merchandise worth $25 or more, according to a published report.

The New York Times reports the change in policy, citing internal documents from Wal-Mart that say it will now only press charges against those between the ages of 18 and 64 who take at least $25 worth of goods. Formerly its policy was to press charges against anyone who took at least $3 in goods.

When I first read this, I thought "what the hell are they thinking?" Then I reached way back into the vaults of my memory to the days when I was in retail management. Do you know what I realized? Not very many people shoplift less than $25 in merchandise, anyway, and the ones that do are usually first timers making a stupid, one time mistake. Even those that steal CD's or DVD's usually take multiple products that add up to over $25. In fact, with one or two exceptions, I can't remember sitting in a loss prevention office with shoplifters that tried to steal less than $50 in merchandise.