One Dollar Thefts

Oct. 29, 2009

In my search for crime, I decided to walk into the Dollar Market on Market Street. The small but assorted convenient store is a family owned business that opened this July.

The store’s manager, Jawad Al, has lived in Sunnyvale since he left Afghanistan in 1995. I met him in September when we were assigned STREETLIST.

The store had only been open for two months and Al was already telling me about the numerous thefts that occurred every week.

Al told me he found seven items in a woman’s bag one day, which prompted him to introduce a rule. The rule asks customers to exchange their handbags and backpacks for a black shopping bag before they enter the store.

Wednesday evening, I spoke with Betslot, an employee at the Dollar Market since it opened, and learned about two thefts that had happened the day before over a one-hour period.

“I think prisons are full and that’s why the police don’t take the thieves,” Betslot said about people who steal merchandise at least once a week. The thieves are usually homeless men and women who want to earn some extra cash, said SFPD Officer P. Ruetti.

According to Betslot, a woman accompanied by a man stole a roll of tape Tuesday at 2 p.m. Betslot said the woman hid the tape under her armpit and ran out. “I saw her take it,” she said.

The security guard chased, caught, and searched the woman but the item was not found in her possession. Betslot thinks the woman handed the tape to someone outside of the store.

The police wasn’t called. Betslot said, “The person is only banned from our store.”

An hour later, another woman was caught trying to steal three pencil eyeliners and sunglasses. “We called the police and he wrote a report,” Betslot said.