The truth about theft is that all of us pay for it. This is true even at the pump. I have written in the past about gasoline theft. When I was kid during the 1970s, gasoline theft was using a tube to siphon gasoline from tanks. Now it involves professional thieves stealing millions of barrels per year.

Shell plans to temporarily shut a key oil pipeline in southern Nigeria later this month to repair damage caused by oil thieves, leading to a cut of around 150,000 barrels per day. You can bet that will lead to an increase at the pumps. As reported in www.google.com.

The Nembe Creek Trunkline in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer with output at around two million barrels per day, will be closed for a nine-day period.

The pipeline has been repeatedly hit by sabotage and theft. Oil theft has been estimated as costing Nigeria some $6 billion per year.

The plan is to remove bunkering points. Bunkering is the local term for oil theft.

The company removed 157 points of sabotage on its pipelines last year, but 90 points still exist.

How bad is the theft really? It is estimated that last month oil theft in Nigeria had reached unprecedented levels, rising to 60,000 barrels per day for Shell alone.

Theft classes are only one part of the solution. With their vast resources oil companies should be spending more money to keep their oil safe as well as find alternative energy solutions.

Unless you live in an area surrounded with beautiful maple trees, or live in Canada, you are most likely unaware of the possible theft of maple syrup. Just months after the greatest maple syrup theft in history was resolved in Canada comes a new alarming story for those in the Northeastern United States. Hey Canadians, don’t start feeling all safe because your trees may be in danger too.

Yes, the theft of maple syrup continues. There has been a rash of reports of maple trees being illegally tapped in Maine. As reported in www.montrealgazette.com.

Property owners have reported holes bored in their trees and buckets, plastic containers and sometimes, even PVC pipes attached to collect the sweet watery sap.

Of course, you’d need a heck of a lot of the sap to make something out of it because the ratio of sap to syrup is 40:1. You need 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

On average, one mature sugar maple tree produces up to 10 gallons of sap a year. It hardly seems worth the effort. After all, maple syrup is not that expensive to buy.

This small-scale thievery pales in comparison to Quebec’s record $20-million theft of thousands of gallons of refined maple syrup out of a warehouse in 2012.

Not only is it against the law to steal the sap out of someone else’s trees, but the tapping by thieves is damaging trees that might otherwise be destined for furniture. With large bore holes marring the wood, the trees can only be used for pulp.

Would stop theft classes administered during childhood keep thieves from pursuing this type of theft? It has been proven that theft behavior begins early. If we can use online theft education classes to instill the basic premise that stealing is wrong and provide ways for kids to use their energy in a positive direction the world will be a better place.

One of the most common types of theft is theft by employees. Employers are robbed to the tune of billions of dollars per year in the United States alone. Believe me, US employers are not alone.

Facing a wave of employee theft, retailers across the country have helped amass vast databases of workers accused of stealing and are using that information to keep employees from working again in the industry. Information included in these databases contains scant details about suspected thefts and routinely do not involve criminal charges. Still, the information can be enough to scuttle a job candidate’s chances. As reported in www.nytimes.com.

The databases, which have tens of thousands of subscribers and are used by major retailers like Target, CVS and Family Dollar, are aimed at combating employee theft, which accounts for a large swath of missing merchandise.

According to the National Retail Federation in 2011, employee theft accounted for about 44 percent of missing merchandise, valued at about $15 billion.

The question is, why wouldn’t all retailers subscribe to this service? I think retailers also should give each one of its employees an 8-hour online stop theft class. It certainly could not hurt. I would welcome your input on this subject. After all, employee theft costs all of us.

This was no ordinary shoplifting incident. This is a tale about a serious delinquent who stole more than $6 million from a grocery store chain.

Christopher Pratt handled finances at a grocery chain in Michigan and robbed them of more than $6 million. As reported in detroit.cbslocal.com.

The 42-year-old thief faces up to 20 years in prison.

He stole the money by diverting funds from the food centers’ accounts to pay his personal credit card bills.

Pratt wasn’t spending all the cash on carts of food, however, he confessed to FBI agents that he primarily used the stolen funds to finance and maintain a fleet of over 50 cars, including several vintage American muscle cars.

His fleet included 14 Ford Mustangs, seven Chevrolet Chevelles, four Dodge Challengers, five Chevrolet Camaros, four Jeep Wranglers, three Buick Skylarks, two Plymouth Barracudas, a Plymouth Fury, Pontiac GTO and Ford Torino.

Pratt also purchased at least 25 parcels of real estate, mainly in Kalamazoo (MI), and used some of the millions to finance trips to Aruba, Las Vegas and Reno. Really, you have $6 million and you go to Reno?

His embezzlement scheme unraveled last year when an outside accounting consultant uncovered unusual account activities related to several of Pratt’s personal bank accounts. He may be behind bars for 20 years. I hope he is mandated to Michigan theft class while in jail.

Older does not always mean wiser. One woman looked to supplement her retirement by stealing more than $1 million.

A 73-year-old woman with no previous criminal record was handed a 21-month jail sentence for stealing more than $1 million from clients of her payroll business. As reported in www.thestarphoenix.com.

The Canadian and near-Octogenarian Geraldine Maloa Williams previously pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000 in relation to a scheme in which almost 40 people, corporations and businesses lost money.

It turns out that Williams had been running a business called Willrun Payroll Services Inc. in Regina which provided services for clients that included figuring out how much clients’ employees owed in taxes, Canada pension and employment insurance and submitting those amounts to Revenue Canada.

When she began to have financial problems with trouble covering her expenses Williams would take advantage of the money coming in from clients by using employees’ CPP and EI contributions to pay her expenses rather than submitting the money immediately to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Her scheme worked for almost a decade as she created something similar to a Ponzi scheme in which she’d take from new money coming in from clients to pay the CRA the funds owing to in relation to clients whose checks she was already dealing with. But eventually, payments to the CRA weren’t just delayed, they were short or, at times, non-existent.

Was it worth a couple of years behind bars to steal from people? I would guess Williams would choose to take a stop theft class and seek religious training to keep her from violating one of God’s 10 Commandments – thou shalt not steal!

Sometimes people shoplift just for the fun of it. As a recovering thief, who stole hundreds of times just to get away with it, and as the educational director for an online stop theft class, I know this happens thousands of times every day.

There is no doubt using drugs and alcohol increase the likelihood of stupid behavior, Following is the tale of just one case where drugs started a young woman down the road to perdition. Now she will most likely spend some time behind bars. As reported in woonsocket.patch.com.

When Veronica Feliciano left her latest shoplifting locale she left behind her purse. Along with her identification, there also was a bag of heroin. The 21-year-old Feliciano was tracked down at the women's shelter where she was staying using information in her purse.

Feliciano is a habitual shoplifter and is not too smart about it. The store’s managers all are aware of her as she is a regular customer with a history of theft from the store. What was so important to steal? She had two 25 oz Tide detergent packages, one container of Fabuloso floor soap, one Joy dish soap and a container of Country Crock butter into her purse. Must have been a big purse.

Now with the heroin and the multiple arrests for shoplifting Feliciano will spend time behind bars. I hope she has access to both good shoplifting classes and drug classes.

Being famous has its good and bad points. Being related to a celebrity also has its highs and lows. The mother of British soccer star John Terry knows this first-hand.

Terry’s mother was sold out to The Sun by two police officers and a prison guard. As reported in www.standard.co.uk.

Of course this is not the first scandal involving allegations of corruption and bribery by tabloid newspapers.

Former Surrey Police constable Alan Tierney pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to selling details about the mother of former England football captain John Terry being arrested in 2009. He had held Sue Terry and the Chelsea star’s mother-in-law Sue Poole on suspicion of shoplifting.

It turns out the dynamic duo stole more than $1000 worth of merchandise from Tesco and Marks & Spencer in Weybridge.

This is not the first time the police officer in questions has leaked info, he also admitted handing over information about the arrest of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, 65,who was involved in a fracas with his Russian lover Ekaterina Ivanova, 23.

This is abysmal behavior from those hired to protect and serve. What they are serving is their own self interests.

There are a lot of crazy people and a lot of crazy laws in the United States of America. I am sure that Texas is home to many of each.

Texas knows the value of a penny. It has even made it a felony to steal one. As reported in www.star-telegram.com.

In one of the more memorable examples of the Texas Legislature's penny-foolish, pound-foolish lawmaking, it passed a law last session making the theft of a penny coin a state jail felony.

In other words, if you get caught stealing a penny, the state will spend $31 a day for two years to lock you up.

This moment of brilliance was part of a copper theft law passed in the final days of the 2011 Legislature. It was debated, analyzed and argued for months, but nobody noticed it included pennies.

The history of the Texas Legislature is filled with bold moments in lawmaking. There was the ban on possessing more than six personal vibrators. (That's worth up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.)

To gauge the Legislature's level of consciousness, a Waco representative filed a prank resolution in 1971 honoring Albert de Salvo for "population control."

The House passed it unanimously.

Then the lawmaker withdrew the resolution and explained that de Salvo was the 1960s "Boston Strangler."

The Texas law deals with copper as part of a scrap metal theft and the law has no minimum value for amount of the metal stolen. So, for example, stealing a six-pack of aluminum beer cans is also a felony. (But not longnecks.)

Does this bill make sense (pun intended to you)?

It feels like a real violation when something you have been stolen. This is especially true if thieves have broken into your home.

Just how can a stop theft class help protect your valuables, you ask? Simple – they keep thieves from ever beginning to steal in the first place. As reported in www.krdo.com.

This burglary spree was quite complex. Police noted that stolen property was being sold to a business. The business was identified as Just Computers. Property being sold included items shoplifted from retail stores, property stolen from motor vehicles and property stolen during home and business burglaries.

In December 2012, coordination of the investigation began through the efforts of the Colorado Springs Police Department, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Fountain Police Department, El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, the Safeway Corporation, Home Depot and the United States Postal Service.

It turns out that Just Computers owner, Clay Schaner would receive stolen property to include retail gift cards, and then re-sell the items mainly on Ebay. Their investigation revealed that over a four year period, where he sold more than $1.3 million worth of goods on Ebay.

The merchandise stolen from retail outlets was the result of organized “crews” of shoplifters; this aspect of the operation is still under investigation.

Clay also made a criminal out of his son, Clinton. The two of them both need a stop theft class and counseling to help them understand that stealing is wrong.

It feels like a real violation when something you have been stolen. This is especially true if thieves have broken into your home.

Just how can a Colorado theft education class help protect your valuables, you ask? Simple – they keep thieves from ever beginning to steal in the first place. As reported in www.krdo.com.

This burglary spree was quite complex. Police noted that stolen property was being sold to a business. The business was identified as Just Computers. Property being sold included items shoplifted from retail stores, property stolen from motor vehicles and property stolen during home and business burglaries.

In December 2012, coordination of the investigation began through the efforts of the Colorado Springs Police Department, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Fountain Police Department, El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, the Safeway Corporation, Home Depot and the United States Postal Service.

It turns out that Just Computers owner, Clay Schaner would receive stolen property to include retail gift cards, and then re-sell the items mainly on Ebay. Their investigation revealed that over a four year period, where he sold more than $1.3 million worth of goods on Ebay.

The merchandise stolen from retail outlets was the result of organized “crews” of shoplifters; this aspect of the operation is still under investigation.

Clay also made a criminal out of his son, Clinton. The two of them both need a stop theft class and counseling to help them understand that stealing is wrong.