What is your mental picture of the average shoplifter? As a counselor for both in-class and online stop theft classes I can tell you that shoplifters come in all shapes and sizes.

They come from every socio-economic background. They are men. They are women. They are old and they are young. One thing they all have in common (at least as far as my classrooms are concerned) is that they all got caught! As reported in thetandd.com.

Most will admit that what they did was stupid. It is a fact that the majority of shoplifters do not steal out of need, but for a myriad of other purposes. Being stupid and not needing what she stole is certainly the case for one Ohio woman.

Holly Hill should have known better. She was stupid. She was arrested for trying to get away without paying for $57 in merchandise from the Family Dollar store..

Employees noticed the 53-year-old thief absconding with the merchandise, called police and then led them to a 1992 Mitsubishi bearing a paper tag. A comforter from the store was in the back seat.

Apparently Hill was going back for seconds – more stupidity. Officers approached her inside the store. They saw her try to place something from her purse back on the merchandise rack.

The really interesting part is that when they searched her purse, they discovered other items taken from the store that hadn’t been paid for, along with $1,117 in cash. Nice – more than a grand in cash and she steals $57 worth of goods.

Merchandise shoplifted from Family Dollar included baby lotion, toothpaste, hair care products and the comforter.

Hill obviously has a problem. I hope she takes a good stop theft class and chooses to keep from stealing for the remainder of her days.