The athletic store Distance in Paris has a strange promotion in the run-up to the Olympics next summer. In the Rob It To Get It campaign, they say go ahead and shoplift from them- you can keep the merchandise if you can outrun the store's security guard. The twist is that the security guard is French Olympic sprinter Méba-Mickaël Zézé. In this compilation video, he caught 74 would-be thieves, while two people got away.
The stunt makes Zézé look really good. But what does it say about theft? If it wasn't completely staged, this had to be a low-key, limited time offer. There doesn't seem to be any consequences for attempted theft, and probably was pretty hard on Zézé while it lasted. Also, any American will unlock the secret to this stunt in about ten seconds. All you need is more than one thief making a break for it at the same time, running in different directions. (via Digg)
In the UK it really is more trouble than it's worth to detain and prosecute all shop lifters for many big shops. The biggest shopping centres simply ban them for a year, which can often be more of a deterrent.
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