ShopLyfter 18

Their job is stealing, their lives a cruel dead end. Director Jon Alpert takes his cameras undercover for this hard-hitting look at men who live by theft and suffer addiction. Focusing on a year in the lives of three professional criminals, this gritty profile—which includes hidden-camera footage of actual thefts—exposes the "petty" crimes that are paralyzing America.

This follow-up to the 1989 documentary ONE YEAR IN A LIFE OF CRIME revisits three of the original subjects in New Jersey during a five-year period in the 1990s. We share in their triumphs and setbacks as they navigate lives of poverty, drug abuse, AIDS, and petty crime.

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

Runaway sisters Isabel and Violet drift, grift and shoplift in the hopes of skipping town. But an ironic twist of fate on the eve of their great escape sees them stranded in the marshes, where they reckon with their relationship, futures and places in the world

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.

A young lawyer, Jane Liu, is assigned by her mentor to help Madam Wong, a 75 years old repeated shoplifter, as a pro bono defense counsel. What seems to be an easy open and shut case suddenly takes a weird turn when Jane discovers that Madam Wong's repeated petty crimes are intentional and deliberate.

Anti-shoplifting film co-produced by Sid Davis and Motorola.

Demonstration of shoplifting methods. With the Cooperation and Assistance of Berkeley, California Police Department and Berkeley Police Reserve; Addison H. Fording, Chief of Police; J.F. Hink & Son Department Store, L.W. Hink, President. Technical Assistance: Wm. P. Beall, Lieutenant; E.A. Skells, Sergeant, Berkeley Police DepartmentGeorge Jelten, Director of Visual Merchandising, J.F. Hink and Son. Director of Photography: John L. Siegle. Sound: Walter D. Porep. Narration: John E. Pedersen.

A short film that tries to deter young people from shoplifting.

This film details the techniques used by amateur and professional shoplifters to steal over $6 billion in merchandise annually. Emphasizing how much of this stealing could be prevented ... A convicted shoplifter displays stealing methods under actual conditions and explains how employees could have prevented the thefts.