From Desiree Fontaine to Winona Ryder: Why Do Successful People Shoplift?

Word that Desiree Fontaine, a TV reporter with Connecticut's WTNH, was arrested over the weekend and charged with attempting to steal a $100 bottle of perfume from a department store got the Surge Desk team wondering: What is it that makes successful, financially secure people resort to the five-finger discount?

As illustrated by the case of Oscar-nominated actress Winona Ryder -- who attempted to walk out of a Beverly Hills department store with more than $5,000 worth of designer clothes -- fame and fortune are by no means a deterrent to shoplifting. But nor are many of the demographic factors that you'd think would blunt any propensity toward sticky fingers. Indeed, a quick check at the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention's website reveals several surprising facts about the crime that Ms. Fontaine is accused of having committed:

1. Lots of people do it. In fact, roughly one in 11 Americans shoplifts.

2. It's not a gender-specific crime. Statistics show that an equal number of men and women shoplift.

3. Nor is it something that only kids do. Two-thirds of all shoplifters are adults.

4. It's a crime of passion (of a sort). Approximately two-thirds of those who shoplift do so on the spur of the moment.
Shoplifters also report experiencing a rush similar to a drug high when they get away with stealing something.

5. The odds favor the robbers over the robbed. On average, shoplifters are caught once out of every 48 times that they steal.

6. It's not an indicator of other illegal behavior. Most shoplifters don't commit other types of crimes.