So what is it about people who don’t need to steal, that makes them decide to walk out of a store with items for which they deliberately do not pay?
Experts say it’s an illness (kleptomania), and some people simply can’t help it and need professional help. Other people assume it’s just a gross sense of entitlement … that the celebrities think they are above the law and can do as they wish (and take what they want).
Real Housewives personality Kim Richards, who has a net worth of $1 millon tried to steal not one but two trolleys full of toys and beauty products from Target, valued at $600. When caught, she claimed that she could not remember if she had or hadn’t paid for the goods. Kim is notorious for her substance abuse problems, though it is unlikely she was struggling financially.
A few other famous faces who have recently been nabbed for shoplifting are:
Kristen Cavallari
In 2006 Kristen was caught shoplifting clothes from a Tawny K store. The store neglected to press charges.
Britney Spears
During her infamous 2007 meltdown when she shaved her head, Britney Spears allegedly stole a wig from the Hustler store in Hollywood as well as a lighter from a gas station. Luckily, Spears is much healthier than she was a decade ago.
Lindsay Lohan
Mean Girls actress Lindsay Lohan has had her fair share of legal troubles. In 2011 when she was already on probation for a DUI incident, Lohan got in trouble again when she walked out of a jewelry store wearing a $2,500 necklace.
Amanda Bynes
In 2014, actress Amanda Bynes suffered a psychotic break which led to her blasting people on social media and having various public incidents of distress. At the time, the What I Like About You actress was accused of stealing a $200 hat from Barney’s in New York City. Security pulled her back in but no charges were filed and Amanda left the store before the police arrived.
Megan Fox
Megan Fox is an example of a teenage shoplifter. She admitted to once stealing a $7 tube of lip gloss from Walmart and received a lifetime ban from the juggernaut retailer.
Winona Ryder
Probably the most famous case of celebrity shoplifting is that of Winona Ryder. For years, Winona Ryder was the poster girl for celebrity shoplifting after being caught trying to steal various items from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverley Hills. A year later, in 2002, she was found guilty of grand theft and vandalism. In a piece with Interview magazine, Winona Ryder addressed for the first time since her arrest in 2001, her infamous shoplifting incident at Saks 5th Avenue in New York, where she was caught stealing $5000 worth of designer goods. Originally she blamed her actions on painkillers that she said she had got from a "quack" doctor after breaking her arm a few months earlier.
The painkillers, she said, left her in a state of "confusion".The incident was shocking, partly because of who she was – a successful actress at the top of her game – but also because it shone an international light on the less seen side to shoplifting – shoplifting as a psychological reaction to stress, or mental illness, rather than shoplifting as a need. Winona, like many shoplifters, could easily afford the items she stole. Indeed, had she wanted them so badly and had an issue with the payment, her stardom was such that had she contacted the designers from which she pilfered, they would most likely have gifted her the items. "Gifting" is so common and prevalent a custom, that celebrities are almost expected to receive clothing and goods for free nowadays. Having an attractive, cool, popular star associated with your brand is not only good advertising, but cheaper than paying them to do an advertising shoot. Sending free bags, sunglasses, clothing – any goods associated with your brand and having a popular "star" wear and be photographed in your items is "good business". Adversely, having an"uncool" personality overtly associated with your product can equally have a negative affect on your brand.
After her arrest, it was revealed that several of the items stolen were by Marc Jacobs. In a cynical but clever ploy, the designer resportedly sent Winona several thousand dollars worth of freebie items and then paid her a substantial sum to advertise an upcoming campaign. Like Kate Moss after her "Cocaine Kate" scandal, in the immediate aftermath of the scandal she appeared to suffer with the loss of campaigns, and in Winona’s case, had to endure an embarrassing trial and prosecution. However, having shown some contrition (in Kate's case, she whisked herself off to rehab, Winona paid the price in court) and allowed the dust on the matter to settle, the scandals, in the long run, appeared to have "upped" their cool stakes. To have given them an "edge". Both Kate and Winona came back from their respective scandals better and stronger. Kate Moss made more money in the year following her potentially career ending cause celebre than she had in the previous 3 years put together. And Winona, who took 2 years off after her prosecution, laid low, and stated in her recent interview that...'In a weird way, it was almost like the best thing that could have happened because I’d never asked myself the question before of, ''Is it okay if I’m not going to act? Is there anything else?'' because that was all that I really knew.' She is currently on a career high again – starring in the smash hit Stranger Things 2 on Netflix, whereas many of the actresses of her generation have fallen off the radar.
However, Winona today, looks back on her arrest as a wake up call, it allowed her to take time off from working and to reassess her life. In the interview she also acknowledges that her shoplifting was part of a greater depression. Referring to the incident, Winona said: 'That thing that happened, I was starting to have some trouble before that.'
"I think a lot of people think that that is what sort of sent me off in another direction, but I was actually starting to have some trouble a few years before." So her shoplifting appears to have been part of a greater malaise - a symptom of other 'troubles' in the actresses life.
So why would a young woman, who has no need to steal, who can afford the items she takes, risk the embarrassment and potentially her reputation and end of her career in front of the whole world? What is it that makes someone steal when the financial need isn't there?
Winona Ryder is a rare celebrity, in that she shoplifted items of value – $5,500 worth of clothing from a department store in Beverly Hills. For this, she received 480 hours of community service. The actress Lindsay Lohan was made to work at a morgue in Los Angeles as part of her sentencing for shoplifting a $2,500 necklace.
Like Winona Ryder, Lindsay Lohan – Hollywood’s one time troubled startlet du jour, has been in trouble for her light-fingered ways. Lohan, like Ryder can more than afford the items she took. And unlike Winona who appears to have curbed her light fingered ways after her catching and shaming, Lindsay Lohan has stolen many times, from shops and shoots and even reportedly from people's homes. Her shoplifting appears almost compulsive in nature.
At one point, Lindsay Lohan was Hollywood’s most famed troubled young star – not a day went by without her appearance in a tabloid chronicling her car crash lifestyle, her trips to rehab for her various addictions and her general inability to 'hold her life together'. In such cases, is shoplifting an outlet for when we feel we are mentally breaking down? Like Winona, Lindsay was struggling for several years before her shoplifting or general stealing brought to the attention of the media that her life was spiralling out of control. Again this appeared to be stealing as a symptom of a generally more troubled personality. In such cases where the stealing isn’t an outright need, what is it symptomatic of? Is it a cry for help? An expression of control when we feel we have none? Does it fills a hole caused by loss – actual or perceived? Does it makes us feel in control when our lives are spiralling out of control. What of its compulsive nature? But most interestingly, why are these people risking everything for the sake of a few pounds?
When it was revealed in a report that middle-class teenagers were fuelling a rise in thieving, Harry Kauffer, the founder of a charity Crisis Counselling for Alleged Shoplifters, announced that “a typical shoplifter used to be a drug addict. Now it’s girls from well-off families. Many of these are doing it for kicks. Today’s youngsters are often spoilt and arrogant and think they can get away with anything. Also, along with a surge in divorces, many do it as a cry for attention. And young girls are now more materialistic. They want to emulate celebrities and wear fashionable clothes.” Revealingly, he goes on to comment: “They come from affluent backgrounds but unfortunately their parents have had to cut back on their spending,” he added.
“They are not spending the amount of money they used to and can’t afford to give the gifts they normally would. Under normal conditions you couldn’t get into these girls bedrooms because of the electrical items in them.” Again, the notion of some form of loss appears to be the culprit.
When it comes to celebrities and shoplifting, it's not always young troubled startlets like Winona, Lindsey Lohan and Amanda Bynes. Middle aged male television presenters also seem to have fallen into the tempting siren’s call of the five-finger discount. Who could forget Richard Madeley at the height of his Richard and Judy fame sneaking out of Sainsbury's with 5 bottles of concealed champagne he 'forgot' to pay for. Anthony Worrall Thompson was cautioned in Tesco's for stealing cheese and wine. On five different occasions. The face of the shoplifter has changed in the publics perception from that of the desperate junkie stealing to fund a habit to a face that is resoundingly middle class. Richard Madeley and Anthony Worrall Thompson were hardly stealing a loaf of bread because they were starving – and it was what would be considered the luxuries of the middle classes that they took – wine, continental cheeses and champagne. It has been suggested that this is perhaps entirely appropriate – that the recession meant middle class folk had to cut back on their luxuries, and it’s this sense of injustice that prompted them to react in this extreme way. Rather than swap the Bolly for a Cava, instead one just takes what one feels one is owed. The psychology of loss is often alluded to in these shoplifting cases – in Anthony Worrall Thompson's case, it was suggested at the time that his stealing was a symptom of his sense of loss based on difficulties he was going through at the time in his restaurant business. As a victim of the recession he was left with his sense of victimhood and thus feeling of entitlement – the supermarket from which he stole owed him – or so he felt. It’s interesting that he wasn’t stealing clothes or shoes. Anthony Worrall Thompson stole food – ironically, the basis of his bread and butter as it were. And it doesn’t have to be a financial loss that can spur someone’s desire to steal – as in the case of Anthony Worrall Thompson. Any loss can leave someone with a sense of something missing in their lives – the loss of a loved one, a job, self-respect. The shoplifting makes the shoplifter feel as if they are filling that hole that has been made by the loss.
For Part 2 of 'Rise of the middle-class shoplifter' see next week's blog.
