No matter how desperate it is never ok to steal. It's a crime. Those two are criminals and avoided up to 60 days in jail by wearing the signs. Funny how thieves are turned into misunderstood, desperate people. Right.

WalMart asked for the theft...by saying they wouldn't prosecute shop lifters. Now are they not only foolish but lyers.

The author exuses the behavior of these criminals by saying that "Most companies..build losses into thier forcasted income statement." Nice, so when someone commits a crime against Ms. Gilbert maybe we should just excuse it as a petty crime against a petty woman! I remember how the crime rate went down in New York City in the 1990's, they cracked down on all crimes, especially the small ones.

When someone steals from Walmart they are stealing from the customers of Walmart. What an outrageous thing to do, to say that it is ok to steal.

How is this delightful penalty different than reporting DUI/DWIs in the local newspaper?

Does Gilbert blame retailers for reporting and prosecuting shoplifting? Even "petty" (I assume she means non-professional) theft is far from petty or incidental; retail managers and staff watch merchandise bleed from their stores daily, helpless to prevent or inhibit but a small percentage of it.

There is reckoning to be had on the balance sheets long before it ever gets to (her let-them-eat-cake approach of)"losses built in to the forecasted income statement." What magical thinking. Stagnant or eroding wages and benefits are popular. But before we go there, increases are invoked against the pricing, including the raised prices Ms. Gilbert will protest paying.

Gilbert also implies that it is inherently more immoral and regressive to publicly humiliate the "poor" thieves, than the thieves to commit the crime. Pardon me, but is there some new, improved, 21st-century version of social apathy? As for justice department resources, far better a couple of monitored Saturday afternoons than continuous incarceration courtesy of the taxpayer's wallet.

The reason this behavior is rampant is that persons who believe themselves above it,( ms. Gilbert, etc.)condone it.

Okay, I'm stumped. Why would anyone even go INTO Wal-Mart in the first place, much less stay in long enough to steal?

I guess stupid criminals deserve a penalty worthy of that stupidity...

In the WMT restroom, I seen a plastic bubble wrap for a cell phone that was torn off with the sensor still on it.

everyone has stolen something at one time or even everyday! maybe it is only taking an extra minute of lunch at work? but it is still stealing, what you take and how often you steal it doesn't matter! A T-shirt at WMT or you gouge gas prices 2.00/gal x hundred million gal/day. We need to focus on what really matters!

I worked for Wal-Mart, and if you think this is humiliating you should see how they treat their own staff when caught stealing. They are arrested in full view of the entire staff, and marched out in handcuffs for everyone to see. Believe me, it is an intentional policy. These people are no exception. Would they rather have gone to jail? I doubt it and they will definitely think twice in the future, as will all who observe.And what is wrong with shopping at Wal-Mart?

Shop lifting is a petty crime. Kinda like crossing the border from mexico illegially. Except nothing happens to the Mexicans, no fines, no jail time, maby they could carry a sign that said I am an illegal alian. I'm sure they would feel embarrased about that and if and when we send them back to Mexico they wouldn't come back. they would be too embarassed.

I’m not concerned about the embarrassed shoplifters. I was actually a witness to one of the people standing outside this store wearing a sandwich board and felt no sympathy for him. I wanted to ask him about what happened, but he was always busy talking on his cell phone. I am sure next week when he returns for part two of his sentence, he will have reached celebrity status.
I am concerned about the possibility of our justice system being perverted. These two were prosecuted for what is a class C misdemeanor. They were offered the option of 60 days in jail or this punishment? That is stiffer than what is provided for a 1st time DUI offense. Do you think this “judge” who is a local lawyer paid by the city to act as a judge, has EVER incarcerated anyone for 60 days for shoplifting before? Do you think anyone caught shoplifting at one of the local stores other than Wal-Mart has ever been offered this type of public punishment?
If the local Wal-Mart Management had offered to erect stocks for them to be placed in for a few hours each Saturday the judge would have gone along with it? Although what these people supposedly did (which one denies) was wrong, justice is supposed to be fair. I’m not certain it is being applied fairly in Attalla, Alabama.

Public humiliation as punishment for minor offenses was common in the Seventeenth century, along with public executions for capital crimes. ( Contrary to common misconception confinement in the pillory and the stocks were not themselves the penalty exacted but only the means by which it could be inflicted: the actual punishment was the taunting and ridicule of friends and neighbors in the community. The method was subsequently given up as inhumane, and we should consider very carefully whether we wish to reinstitute it in the Twenty-first century.

Im glad that this is happening to the thieves of this country. In other country's they cut thier hands off. When people steal our prices go up to accomidate the cost of loss to the companys, so this is a good lesson. My parents always told me that people who steal walk in shame ...or are shamed at thier own expense...

I'm not at all upset about this woman wearing a sign such as this. In other country's around the world, shoplifters are dealt with in a much more serious way, and if this is what it takes to make people in our country start understanding that shoplifting is wrong and illegal and immoral, then so be it. My hats off to this type of punishment. We need more things like this to happen. We live in a country where so many people get nothing but their hands slapped when they do something wrong and it doesn't do a thing to deter them from doing something wrong and illegal again. Way to go!! Public shame and humiliation often is the best punishment for things, and I'm not against it at all. I'd like to see more juvenile offenders punished in this way. I truly believe if they were, many of them would think twice before ever again doing something that could get them arrested.

People find it easy to decide what is wrong and what is right without giving any thought to the ramifications and complications that result from their decisions. This is especially true if they have forgotten or never learned any of the lessons of history. There are historical underpinnings for the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments. If we forget about the ducking stools, stocks, public whippings and torture of the past we will soon allow ourselves to give up our rights, one by one, and return to the unenlightened past.

I think the embarassment would be far more useful in teaching a lesson. Not just to the shoplifter, but to future shoplifters as well. Sitting in jail for sixty days is a waste of time. It isn't about teaching, just punishing at the taxpayers expense no less.

between 10 and 15 cents of every dollar that you spend a stores in the US are to pay for what customers and employees steal. Are you really happy with that or would you rather that we adopt Saudi Arabia's punishment and chop off their left hand??

by the way - the original intent of chopping that hand off way to condem the person to a slow death as they did not have toilet paper so they wiped with the left hand and kept the right clean for eating. so the criminal got slow poisoning by having to use the same hand for both.

..not EVERYONE steals I DONT..and i worked retail for over 35 years..i had to put up with jerks who stole all the time..try working in a pharmacy with a GUN stuck up your nose and some junkee trying to get pills or needles..people who STEAL think they are better then everyone else..well WE ALL PAY when someone steals..guess what..the MANAGER raises the prices on ALL THE STORE MERCHANDISE..to cover the loss.. GROW UP...little kids steal ADULTS who steal are CRIMINALS..dont care if your 9 or 99 kick their sorry butts in jail.. NOPE just because you LIE CHEAT STEAL dont put that label on EVERYONE ELSE for your lack of a moral compass..I also am self employed.... you steal from me its toe tag and body bag time.....HAVE A NICE DAY !!!!!!

These convicted criminals were given a choice: 60 days in jail or this public "flogging". They chose the latter. So what is the problem? As to the "being innocent and this is a misunderstanding" approach, that's what trials are for!

First of all, this is a sign, not a tattoo on their forehead. I think wearing a sign for 8 hours is quite a sweet deal in comparison to 60 days in jail which I think would be more humiliating and devastating than wearing a sign. Let's see 60 days in jail likely means no income, they'll probably lose their job, perhaps their home and tranportation. How lucky they were to have an option.