Tuesday, May 31, 1983/The Battalion/Page 3
‘Aggies make up 70 percent’
Student shoplifting increases
by Christine Mallon
Battalion Reporter
|The number of students pro-
I Dcuted for shoplifting in Col
lege Station is increasing and
| one supermarket manager says
that students make up 70 per-
II cent of the problem in his store.
I Safeway assistant manager
Dan Feldman estimates that ab-
ikit 35 percent of his customers
are students.
“But they’re about 70 percent
of our shoplifting problem,” he
said.
I Feldman, who has been the
: assistant manager at the Safeway
in Culpepper Plaza for five
years, said there has been a huge
Rcrease in the number of stu
dents his store prosecutes for
College Station policeman Lt.
Bernard Kapella said that be
muse of the large increase in the
Indent population and in the
Rnount of retail stores in the
area, there has been a large in-
■ease in the number of Texas
A&M students arrested for sho
plifting.
I “Females are the worst,”
Kapella, head of crime preven
tion and community relations,
said.
“More than 80 percent of the
shoplifters brought in are
females,” he said.
This high percentage can
probably be attributed to the
assortment and high prices for
cosmetics, Kapella said, which
are the items most often taken
by female shoppers.
The Kroger store located in
Southwest Parkway Shopping
Center is one of the three local
supermarkets that employs
security guards.
Skaggs Alpha Beta manager
Oliver Bishop said his store has
almost a 100 percent prosecu
tion rate of shoplifters, but it is
not his company’s policy to dis
cuss the methods of catching
them.
“If we told people how our
security system operates, then it
wouldn’t be very effective,”
Bishop said.
Feldman said he does not
mind making the public aware
of how Safeway’s security system
against shoplifters works.
“Hopefully, once shoppers
know how much time and
money we spend to safeguard
against thefts, they’ll think twice
before they steal something,” he
said.
Safeway hires off-duty police
officers from the College Station
Police Department to work in
the store undercover.
Feldman said officers hide in
catwalks which run throughout
the store and use binoculars to
closely watch shoppers.
Once a shopper is seen con
cealing an item, Feldman said,
the officer continues to watch
him to see if he leaves the store
with the item. When he is out
side the store an awaiting officer
approaches him. The officer
asks the suspect if he has some
thing in his possession that he
didn’t pay for. If the shopper
can’t prove that he paid for the
item, he is brought back into the
store and arrested.
“Once an arrest is made, it’s
out of our hands and into the
police department’s,” Feldman
said.
“The rest is just like Adam-
12,” he said. “They’re taken to
either the city or county jail, de
pending on the value of the item
Senate OKs House changes in bill
creating state ethics commission
m ini
ess datil
ons. In
sted dial
□grams
the hoi
onsulta
United Press International
AUSTIN — The state Senate
Saturday agreed to House
tanges in a bill to create a state
thics commission, clearing the
|ay for the measure to go to
}ov. Mark White.
The compromise bill,
jfashioned by a joint conference
jCommittee, drew some opposi
tion from Sen. J.E. “Buster”
Brown, R-Lake Jackson, be
cause it contained no provision
requiring immediate reporting
of contributions during the final
nine days before an election.
But Sen. Ted Lyon, D-
Rockwall and sponsor of the bill,
accused Brown of supporting
the provision — which has wide
spread opposition among legis
lators — merely as a means of
killing the bill.
Currently, campaign contri
butions received during the fin
al nine days before an election
are not required to be reported
until a month after the vote.
The major provision in the
bill approved by both Houses
would prohibit for the first time
the personal use of campaign
funds.
The conference committee
also altered the bill to specify
that only one of five citizens on
an Ethics Advisory Commission
could be a lobbyist.
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Actor
’Brien
alls ill
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Actor Pat
• Brien became ill during the
linal act of a weekend theater
berformance and was taken to a
hospital, authorities said
Tonday.
He was listed in stable condi
tion in Humana Hospital of San
Antonio early Monday, a hospit
al spokeswoman said. Another
pokesperson said preliminary
Ftests on the actor, 83, indicated
he was suffering from anemia.
rlVat JlM, O’Brien was hospitalized late
enzecT'Samnlay after he started to stag-
ans can Fger and had to leave the stage
owntollfduring the final act of “On Gol-
\ Tden Pond” at the Fiesta Dinner
nd ins® Playhouse, the spokesperson
xchangt Sa ‘^-
The actor was to have
oacities mished the four-week per-
ofonel formance Sunday,
the Nai 1 O’Brien, cast as a fast-talking
veryoiif Irishman in most of his more
family- ^ an HO pictures, appeared in
such movies as “Boy Meets Girl,”
SAngels with Dirty Faces” and
The Fighting 69th."
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A sound education is her best guarantee
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Our day school program is co-educational
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Our goal is to teach our students integrity,
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For information on enrollment for the
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Headmaster.
ALLEN ACADEMY
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Box 953 ♦ Bryan, Texas 77806 ♦ (409) 779-0066
stolen.”
The city jail handles all Class-
C misdemeanors. Thefts under
$5 fall into this category. Two
hundred and six dollars must be
posted to be released.
“That $206 is used to pay the
fine in most cases, but all juris
diction is left up to the judge,”
Kapella said. However, $206 is
the maximum fine in these
cases.
The Brazos County jail hand
les all Class-B misdemeanors, in
cluding theft from $5 to $20. A
maximum fine of $ 1,000 and/or
a small jail term is assessed. A
Class-A misdemeanor for theft
includes items valued between
$20 and $200. The maximum
fine for a Class A is $2,000 and/
or a maximum jail sentence of
one year. Any theft above that
amount is a felony.
Michelle McDonough, a gra
duate student in the psychology
department, has talked with sev
eral students who have been
arrested for shoplifting. She
said most of them admitted to
shoplifting before, but this was
the first time they were caught.
McDonough said she is aware
there are some people with
problems who steal for atten
tion, because they’re compelled
to or because they have a serious
problem and don’t realize what
they’re doing.
Feldman, Class of‘66, said he
realizes that Texas A&M stu
dents are a major asset to the
community and because of that,
he gives them special considera
tions when it comes to pro
secuting.
“Usually, we’ll prosecute a
student under a Class-C no mat
ter how much the stolen goods
cost,” he said.
He also said that on rare occa
sions he’ll completely drop all
charges on a Texas A&M stu
dent if he feels the student has
learned a lesson without being
arrested.
European companies
agree on missile pact
United Press International
DALLAS — The LTV Cor
poration announced Sunday
at the Paris Air Show that its
Vought aerospace subsidiary
has signed an agreement with
three European firms for in
ternational marketing of
Vought’s Improved Lance
missile.
The agreement includes
Wegmann & Company of
West Germany, BPD Difesa
Spazio of Italy and the Royal
Ordinance Factories of the
United Kingdom and calls for
an evaluation of the European
market and a preliminary
production analysis to assess
the feasibility of European
production, said a Vought
spokesman.
Improved Lance is a highly
advanced version of the Lance
battlefield missile currently
deployed by the United States
and five other NATO coun
tries.
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