Getting a caffeine/sugar high from one of the ever-popular energy drinks can cost over $2 a can. So instead of shelling out the cash, some teenagers steal their 24 ounces of liquid alertness.

“We have a big problem,” said Carl Foote, store manager at Davis Jubliee in Roosevelt. “We catch two or three kids a week stealing. A lot of the time it’s deli food or energy drinks.

“Most of the theft has been under $10, like those food items, energy drinks and candy,” Roosevelt Police Officer Alan Tucker said.

Tucker, who serves as a school resource officer, said he doesn’t know just what motivates the thefts. “Some of them (students) had money enough with them to buy what they were stealing, and some don’t have any money. I don’t know if it’s the economy, or if they kind of dare each other like peer pressure. Maybe it’s just for the thrill. I don’t know that these kids are starving.”

“Five-finger discount,” “lifting,” “jacking,” “racking,” “nicking” and “boosting” are some of the slang terms used for this type of theft. Teen shoplifting is a rising problem nationwide, and although local crime statistics for 2009 have yet to be compiled, anecdotal accounts seem to indicate an increase in shoplifting.

Tucker, who is assigned to work with school administrators to combat juvenile crime, said he has responded to more student shoplifting cases in the last six months than he has during the entire two years he has worked in Roosevelt schools.

Foote has worked in the grocery store for 20 years and definitely feels that his store is seeing more incidents of shoplifting than ever before.

“Usually … the first of the school year we catch three or four and the other kids look as the cops haul them off and we don’t have a problem after that,” Foote said. “But we’re still catching two or three teenagers a week.”

Personnel of other stores in Roosevelt indicate that they have not seen the dramatic increase in juvenile activity.

“It is definitely an ongoing problem,” commented one manager who did not want to identify himself or his store. “But we’re seeing about 50/50 adults and teens taking things.”

Most businesses immediately call the police when a shoplifter is spotted.

Grant Charles, deputy prosecutor for Duchesne County, acknowledged that 8th District Court is presently processing 100 more criminal cases than during the same time period last year.

“These aren’t just juvenile cases,” Charles explained. “Crime rates are up everywhere. We can speculate that it is because the economy is bad. When times are hard, theft crimes are often the first to rise. People want to continue to have what they can no longer afford.”

In addition to shoplifters who want to get food and merchandise for free, Charles suggested that drug- and alcohol-related crimes are also increasing.

“Often the kids we deal with are aware that their parents are having problems,” Charles said, indicating that these parents aren’t necessarily having criminal problems but are dealing with stress issues that affect the teenagers.

Certainly, economic stress involves children in a family. One store manager described catching a teenage boy with a loaf of bread, a package of meat and a drink stuck down his pants.

“I don’t know how he got all of it down there,” said the manager, who laughed and then immediately became serious. “I think, though, that this might have been one of those cases where the kid was hungry.”

Legally there is some latitude when dealing with juveniles, depending on their prior record and the cost of the stolen item. Teenagers are referred to court and then required to appear before a judge.

Local merchants typically agree that they feel calling the police is an appropriate action.

“When kids are standing around looking dorky and checking their pants every few minutes to see what might fall out, that gives us a clue we might need an officer,” one store employee commented.

“Even if they just have to do restitution and community service, it’s not worth it,” explained one manager. “Because real quickly we know who to watch and what to watch for.”

Another employee said that crime might be up because members of his staff are developing a better sense of what to watch for — even if they are just keeping an eye on the canned beverages.

SIDEBAR

The facts about shoplifting

• More than $13 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year. That's more than $35 million per day.

• There are approximately 27 million shoplifters (or 1 in 11 people) in our nation today. More than 10 million people have been caught shoplifting in the last five years.

• There is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Men and women shoplift about equally as often.

• Approximately 25 percent of shoplifters are kids, 75 percent are adults. Fifty-five percent of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens.

• Many shoplifters buy and steal merchandise in the same visit. Shoplifters commonly steal from $2 to $200 per incident depending upon the type of store and items chosen.

• Shoplifting is often not a premeditated crime. Seventy-three percent of adult and 72 percent of juvenile shoplifters don't plan to steal in advance.

• Eighty-nine percent of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. Sixty-six percent say they hang out with those kids.

• Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once in every 48 times they steal. They are turned over to the police 50 percent of the time.

• Approximately 3 percent of shoplifters are "professionals" who steal solely for resale or profit as a business. These include drug addicts who steal to feed their habit, hardened professionals who steal as a lifestyle and international shoplifting gangs who steal for profit as a business. "Professional" shoplifters are responsible for 10 percent of total losses (in terms of monetary value).

• The vast majority of shoplifters are "non-professionals" who steal not out of criminal intent, financial need or greed but as a response to social and personal pressures in their life.

• The excitement generated from "getting away with it" produces a chemical reaction resulting in what shoplifters describe as an incredible "rush" or "high" feeling. Many shoplifters will tell you that this high is their "true reward" rather than the merchandise itself.

• Drug addicts who have become addicted to shoplifting describe shoplifting as equally addicting as drugs.

• Fifty-seven percent of adults and 33 percent of juveniles say it is hard for them to stop shoplifting even after getting caught.

• Most non-professional shoplifters don't commit other types of crimes. They'll never steal an ashtray from your house and will return to you a $20 bill you may have dropped. Their criminal activity is restricted to shoplifting and therefore, any rehabilitation program should be "offense-specific" for this crime.

• Habitual shoplifters steal an average of 1.6 times per week.

Source: National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (www.shopliftingprevention.org)