In the words of Jimmy Cagney — “Never steal anything ... small.”
But one of the indicators of just how bad things have gotten in the economy is the interest people who are going without have in stealing almost anything. And the extent they are willing to go to, in order to get their hands on their ill-gotten booty.
This propensity to steal anything that is not nailed down, whether it ends up being worth anything or not, is certainly not limited to the United States, nor are the efforts to which crooks are willing to go, as a couple of recent Associated Press international stories have shown.
For example, in Mexico this past week, thieves hijacked a truck and came away with nothing, because they failed. Had they succeeded, they would have gotten 17 tons of peanuts.
Hot peanuts may have a market, but you have to wonder.
And in England, a man got in quite a bit of trouble by trying to smuggle stolen eggs.
A veteran special forces solider got nabbed trying to “sneak out of Britain with a stash of 14 rare peregrine falcon eggs hidden in socks strapped to his body.”
He was heading to Dubai, where he could have gotten about $11,000 per egg.
And he wasn’t counting his chickens, or falcons, before they hatched, either, because experts kept the eggs warm and 11 of the 14 have already hatched.
The perp had a great excuse when he was stopped. He “originally told police he was carrying store-bought chicken eggs, which he said he used to treat a bad back.”
It speaks to the downward spiral of our global society, but it’s really hard to tell whether this is a negative or positive sign for the economy.
On the one hand, you’ve got people ready to steal just about anything the moment you turn your back.
But on the other had, there also seems to always be someone with money ready to buy the stolen goods.
In a sick, sad way, maybe that’s an encouraging sign.
Or maybe not.
— Chuck Smith