I hear public health service provides a great treatment with free psychiatrists. They are getting crazier by the week...

Leaky may have [inadvertently] hit upon a good point here.

Perhaps the larger issue here might be a severe lack of social/mental health services. I mean, this person described sounds certifiably crazy. But clearly, petty thievery is but a symptom of a much more worse social ill.

In any case, we ALL know that retailer loss/prevention costs is faaar more attributable to EMPLOYEES than out-side shop-lifting. So statistically IA, YOU'RE far more likely a thief than the crazy shop-lifter you wrote about.