ATF agent James Burk charged with stealing wine from a Kroger

[erudne]

DEERFIELD TWP., Ohio – A federal agent is charged with stealing wine from a Kroger store after employees grew suspicious and alerted authorities.

Police say ATF agent James Burk took expensive wine to the self-checkout lane and charged himself a small percent of the cost.

Burk was charged by the Warren County Sheriff's Office for stealing more than $200 in wine from the Landen Kroger.

According to deputies, they caught Burk going to the self-checkout in August and paying $19 for four bottles of wine that had a total price tag of $222.

The report says Burk bought bottles of Stag's Leap Wine priced at $62.99 and $33.99, but the code he entered charged him only $4.99.

According to the report, Kroger employees had grown suspicious of Burk and began watching him. They said he did the same thing multiple times.

We went to Burk's house for comment but no one came to the door. We also contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A spokeswoman said the agency is aware of the charge and that it is handling the matter internally but would not comment further

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[IheartSig]

Back when I was going to college and working loss prevention, I would regularly apprehend well dressed, articulate business type people stealing things. People never see them, they watch the kids and tweakers etc, but assume someone who looks like they have their proverbial bubblegum together wouldn't steal.


The thing is, they like to steal. They value the process and thrill more than the item they are stealing. In nearly every single case like that, they always had plenty of cash in their wallets / purses. They didn't steal baby formula for their child or something like that. They stole random stuff. Weird stuff. I chased a guy 3 blocks for a bottle of pickled asparagus once. He had a wallet full of cash. I asked why didn't you just buy it?

He said "have you seen how much those cost? I'm not paying that price"

 

[erudne]

Back in the day when I was a kid I worked for .50 an hour, 10 years later I made $1.25 an hour. The PPL I worked with, if they had learned I stole a jar of pickles, would have beat me senseless because my actions reflected on them, just by association I had shamed them, then they would have bought me a jar of pickles, as a moral lesson.
Until the 1960's it was the same in the military, peer pressure and the rule of the pack (necessary in a K-type culture)
Now of course all sectors of the military have been destroyed via Feminism (Not True In Imperial Russia)

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

Like Slick Willie's SECRETARY OF THE ARMY John Shannon; a retired colonel, being caught shoplifting at a FT Myers PX @ 1993

 

[erudne]

Like Slick Willie's SECRETARY OF THE ARMY John Shannon; a retired colonel, being caught shoplifting at a FT Myers PX @ 1993

BATF Agent caught stealing wine....no link

 

[RVTECH]

but the code he entered charged him only $4.99.

I suspect their are ways you could 'fool' the system by manually entering a lower priced item or simply sneaking stuff past the self checkout completely. Apparently the 'thrill' gene is not in my family - just impatience as when I use the self checkout at stores I want out of there as quickly as possible - regardless of price!

 

[whiskeybill]

Shortly before I retired from the Navy in the early 90's, a mustang LCDR (0-4) was caught shoplifting at the exchange. He had been one of those "homesteaders" that had spent nearly his entire career at this one base (NAS Whidbey Island, WA). Just about everybody knew him, and of course just about everybody knew he had been caught shoplifting. He asked the skipper of the squadron to let him retire quietly. Skipper said no way, you are going to have a formal retirement ceremony in front of God and everybody. Not a word was said about his last transgression, but everyone knew, and it was quite a lesson to be learned. It was one of the saddest, most pitiful events I had ever witnessed, but appropriate given the circumstances.

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

Shortly before I retired from the Navy in the early 90's, a mustang LCDR (0-4) was caught shoplifting at the exchange. He had been one of those "homesteaders" that had spent nearly his entire career at this one base (NAS Whidbey Island, WA). Just about everybody knew him, and of course just about everybody knew he had been caught shoplifting. He asked the skipper of the squadron to let him retire quietly. Skipper said no way, you are going to have a formal retirement ceremony in front of God and everybody. Not a word was said about his last transgression, but everyone knew, and it was quite a lesson to be learned. It was one of the saddest, most pitiful events I had ever witnessed, but appropriate given the circumstances.

"The title doesn't make the man, the man makes the title"; loosely-quoted from none-other than Niccolo Machiavelli.

"The Prince"

 

[Slobray]

I've never seen a store where you could self check alcohol, so that might have been the alerting factor.


Ray

 

[The B]

I've never seen a store where you could self check alcohol, so that might have been the alerting factor.


Ray

You can self-checkout alcohol all over Oregon... flash your ID to the self-checkout attendant and you're on your way.

Indeed... when I did LP, we watched the merchandise, not the people. Looking at people and judging based on appearances DOES work - druggies do steal. Kids steal too, but they only steal CDs and candy bars - we let that bubblegum walk out the door without a second thought.

We were after the guys walking out with $1000 worth of KitchenAid mixers, Foodsavers, Sonicare toothbrushes, MachIII razor heads, Rogain hair bubblegum... etc. Dudes would come in and clean out - felony theft.

And yea, they often looked like "normal" people... so if you just watched the door for "dirties" you'd catch plenty of thieves.. stealing $10 worth of bubblegum... whilst $1500 worth of cold medicine went right out the door in a wicker hamper.

I never arrested anyone in a suit, but I arrested plenty of guys wearing nicer clothes than I was wearing.

 

[clearconscience]

This sounds typical of todays govt types.

Maybe they should arm more citizens and disarm the feds.

 

[ConcreteJungle]

I agree with what a few people have mentioned.
The professional, well-dressed, plenty of cash on them, cheapskates without moral fiber are generally the ones that walk away with the big ticket items.

My accounts always tell me stuff goes missing from their business all the time. The businesses are generally visited by professionals. SMH.

and we wonder why the kids now-a-days don't have any morals or values. These bubblegum people are raising these bubblegum kids.

 

[Member 5605]

The way they are self raking is their cheap bottle gets rang up while the expensive bottle is put in the bag. Repeat that a couple times and then finish by scanning your cheap bottle for the last time and put it in your bag.

I do a similar thing with little things at Home Depot when I have multiples. I hate grabbing one and it won't scan. So I use the one that scans to scan through all of the same item.

Doesn't take a genius just somebody slight of hand.

I dislike how they said they will handle it "internally". We all know how well the government investigates the government.

 

[edslhead]

Poor guy must be underpaid

 

[fredball]

And I would be willing to bet he gets off Scott free

 

[The B]

And I would be willing to bet he gets off Scott free

Maybe... buy how?

Loss prevention officer wants him prosecuted.... he'll be prosecuted.

Responding officer is a municipal employee, not federal. Prosecutor prosecuting the case is an assistant of a locally-elected DA... not federal.

There's no system in place for him just "getting off"

 

[clearconscience]

There is when your in the outer reaches of govt. He will get a slap on the wrist and the ATF will handle his "punishment" probably put a note in his file.

 

[The B]

But if a local prosecutor, who answers ONLY to the voters, and is in no way beholden to any federal entity, decides to press the issue, he WILL be prosecuted. There's no mysterious secret inner-connectivity between state, federal, and elected positions. We're talking about totally different, unrelated levels of government, and well as different branches of government.

Depending on the proclivities of the prosecutor and his relationship with the local ATF field office, I suppose he might be persuaded to just let it go... but not now that it's in the public's eye. This is why cops who justifiably shoot unarmed black people (and I'm not going into which ones were and weren't) end up getting prosecuted - because the media gets ahold of it, and the DA knows he's only DA for 4 years at a time, with no guarantee of keeping it each time.

 

[Diamondback]

I seem to recall local prosecutor wanted to try FBI jackboot Lon Horiuchi for murder, and the Federal Gestapo stepped in to protect their pet thug...

 

[BoonDocks36]

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

Fact! Indeed Lonnie Boy was given several raises & advancements....

He deserves err.. Uhh.. I will leave it unstated, but Unintended Consequences spoke often of fatten swine.

philip