How do you catch a thief?

[Loretta]

@plasmatron

If you want to thrash him, just wait in a cubicle with a can of pepper spray and your best steel toe boots on… If you want the arsehole brought to a more conventional form of justice the only way forward is a video camera stealthily placed… sans hard evidence this is the kind of thing that goes nowhere fast under “Taiwan law”, video evidence however makes for very little paper work for the rozzers… Get a local to proffer the damning tape instead of an untrustworthy big-nose and you’ll really see the wheels of Taiwanese justice grinding at a moderate pace…

Agree. But I can’t see myself getting away with planting video cameras in the changing rooms. Housecat’s idea is the best one so far.

[Dragonbones]

@urodacus

my money’s on the front desk guy.

Yup. Hey, maybe you could talk to management and get a camera installed?

[cfimages]

DB, that’s entirely too sensible and boring.

[Icon]

@Dragonbones

@urodacus

my money’s on the front desk guy.

Yup. Hey, maybe you could talk to management and get a camera installed?

In the locker room?!

[marasan]

@Loretta

I swim 2-3 times a week at a very nice indoor pool. Have been doing this for over a year, fairly uneventfully. In October the old open shelf arrangement was replaced with $10 lockers, and signs went up warning people about theft. I figured that a year without incident was a sign that the danger was being hyped up to bring in more money. After all, my bag and clothes won’t fit in in one locker, and to get your shampoo out between swimming and showering means paying again.

But on a whim I carried my wallet and phone down to the pool with me - and returned to find my bag and clothes gone.

They were in a shower cubicle, having been ransacked, and I’ve now got used to wandering round checking the showers, toilets, etc., to find my stuff. So far I’ve lost NT$32, which is less than I would have spent on lockers, and found several other sets of clothes and bags - all minus cash, cards and phones. It happens an average of once a week.

This guy, or gang, has a consistent MO and it should be easy enough to catch him. No security cameras in the changing rooms, but surely we could watch to see who goes in and out all day?

Sorry to revive this but I don’t feel like this deserves a new thread.

I went swimming yesterday, and after finishing I headed to the shower area. I took a shower and I left my bath soap in the shower stall (again). I realized I did this after about 3-4 minutes. I went back to the stall I was using and the bath soap was gone. Brand new one. It’s such a small amount of money but it just irks me. And the guy did it really professionally. He must have went into that shower stall, saw the soap, then went into another stall to take his shower with my soap!

Over the years, I have lost soap maybe around 10 times. Every time, once it’s lost, it’s gone. The pool I go to most often has a lost and found cabinet and my bath soap that I lose is NEVER there.

Again, it’s just a small amount of money but it bothers me and makes me wonder whether the honesty here is more about getting caught rather than real honesty. There are no cameras in the shower area of pools, but as we know, cameras are everywhere else on this island. It makes me feel that people know they can’t get caught stealing from a shower room so they go ahead and steal.

Okay, rant over.

[bz]

@marasan

saw the soap, then went into another stall

Eh, maybe not a big thing to them though, “Damn, I forgot my soap! Maybe I can find a sliver somewhere. Oh, how lucky for me somebody forgot theirs!” [returns to their shower stall]

[Kalle]

Did you check the other stalls? Maybe somebody forgot his/her at home and used yours but left it in the other stall after finishing? Not an excuse to use your things but maybe the intention was not to steal it…
I fully understand it is irritating for you though

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

I hate it if I have to bring my own soap/shampoo to shower outside my home. At least at World Gym they provide towels, soap, shampoo so you don’t have to bring those and worry about losing/forgetting them.

[marasan]

@Kalle

Did you check the other stalls? Maybe somebody forgot his/her at home and used yours but left it in the other stall after finishing? Not an excuse to use your things but maybe the intention was not to steal it…
I fully understand it is irritating for you though

Yes, I did. But it was crowded as the summer season is in full swing and so there weren’t many other stalls I could check. I even asked a guy coming out of one stall if there was some soap someone left in his stall. He said “no” but I checked anyway after he left. This was a conversation said loud enough for everyone to hear.

But what I don’t get is how I NEVER get my soap back after I leave it in the locker room. I usually don’t realize until I get home, then on my next visit, I check the lost and found cabinet area and it’s never there.

I’m glad I’ve never left anything important, such as my Garmin or swimming shorts.