35 Comments - Anonymous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:43 pm: The law and order party. - Macbeth - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:44 pm: What an odd story. - 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:45 pm: It’s a sad story. She needs some help. - TKMH - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:47 pm: Yes, a friend of mine had his heart stolen by Chris Kennedy’s candidacy. - WTF - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:48 pm: I’m not trying to be funny when I ask, “What problem do you mean.” At first I assumed the issue might be kleptomania, the inability to resist powerful urges to steal items that you don’t need. That’s obviously a sickness. And it’s really about acquiring the items. Attempting to return the items for money seems a little more like stealing. So, I dunno. - OneMan - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:55 pm: Knew a guy in school who would do it with CDs, people would give him ‘orders’ and pay him like 5$ or 6$ bucks. He was never explicit about what he did, but never understood why it was worth the risk. In general, he was a great guy. Was never sure if he did it for the cash or because he could get away with it. - IllinoisBoi - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:55 pm: I have a friend who worked at Bachrach’s and he said that wealthy older women were the primary shoplifters there. He said they usually stole jewelry and perfume — items they would desire to receive as personal gifts. - VanillaMan - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:59 pm: Yes We had family members who, as teens, shoplifted while their father was holding political office. There was too much stress at home during that time and the girls felt unloved and ignored. It was an excruciating problem for all of us. - Responsa - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:03 pm: I’m going toward mental health issues being at the root of this after seeing her age. What she did is not acceptable–ever– and she deserved to be caught and punished. She probably does need an evaluation and help also, though. - Big Joe - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:10 pm: This makes absolutely no sense. I am pretty sure that the Pihos family owned as many as 5-6 McDonald’s restaurants in the ’90s. What is the matter with her? - Anonymous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:11 pm: We’re all humans here. It’s distressing, bothersome, but really people, you can’t get your panties in a bunch. - Tim - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:12 pm: At my first apartment, I had an upstairs neighbor who did this for years. He would routinely shoplift small items from places like Walmart, Kmart, and Target. I stopped spending any time with him after he tried to give me things and told me how he had acquired them. I left that building after a year. Weeks after I moved, I saw his name in the police blotter for misdemeanor retail theft. - NoGifts - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:14 pm: Dementia can cause strange behavior. I wouldn’t be too quick to judge, it might be a medical problem. - Maywoodian - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:16 pm: Most people who “boost” merchandise like this for money have drug problems. I have had several family members support their habit this way. If ant of her friends are reading this. You may want to help her seek drug treatment. - Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:20 pm: I agree this person does not appear to be thinking straight. The last thing I’d want to do after a theft is return to the scene of the crime the same day to exchange the merchandise for cash, obviously with no proof of purchase, and a simple scan would show the merchandise still in stock (notwithstanding whatever video evidence was out there of the theft). A real criminal would’ve pawned the merch off to a fence. - Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:23 pm: In my youth, one of my friends stole a coat from the local Marshall Fields and got caught, and his mom insisted that I put him up to it, despite both our denials. Whenever he got into trouble, it was always “somebody else’s fault”. He died a few years later of a heroin overdose. - baloneymous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:25 pm: A 71-yes old in Glen Ellen would have a local fence or even know what a fence is? Sounds like she needed some cash if items added up to $1,500. Rent money? - Baloneymous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:26 pm: My mistake $1500 was the nail not stolen amount - Responsa - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:26 pm: One other point: This was not a fluke or one-off. The store knew her, knew exactly when she shoplifted that day and then caught her on the return visit. This was obviously not the first time doing that for her. She had acquired a reputation, they had been watching her conduct, and they knew this was going to happen. - DuPage Saint - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:38 pm: Really odd that she had to post a bond. Unless it was an I bond signature bond. I don’t think she is a flight risk - Ann - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:41 pm: I agree that this had to have been happening for some time and the store finally sprung the trap. Gambling or drugs, I suspect. - DuPage Bard - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:45 pm: Response you seem to know more of the details about this than the paper did? How do you know the store knew her? How do you know this wasn’t her first time? Wouldn’t they have charged her with more if they knew she had been doing this? The Herald story says none of what your saying. Where’d your information come from? - DuPage Bard - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:46 pm: I meant @Responsa not Response - Wensicia - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:01 pm: It’s possible a sense of entitlement can devolve into criminal behavior with age, or even before age becomes an issue. - Ed Sullivan - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:03 pm: October 15th, two days from now, is the 1st anniversary of the death of Sandy’s husband. Maybe we can cut her a little slack for now. - Ed Sullivan - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:06 pm: Maybe read this and understand what a caregiver she was at the end of his life. Tragedies like these can certainly change the behavior of a person. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?pid=181972069 - Responsa - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:18 pm: One need not be psychic to understand that it wasn’t the shoplifting event in isolation or the fake “return” in isolation. It was the proven circular nature of the event that cemented the crime. There was quite a bit of information about the times and events of that day in the news story, DuPage Bard. Anybody who is at all familiar with modern retail inventory control procedures can guess what happened here and how she came to be caught red-handed and charged. Ann, in a comment above, used the term “sprung the trap” and this is pretty obviously what happened. None of this takes away from her previous years of public service, or the possible mental/personal stress factors that may have led to her bad choices. But whether it’s an organized smash and grab or a confused person slipping items into a satchel, people can’t be allowed to get away with stealing. - Rod - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:26 pm: Most disturbing to me because Sandra Pihos was one of the hand full of Republicans I worked with for years on education issues relating to special education in the House. I am so sorry to read this story. - Collinsville Kevin - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:26 pm: I do have experience with this problem, my otherwise law-abiding mother was arrested for shoplifting in the 1970s when she was in her 40s. She was under quite a bit of stress at the time and we considered it a mental health issue. She’s still around and was never a repeat offender, so I suggest we cut this lady some slack. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:34 pm: ===She probably does need an evaluation and help also, though=== I wonder if you’d say that if she was young and black - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:36 pm: === Maybe we can cut her a little slack for now. === Ed - I wonder if you’d say that if she was young and black and her brother had been killed last year. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:38 pm: Most of the responses above reflect a startling amount of white privilege. If this was a young black man or woman, they’d be sitting in 26th & Cal for months before their court date because they couldn’t afford the bail. - Jocko - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:44 pm: I had a 60 year old co-worker get “pinched” for shoplifting DVDs from a grocery store and several months later, came to learn she had a brain tumor. This being said, the fact that Pihos came back to the store to try and get store credit leads me to think this was a conscious decision. - Ed Sullivan - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 5:01 pm: Joe: In your scenerio if I knew the young black woman like I knew Rep. Pihos, I knew the behavior was out of character, and I knew a terrible life event aniversary was coming up, yes I would have the exact same opinion. - Judge Wapner - Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 5:08 pm: It’s a sad story. She should be held accountable as we all would be. If she needs help, she should get that as well. And Joe B., why don’t you take a pill. This is not about race, despite your attempt to make it so. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.