Delaware DOJ targets victim of ammo theft, while cutting the perp a break
A 39-year-old felon in Delaware who admitted to stealing more than a half-million rounds of ammunition over the course of a year and selling the pilfered rounds to gang members in Philadelphia and Dover will likely avoid prison time thanks to a sweetheart deal offered by the state, but the retailer who was the victim of the shoplifter is now in the legal crosshairs of the Delaware Department of Justice.
Danielle M. Brookens entered a guilty plea in state court back in April to one count of possession of ammunition by a person prohibited, and in exchange was handed down an awfully light sentence: report to a drug diversion program. Under Delaware law, Brookens could have received as much as eight years in prison, and if her case had been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for federal prosecution she could have been looking at a decade behind bars.
Instead, Brookens will get to avoid prison altogether once a judge signs off on the plea deal, and the Delaware Department of Justice has turned its attention on Cabela’s, the store where Brookens received her five-fingered discount.
As frustrating as it is to see the thief in question get off lightly, Cabela’s is partially responsible. Theft to this scale hasn’t been reported, but shrink is a massive problem. The Wichita, KS Cabela’s was (wrongly) reported to have the worst rates of shrink in the country. That is a bit exaggerated, but it shows how wide spread theft is in the company. Corporate policies actively prevent employees from doing much of anything to stop theft, and they refuse to spend the money needed to actually secure things like ammo. They’d rather take the shrink loss than actually do anything about it. Local DAs and our society’s general mindset of “criminals are just misunderstood” most certainly lay the ground work for crap like this, and definitely make it worse, but Cabela’s is wearing a miniskirt in a bad neighborhood.
Bottom line, the government needs to crack down on punishing criminals, and corporations need to get proactive in preventing theft, by both securing merchandise, and understanding that criminals need to be confronted and, if necessary, forcibly stopped.
Corporations are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The same prosecutors and judges who turn a blind eye to criminal behavior will persecute folks who actually do something about the theft. Cabelas should have done a better job with their background check and never allowed a criminal near ammo or the store as a whole. However, given how these retards plea cases, wonder if anything truly popped on the BGC.
Did anyone else notice Cabelas stores becoming more like pre BP Cabelas(selection, bargain caves, and other details) while BP was trying to acquire Sportsmans Warehouse, then within months of the SW deal falling through Cabelas were back to post 6 months after the acquisition by BP?
Not sure about blaming Cabelas or BP for any criminal activity and the volume may be BS as well since that is what the US legal system does frequently. If blame needs to be assigned, #9 seems to apply specifically to the DA and agencies in the criminal ring area as well as #7 being a favorite to malign and ignore.
A few years ago a new Cabela’s and Bass Pro were built literally across the highway from each other. Cabela’s store was closed down soon after the purchase. I preferred Cabela’s as far as just looking around… I rarely purchase in-store anything. I suspect that fishermen and boating enthusiasts prefer Bass Pro. A third of the local store is boats and related stuff.
They used to do that, but they got sued enough times they stopped doing that.
As far as locking down ammo, that costs them money too. How many of us have stood in a WalMart for 15-20 minutes waiting on an “associate” to come unlock the ammo case so that we might buy something only to say screw it, go home and order online at a slightly higher price?
Every election people bitch about “they don’t have enough ammo, they limit me to TWO boxes and I remember when you could just walk up to the pile and grab what you need.” So Cabela’s listens, tries to do that and now THEY are the bad guy? Please…
I can remember being in Kmart and Sports Authority and grabbing cases of ammo from the BIG PILE in the middle of the floor. What changed between then and now? Because it wasn’t the BIG PILE in the middle of the floor.
Over a half million rounds is a lot… average 1,500 rounds per day, every day, all year. Wild guess it was a black woman pushing a baby stroller or something to carry it out. In today’s environment who is going to stop her? And now that she’s caught nothing is going to happen to her anyway. I don’t blame the retailer but rather sympathize with retailers closing their doors due to lawlessness that authorities do little about and often blame the victim.
Which is why we need laws preventing people from suing over anything that happens during the commission of a crime and/or protections for property owners who have valid reasons to believe a crime is being committed.
And yes, ammo lock ups would slow things down, but if the company bothered to man the lock ups, it is certainly do able. Cabela’s already locks up high priced items on shelving pegs; why not take similar security measures with ammunition?
I want you to look at all of that for a minute.
Then look at how many crimes that ammo was a part of, how many assaults, rapes murders, muggings. The Thief didn’t have any issues throwing that ammo out to the Heathens to be used any way they chose to, just pay me.
And I’m worried about her health and well being?
Her Crime, because it involved ammunition was like a pebble in a pond and the ripple effects are still out there until every last round is accounted for.
F’ Her.