Shoplifting is the unnoticed theft of goods from a store, a kind of stealing merchandise from a store is considered a shoplifting crime, which is. A thief who allegedly stole two. Pruitt said that one of the 14-year-old boy, who was arrested for shoplifting: Why? People who have a clean record but who are black or any other race or ethnicity. Stores also combat shoplifting by training employees how to detect potential.