History Main / FiveFingerDiscount

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Teenagers shoplifting is both TruthInTelevision and a stereotype. If you're a teenager and you enter a shop in the mall, you bet those super-nice staffers are watching your every move. This is why, even with CCTV cameras installed, a lot of convenience stores practice an "only two youths at a time" rule, simply so the clerk can keep an eye on them and/or not be distracted: unfair rule or not, the poor clerk would be robbed ''blind'' if he allowed crowds of teens into his store at once.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration,'' ControlFreak Liberty tries to make nice with the school bad boys. When she tries to impress them by saying she'll provide a "five-finger discount," they're hysterical that this dork thinks this phrase is cool. A few episodes later, as the bad boys are shoplifting, the ringleader flexes his fingers and says, as if he thinks it's cool, "I can get us a five-finger discount."

* This is part of Parker's repertoire in ''Series/{{Leverage}}''. They have an actual pickpocketing expert, Apollo Robbins, on staff to make sure it's done right. He appeared in one episode as Parker's EvilCounterpart in another crew and they end up in a pickpocketing duel.

* Hanna and Mona from ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' were both shoplifters (in fact, the scene in which Mona steals a scarf is pretty much her EstablishingCharacterMoment). However, Hanna was later caught by the police, which resulted on her mom having an affair with [[DirtyCop Detective Wilden]] to prevent charges (plus getting blackmailed by [[BigBad A]] because of it), so she quickly drops this.
* In [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie The TV Movie]] the [[Creator/PaulMcGann Eighth Doctor]] demonstrates a talent for pickpocketing people while directly speaking with them. He uses this talent to steal an ID card and a gun... [[StopOrIShootMyself which he uses to hold himself hostage]].

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "The Bicycle Thief", Stevie, a poor but otherwise honest honor student just can't help himself; he borrows Mr. Conklin's bicycle for his birthday. Miss Brooks tries to prevent Mr. Conklin from discovering the identity of the borrower.

When this is done to a retail establishment, this is known as shoplifting. The distinction between shoplifting, burglary and robbery is that a shoplifter enters the store when it's open and sneakily conceals an item on their person; a burglar breaks into a closed store to steal items; and a robber goes into the store and steals with violence (or threats). In RealLife, shoplifters range from impoverished people who steal food, to eat to middle-class {{Suburbia}} teens doing it as a prank, to career criminals who do it methodically using accomplices to distract staff and aids like baggy clothes.

* Series/ElChavoDelOcho would sometimes resort to this whenever he's left guarding or asked to deliver some food to someone else. There's also one time he pretended to sleepwalk in Quico's house to take a bag of bread, and when Quico chides him for it, he says "But I didn't steal the bread. [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord I just ate it.]]"

When this is done to a retail establishment, this is known as shoplifting. The distinction between shoplifting, burgalry and robbery is that a shoplifter enters the store when it's open and conceals an item on their person; a burglar breaks into a closed store to steal items; and a robber goes into the store and steals with violence (or threats). In RealLife, shoplifters range from impoverished people who steal food, to eat to middle-class {{Suburbia}} teens doing it as a prank, to career criminals who do it methodically using accomplices to distract staff and aids like baggy clothes.

When this is done to a retail establishment, this is known as shoplifting.