They’re offering bootleg online courses in robbery.
The nationwide shoplifting epidemic could soon get a whole lot worse: As if looters weren’t acting brazen enough of late, self-proclaimed “borrowers” are now taking to the platform to teach aspiring criminals how follow suit, per the clips.
The hashtag “borrow tip and tricks” has amassed 8.9 billion of views on TikTok amid the uptick in brazen theft, spawned by increasingly lax looting laws and “revolving door” bail reforms.
“Today I went to the mall so I’m going to show you what I borrowed,” bragged user @borrowingqueen in one of the stealing tutorials.
In another burglary tutorial, a poster who goes by @b0rrowing.t1ngz ranks stores according to how easy they are to rip off.
According to the clip, the most vulnerable retailers are Walgreens, Dollar Tree and Walmart, while Target, Sephora, Gucci and Louis Vuitton ranked among the hardest to pillage.
The pilfering professor said that prospective shoplifters should start off small by yoinking lip balm, mascara and lip gloss, which should be slipped into one’s sleeve or purse, per the tutorial.
Once the items are procured, the shoplifter should then “go to the bathroom and either take the item out of the box or wrap it in toilet paper” before sneaking it out.
Never, under any circumstances, look around the store for security cameras, as this looks “suspicious,” per the “borrower,” who frequently posts videos of her hauls on TikTok.
Her pilfered items include everything from makeup to fake nails.
Meanwhile, another looter, who goes by @borrowingstuffxxx, advised viewers to have big pockets, a tote bag or a handbag and to be “polite to workers” to avoid looking conspicuous.
“If a worker asks what you you are doing/looking for, say something like ‘oh I was looking for *random item* but they are sold out,’” he advised.
Like a bank guard who’s in cahoots with the robbers, some of the tips came from alleged current retail workers.
In one of the more shocking clips with more than 7.1 million views, a Target employee who uploads under the handle warned shoplifters about the perils of knocking off the same store multiple times.
While it may seem like the serial shoplifters are getting off scot-free, she cautioned that the retailer is likely tracking their illicit activities.
They wait to bust them when the pilfered items’ value totals $950 — the threshold for felony charges per the Prop 47 law passed in 2014.
The Post reached out to reps for the TikTok platform, located in China, for comment about the latest in a long line of suspect trends — some of them deadly — on the video sharing platform.
The US has seen a massive spike in shoplifting of late, with thefts costing retailers a whopping $100 billion in 2021 and causing many firms to shut their doors to staunch the financial hemorrhage.
In May, Walmart announced the closing of 23 more stores nationwide.
Just a month earlier, Target revealed plans to close four stores amid reports that the chain is slated to lose $600 million to organized theft by the end of the year.
The shoplifting epidemic has gotten so bad in New York City that retailers have resorted to locking goods away a la Fort Knox and even affixing ice cream with anti-theft devices.
Meanwhile, in July, a CVS worker stabbed a serial shoplifter to death who had punched him during a theft in Midtown Manhattan.
Many experts have blamed the scourge on lax policies, including the aforementioned passing of Prop 47, and calls to defund the police in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, which resulted in a mass exodus of cops nationwide.
Particularly problematic, per experts, is the city’s “catch and release” stance on crime — notably eliminating bail for crimes including petit larceny.
In wake of the aforementioned shoplifter stabbing, city council members from both sides of the aisle ripped liberal NYC District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the city’s “revolving door” policies.
“I’m sorry the man died. But I cannot exist in a world where we pretend that endemic theft without consequence can continue in perpetuity,” Minority Leader Joe Borelli fumed to The Post. “Can Alvin Bragg maybe help with that? These aren’t exactly capers, he just chooses not to prosecute and we end up with vigilante justice.”
