Thief

The woman strolled through the store, browsing the aisles.  She was wearing a blue T-shirt and khakis, which happened to be the uniform of the employees – a group she was not part of.  She wore dark glasses as well.  “I’ve got an eye disorder,” she remarked when anybody asked her about them.  Technically she did – a minor case of Duane Syndrome – although it didn’t require dark glasses at all.  The glasses actually concealed high-tech equipment important to her success.  Although the glasses made her look a bit suspicious, all anyone could tell was that she was looking for a deal, or perhaps she was an employee seeking out customers.  She was on a mission though, a dastardly escapade.  She was going to steal something.  As usual, her conscience was screaming at her.
    Are you really sure you should do this, Natalie?
    “Relax,” she muttered, “I’m doing fine.”  She might have been a bit crazy, but she wasn’t crazy enough to not hide it.
    But what you’re doing is wrong!
    “I do this all the time, I’ll be fine.”
    That doesn’t matter!  You could land yourself in jail!
    “Think about the people I’m helping!  Don’t you think this store – no, this entire community - has enough problems without what I’m helping them with?”  That shut her conscience up.  She began to make her way to the door.  Standing in an open space and looking around, she noticed a man dressed in at least two jackets striding along with a cart, lightly filled.  Her glasses noticed something else of importance.  He was nervous.
    You were like him once, remember?
    “Shut… up…”  She pressed a tiny button on the top of her glasses.  The lights on the security posts went dark.  With sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the glasses were operating at maximum capacity.  The nervous man, having paid for the goods in the cart, began to make his own way towards the door.  It was here that her suspicions were confirmed.  There was something in the man’s pocket.  Something that shouldn’t be there.  As the man walked past, she waved and put on her best smile, posing as an employee.  The man sent a “how do you do?” her way and went on.  She moved silently behind the man, noticing his sigh of relief as the security posts didn’t even pick up the item in his pocket.  As he turned to leave the building, she pulled a cloth bag from her pocket.  Shoving it over the man’s head, she swung her forearm in a tight but quick motion, knocking him out.  She carried his limp body out to her car and laid him in the back seat.  The items he purchased, she would send to his family.  The item he stole would be returned to the store at a later date.  As for the man… well, he would never shoplift again, that much was certain.

    Later that night, with the man tied up in her closet for the time being, she turned on the news.
    “Breaking news this afternoon: a man was attacked and kidnapped in a convenience store parking lot by a mysterious woman.  Neither person’s identity is known.  Anybody with evidence is advised to call local police.  Now, in sports this afternoon…”  So somebody had seen the attack.  But that didn’t really matter.  Natalie, the Shoplifter Thief, was in business once more.