Monday, January 31, 2011

Green stamps

Friday's robbery at Shoemaker's Truck Station was the first robbery of a business in Lincoln in 2011.  We have been on quite a diet lately when it comes to business robberies, with only 21 in all of 2010.  That is an incredibly low number for a city of over a quarter million.

I am proud of the job LPD does on retail robberies.  Put the search term "robbery" into the Chief's Corner's search box, scroll through the posts, you will find lots of examples of great investigations and quick arrests.  Friday was no exception. The robbery at 1:43 AM resulted in the suspects landing in the slammer before noon.  They were identified by a combination of some good old fashioned police work, and some information technology.

Robbery is a tough crime to get away with, and our clearance rate on these cases is remarkable.  In part, this is due to LPD's ability to ingest information (see, for example, lincolncrimestoppers.com) and to access deep information resources during investigations in order to collect information about suspects, their associates, their vehicles, and so forth.  Such was the case on Friday, as officers were able to quickly connect the dots left by the suspects.  Those dots, by the way, are plentiful these days.  Criminals continue to leave plenty of digital footprints. There really is nowhere to hide.

The average take on robberies in Lincoln is pitiful.  Why someone would risk arrest and conviction for a Class II Felony in order to make off with $23 and two packs of Marlboros (a pretty typical example of the big haul) is beyond me.  Something robbers can ponder in the County Jail while they wait for the next episode of Southpark.  Although there are occasional exceptions, for the most part if the robbers would have devoted the same amount of time and energy to licking S&H Green Stamps as they did to planning and executing their failed crime, they would have been money ahead.

The Green Stamp reference is going to to seriously date me, and miss most readers entirely.  Let's change that to, "...same amount of time and energy picking up aluminum cans from highway ditches."

16 comments:

Steve said...

I always thought it was so cool to get one of those stamps that were worth 10, or 50, or some multiple of a single stamp so you could fill a whole page in the book with just one or a few stamps! My dad actually made the stamp dispenser boxes that some of the stores used. Remember the ones that had dials on them similar to telephone dials (yes there were dials on telephones at one time). One wheel was for the dollar amount, and one for the cents amount of the purchase. They just dialed up the purchase amount and the appropiate number of stamps were dispensed.

Anonymous said...

I remember the taste of that icky glue that some of those trading stamps had. I think it was a conspiracy by the Stamp companies to make the glue taste so horrible so they would not be redeemed. I also think that KIDS got the job instead of parents for that reason.

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

Green Stamps.. Memories... my Dad was in business and we used the stamps as a promotion item.

One of our customers had been to Duncan Aviation (this is back in the mid to late 1960's)and bought a airplane. They gave him Green Stamps on the sale. He came to our place and sold the books of stamps at a wholesale cost (the price we paid for them)to my Dad, yes they gave him whole books like we would have bought to tear out and give to our customers. So it was a win-win for both of us.

BTW I have one of those dial dispenser boxes stashed away in my basement with stamps in it yet....

ARRRRG!!!! said...

I collect these but all you can do with them is mail something if you can find a mailbox.

Steve said...

Arrrg! Just look for the flames!

mikey said...

chief,

so I was wondering if uncle rons got a tavern violation for serving yet ANOTHER FOOTBALL PLAYER....

http://www.1011now.com/news/headlines/Husker_Football_Player_Arrested_for_DUI_114936899.html



can your supply details please????

thanks

351 said...

S&H Green Stamps were given at Pete's IGA...along with some good, friendly service.

Tom Casady said...

351,

Indeed! The bosses daughter will enjoy hearing that.

Dave said...

A little off-topic, but if memory serves me correctly, didn't M&P issue blue stamps that were similar in concept to S&H Green Stamps?

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Green stamps, I had a stamp of sorts last week. My stamp is black. And it was put in a rather odd area. But from a medical view, not so odd.
I want to take my post today to the subject of Colonoscopy.
I am sure you have seen Doc Sadler on TV promoting the importance of this exam. Growths in the colon often house cancer. I had one small polup removed and then further testing in a pathology lab of the sample. It showed a few cancer cells.
After a revisit for a sigmoidoscopy (shorter version of the formentioned)
and recieving my stamp, (stamp marks the spot) the doctor took a larger sample of tissue from this area.
The report is back: NO invasive cancer, in fact NO cancer at all!

I want to let you all know that getting a colon exam may very well save your life. If they find it early, it is an easy fix. If you wait, you may be too late and have to have an operation. Get an exam as soon as you can if you have not had one. What you do not know can hurt you.

Anonymous said...

Wow.
If memory serves, they were redeemable by catalog or they also had a limited cash value, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3-5/book?
Or, weren;t they redeemable for trade-in which was slightly more then their cash value?

I remember the IGA at 10th and N street used to give them out. Brandies and Miller&Paine also gave the blue ones away. I think the greens were mostly grocery store participation.

Anonymous said...

Yes, chief. You have dated yourself.

Steve said...

Yes, there were green stamps and blue stamps and also Gold Bond stamps, though I can't remember what store gave and redeemed them

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the good news Jim.

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

They should give out brown stamps for procedures like Jim J had. You could redeem them for toilet paper.

Congrats on a clean bill of health Jim J.

Anonymous said...

Chief,

The plunder was apparently a lot better across the road from Shoemaker's. Did they have that safe lag-bolted to the floor or not?