[speedybird]

> To be clear: betting like this is baseless speculation.

It is speculation, but it is not baseless. I base my speculation on a foundation of N=1, which may not be very firm but is not baseless.

Just now though, I clicked through to that nypost article and found this:

> There are 77 other thieves right now walking the streets of New York with rap sheets of 20 or more shoplifting charges, NYPD sources say.

77 is a bit more than 6 dozen, so I feel vindicated. My speculation was accurate.

[woodruffw]

I think I'd feel comfortably vindicated with a number about an order of magnitude higher :-)

Seriously: NYC is big. 77 kleptomaniacs in a city of 8.4 million people? Not bad! Per capita, we're one of the safest (and lowest-crime) cities in the country[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

[speedybird]

It's not the number of kleptos that is the matter of concern. What concerns me is the police/prosecutors/courts allowing these kleptos to run free. That it has happened 77 times shows that it wasn't just one guy somehow slipping through the system as a fluke. The kleptos are mere bellwethers for the systemic sickness in law enforcement.