CBS host offers bizarre excuse for Walgreens shoplifter caught on camera: ‘You’re getting probably something you need’



Tony Dokoupil, co-host of "CBS This Morning," appeared to defend a man who made headlines this week after brazenly shoplifting from a San Francisco-area Walgreens.

What's a brief history here?

Footage of the incident went viral Tuesday, showing an unidentified male on a bicycle filling a trash bag with what appeared to be hair products.

Two people — including a store security guard — filmed the suspect while he took his time placing items in the sack and watched him as he biked down the aisle and out of the store.

This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences @chesaboudin https://t.co/uSbnTQQk4J

— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) 1623711530.0

What are the details?

Dokoupil and others discussed the incident Wednesday morning on the daytime TV show.

After the clip aired, Dokoupil began, "So, crime is never justified of course."

Co-host Anthony Mason added, "I will say that I think they could have made a little better effort to stop that bicycle. I mean, you could have disrupted that bike."

Dokoupil added, "Well, I mean, I don't know. You don't need to be a hero over some toothbrushes or whatever it is. ... That reads also as an act of desperation. I mean, you're not getting rich off what you take from a Walgreens, you're getting probably something you need."

Co-host Vlad Duthiers interjected, "I mean, a bagful? They looked like hair products ... which are valuable, and he's filling his bag full of them."

Co-host Adriana Diaz pointed out that the items in the bag were, indeed, hair products and not a necessity as toothbrushes or over the counter medication might be.

CBS’s @TonyDokoupil excuses massive shoplifting from Walgreens in San Francisco: “That reads also as an act of desp… https://t.co/6T3ir2lvBw

— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) 1623851886.0

Anything else to know?

Lyanne Melendez, a KGO-TV reporter who saw the suspect shoving merchandise into the trash bag, told her station that the suspect — who remains unnamed at the time of this reporting — "sort of ran into me with his bicycle" on his way out of the store.

"It's hard for me as a journalist to say 'I won't be involved, I can't get involved,' I have to be sort of neutral, but this is also my city," Melendez added. "I live in this city, and I see this constantly. Not only Walgreens, but cars, and my garage ... has been broken into twice."

She also pointed out that such crimes are becoming commonplace across the city.

"At what point do we say, 'Enough is enough, we want our city back?'" Melendez asked.

A crime-ridden city

On Wednesday, San Francisco Police Lt. Tracy McCray told Fox News that she has gotten "used to" shoplifters taking what they want in stores across the cities without facing consequences.

"What happened in that Walgreens has been going on in that city for quite a while," McCray said. "I'm used to it. I mean, we can have a greatest hits compilation of people just walking in and cleaning out the store shelves and security guards, the people who work there, just standing by helplessly because they can't do anything."

All fingers, however, seem to point to District Attorney Chesa Boudin as the cause of the behavior.

San Francisco Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya slammed Boudin's laissez-faire policies, which he said are promoting a "criminals-first" agenda.

"This brazen criminal behavior is endured every single day by San Franciscans and it is the direct result of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his enablers' criminals-first agenda," Montoya said.

McCray agreed, and said that Boudin's agenda is destroying the city because criminals are not being prosecuted for "any crimes as a felony or commercial burglary," and said that such theft cases "get slapped down to a misdemeanor."

"Not enough cops out. You try to put a cop at every corner, which is unrealistic," McCray added."If you steal below $950, you get a citation and you just get to walk away and if you don't show up to court, guess what, maybe you get a bench warrant or maybe they even toss that before it even gets to that point. Anybody can come in and do whatever they want."

VIDEO: Thief brazenly fills trash bag with store items as security guard records the crime — and crook easily bicycles past guard and out the door



A thief was caught on video filling a trash bag with items from a San Francisco Walgreens store Monday while a security guard stood in the aisle and recorded the crime.

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendez

The crook ended up easily bicycling past the guard — who attempted to snag the bag to no avail — and exiting the store in broad daylight.

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendez

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @LyanneMelendez

Check it out the video:

This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences @chesaboudin https://t.co/uSbnTQQk4J

— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) 1623711530.0

What are the details?

Lyanne Melendez, a KGO-TV reporter, was shopping in the store on her day off — and she's the one who recorded the above cellphone clip.

"That's when he sort of ran into me with his bicycle," Melendez told her station in the aftermath. KGO said she was not injured.

"It's hard for me as a journalist to say 'I won't be involved, I can't get involved,' I have to be sort of neutral, but this is also my city," Melendez added to her station. "I live in this city, and I see this constantly. Not only Walgreens, but cars, and my garage ... has been broken into twice."

Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot

The brazenness of such crimes is common these days, KGO said, and they're driving retailers out of the city. Indeed, the station said that while three people recorded video of the theft, it didn't deter the crook — who cruised down the aisle past the guard and got away with his entire haul on a Lyft bike.

TheBlaze reported about a similar theft at a San Francisco Walgreens last year involving a couple filling up backpacks with store items as an employee helplessly watched.

Melendez told KGO that she's witnessed three out-in-the-open shoplifting sprees at different Walgreens in San Francisco: "At what point do we say, 'Enough is enough, we want our city back'?"

Stores closing

The station said stores are closing in the wake of such thefts, which drive down profit.

Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot

"Seventeen Walgreens over the last five years, almost every Gap retail outlet is gone, CVS is under assault," San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai told KGO.

Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot

The station said Safai held a hearing last month on organized retail theft, and he said District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the police department need a much more coordinated response.

"It might even involve a more aggressive effort when it comes to surveillance cameras, because you see the same individual hitting multiple locations, then you can begin to have deeper conversation about bringing multiple charges, or aggregate charges against that individual and really start to break this up," he told KGO.

Safai added to the station that he's seen some success at a Walgreens in his district that uses uniformed off-duty police officers to guard it. He added to KGO that Boudin and the SFPD have until mid-July to respond to his letter of inquiry on organized retail theft.

Anything else?

And if you're hoping Boudin will respond positively to Safai's letter, you might want to place your hope elsewhere. The far-left DA came into office in 2019 with a promise not to prosecute things like prostitution and public urination. In fact, just two days into his term, Boudin fired seven tough-on-crime prosecutors in order to get his progressive agenda off the ground.