If you’re going to work hard to clip coupons, shop the sales and build up a good supply of products, you’d better secure your stockpile. A South Carolina couponer says someone stole hers – and she wants it back.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office reports that it got a call last week from a woman on St. Helena Island. According to the incident report, she identified herself as a couponer who “enjoys buying soaps and body washes and other such items, and stores them all in an exterior storage shed”.
Unfortunately, the shed wasn’t locked, and someone apparently made off with some of her supplies while she was away from home.
The woman told police that she entered the shed that day, and discovered that she was missing several items – about 20 bottles of Dove body wash, 40 bars of Dove soap and 15 bars of Dial soap. She estimated the retail value to be $150, though she paid far less for the items in the store.
“There did not appear to be any signs of forced entry,” the incident report notes. Inside the shed, investigators observed that “there were some other valuables in large quantity, such as toilet paper and a freezer full of meat that was undisturbed.” The shelves inside showed “no fresh fingerprint impressions” and “did not appear to have any fresh signs of disturbance.”
The woman said she has a security camera, but it didn’t capture anyone entering the shed. She suspected that someone either managed to approach the shed from an angle without setting off the camera’s motion detector, or they unplugged the cameras before making their move.
That’s a lot of work for some free soap.
The woman told police that she “frequently makes gift baskets for those in the neighborhood out of these items out of kindness.” So she couldn’t understand why someone would want to steal from her.
They could be trying to build their own stockpile – or perhaps they’re looking to have a stockpile sale.
That’s what happened to a Missouri couponer a couple of years ago. Someone busted into her rented storage unit, in which she was storing her hauls. “I have cases of Tide. Cases,” she said at the time.
So imagine her surprise after her stockpile was stolen – and it turned up for sale online later that same day. A man was arrested and charged with burglary, but by then he had already sold a lot of the stolen items.
The South Carolina couponer may want to keep an eye online, then, to see if her stolen soap turns up there. Or she might want to see whether anyone in the neighborhood suddenly looks and smells uncharacteristically clean and fresh.
Investigators tested for DNA evidence on the shed door handle, on the shelves inside the shed and on the security camera’s power cord. Then they essentially told the couponer, don’t call us, we’ll call you, if the tests come up with a match.
Otherwise, without video evidence or any other clues – it looks like this soapy stockpile thief just might have made a clean getaway.
