The argument between two customers and a clerk is getting louder. The clerk says the item is not from his store. The customer demands a refund. All eyes are fixed on the escalating shouting match.

Meanwhile, three apparent customers are busy at the leather coat racks. These fashionable jackets range in price from $150 on up to $500. Problem. There’s a heavy metal cable running through the sleeves of these leather jackets and the ends of the cables are padlocked to the rack. It’s a deterrent to theft.

Ah, but these shoppers are of the larcenous variety and came to the store fully prepared. They have bolt cutters. With a small disturbance elsewhere in the store to distract attention, this trio cuts the security cables and within two minutes they’ve removed three dozen jackets.

Now they’re heading for the exit. Not surprisingly, the two customers arguing with the clerk join the leather jacket trio. A tan-colored van drives up onto the walkway just outside the mall doors and the five fleeing thieves leap aboard.

Security guards attempt to write down the van’s tag number as it pulls away into traffic. Sorry, guys, there’s no license plate or any other markings on the van.

Store officials do a quick inventory and find the loss is about $12,000-all gone in the wink of an eye. But that’s not all: two other crews of thieves are doing virtually the same thing at the same time in malls all over town.

It takes a little time, but these leather jackets soon begin showing up at flea markets and with street peddlers as "special purchase" or "just in time for Christmas" items. Markdowns are terrific.

Peddlers don’t really know where their merchandise came from originally. They just know what the public wants and they’re only too happy to provide the goodies in a timely manner. Their overhead is amazingly low!