It is surprising how hard it is to get an article like this printed. The Korea Herald printed an article on the alleged (has not been convicted and can’t be) shoplifting incident that took place in November of last year. A lot has been cut out of the story including the rather abrupt arrival of the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs at 5:00 A.M., on an “unofficial visit.” Can’t get too much into the material that is missing from the article, but nonetheless I think many might find the article of interest. What is even more interesting is how the article managed to get pulled down from Korea Herald’s digital page for sometime before suddenly being reloaded.
Here is what Osan had to say about shoplifting at their post (pdf file -p.6)
“The merchandise that people normally choose to steal takes two extremes. It is either very costly, such as $300 electronic equipment, or it is less expensive, such as a room
deodorizer worth approximately three dollars. Items rarely fall in the middle of this price range.”
Someone asked me how the suspected shoplifting diplomat was able to shoplift a Karaoke machine – well…, there were a couple of G.I.’s busted not too long ago that walked out with thousands’ of dollars worth of merchandise in a shopping cart and quickly loaded it into a waiting cab and drove away…they were eventually caught……
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I was an AAFES employee in Germany a long time ago, and if things over here are now as they were over there back then it wouldn’t be too hard to get away with shoplifting there. It’s a combination of aloofness, incompetence, and quite possibly help from the inside. AAFES employees stole from AAFES about as much as anyone else. I was one of the few who was too much of a wuss to do it.
#1: Sounds like you were too much of a wuss to report it.
Neffster: I figured Ol’ BB wouldn’t have liked your KT article too much.
Well! That’s quite a story, the fact that it was published (and then reposted, after being taken down) is a tribute to the Korea Herald’s integrity.
At least I hope so, assuming that they would publish with equal fearlessness a story about a high-ranking Korean diplomatic PX-privilege shoplifter. There’s certainly no doubt that American shoplifters would receive prominent front page treatment in the KH, is there?
This situation may have ended up being an interesting “4 party” parallel version of the “6 party talks” — in this case the US DoD, US State Department, Phillippine Foreign Ministry, Korean Foreign Ministry.
I hope Gen Bell sticks (has stuck?) to his guns, in spite of whatever pressure is/was brought to bear, though I’m not optimistic that he won’t be (wasn’t?) quietly ordered by DoD to restore PX privileges to the faux-outraged Filipino diplomats. After the handwringers in State insist (insisted?) that we must make one more concession to foreign corruption, in order to preserve some notional public image of allied solidarity.
“Filipino liasion officers to the UN Command” must be a legacy of the Korean War, when the Phillippines sent combat soldiers to really fight. The thought that any current or future Filipino govt would do the same, for some future conflict on the peninsula, is surely as self-delusional as this Filipino diplomat’s outrage.
If you ask the “store detectives” more merchandise goes out the back door and local national AAFES employees are almost immune from prosecution.
One worker was fired last year for stealing merchandies at the main exchange but has appealed and was reinstated with back pay to her job, and then there are all the beer and booze thefts. The tunnel from the warehouse to a building off base, and the trucks that made “unauthorized” stops on their way to the Camp Long PX (at least they paid for that stuff).
If it were up to me, I’d only employ family members at AAFES. They need an opportunity to have a job/career and get out of the house. At least then, if they stole something they could be convicted under US law.
“If it were up to me, I’d only employ family members at AAFES”
I think thats the whole part of the SOFA agreement that never gets mentioned. If a local national can do the work – they get the job – not US citizens. Especially since they are not here under a ‘working VISA’.
Yet you will never (rarely?) hear bout that ‘unfair SOFA’ issue.
Anyone remember this:
“NEW YORK, November 25, 2004 — The valedictorian of the prestigious Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 2004, who was in the United States for schooling as a reward for topping his class, was arrested by US authorities for alleged theft by deception and deported back to the country, a report said.
Army 2Lt. Rolly Joaquin, a student of the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, was caught supposedly removing the 50-cent discount tag from a sale item and attaching it to a non-sale item that he purchased sometime in October.”
The rest of the article is here….
http://www.filipinoexpress.com/18/48_news.html
Why does ration control still exist, when everyone knows it’s being violated left & right every single day. It’s not like it isn’t known what is going on.
7, why do they allow the racers to exist? It does not take a rocket scientist figure out what is going on.
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