The Wheelchair Embezzler of Manhasset

My mother figured he got away with it for so long because he used a wheelchair. I argued that he slipped through the cracks due to primitive theft-tracking methods in the department store. Either way, he led the police on a merry chase around the parking lot until they finally arrested him.

White collar crime was simpler before we all carried around tiny devices in our pockets with more processing power than the early Apollo spacecraft. If you worked at a restaurant, you pocketed the occasional dinner bill paid with cash. Without sophisticated tracking technology, shoplifters snipped off “tags” and wore multiple outfits under their coats when they left a clothing store.

In the early 1980s, I held a series of low-level jobs – card store clerk, library page, and at the bottom of the barrel – department store supply clerk. Whenever a certain space was low on display goods, the phone would ring and two clerks were sent to suss out what the manager needed to refill their shelves.

Abraham and Strauss, or A&S as it was more commonly known, had been a staple on Northern Blvd. in Manhasset for decades. My brothers were all capable of getting themselves home from school and my mother wanted some part-time work, so she got a position in the bookkeeping department, handling reconciliation of receipts.