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The Cost Of Becoming A North Shore Ninja: $29,296

Image via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cnscvb/4284999075/">Chicago North Shore</a>/flickr
Image via Chicago North Shore/flickr

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When it comes to ninja skills, espionage and assassination typically top the list. Stealing and reselling cosmetic products for a profit? Not so much.

A switchboard employee at the Nordstrom in Old Orchard mall stole nearly $30,000 of merchandise while in the store after hours, and was later caught by police after attempting to sell the stolen goods on eBay. The culprit slept under his desk on the evening of September 5th, telling cleaning crews who discovered him that he had nowhere else to stay that night. Once the coast was clear, he let loose throughout the store, shoeless and dressed in all black to look like a ninja. Grabbing shoes, cosmetics, clothes and more, he socked the goods away in a box in the mail room until he could sneak them out the following day to his parents' house, where he was eventually caught.

Inspired by Dexter and Breaking Bad's successful law-evading criminals, his sneakiness of effectively breaking into a department store and living out the illegal version of every teenage girl's shopping spree fantasy was far fetched, considering security cameras and the fact that workers had known he was there. But, if his inspiration was a little less serial killer or methamphetamine cook and a little more Supermarket Sweep, he probably could have hit the Stuart Weitzman display and grabbed all of the hams and a comically oversized tube of toothpaste in the nick of time.
· 'Ninja' Inspired By TV Caught After Stealing $30,000 In Merch From Nordstrom [Huffington Post]
· Store employee caught after stealing spree inspired by TV [WBBM 780]

Nordstrom

4937 Old Orchard Center, Skokie, Illinois, 60077