CARLTON FLETCHER: Crime may not pay, but business owners sure do

“So you’re a thief, you’re a pitiful thief.”

— Marilyn Manson

It’s not just in Mike Rogers’ voice that the frustration is apparent. It’s etched in the set of his face, in the worry lines that furrow his brow.

Rogers, owner of three Mike’s Country Stores, including the flagship store on Philema Road in Lee County and stores on Gillionville Road and in Putney in Dougherty County, is haggard. He’s tired of filing police reports, collecting video of thieves who brazenly walk into his stores, fill up shopping carts and their own clothing — usually with expensive cuts of meat … rendering ironic Rogers’ slogan, “At Mike’s, it’s all about the meat.” — and then nonchalantly stroll by the cashiers’ stations, out the doors of the store and unload their stolen goods into their waiting vehicles. Then they drive off.

Rogers is tired of filing police reports and having a detective tell him over … and over … and over … that she will give him the work-up of her report within a certain time frame and then, oops, with each new trip it’s, “I meant to do that, I’ll have it for you in” … an hour, a day, a week, choose a time. It doesn’t matter because that particular report was never filed.

Rogers is tired of running into a local drug store to pick up an item and seeing the thief who stole more than $7,000 in goods from his store, standing in line in front of him, apparently paying for the items he picked up at that retailer.

Rogers is tired of of using his own money to “buy” some of his own stolen meat, identifying it after an “undercover” operative made the purchase, and being told by law enforcement officials that, even with the undercover person’s testimony, it’s still “your word against (the thief’s).”

Here’s the thing about Rogers: Over the years at his establishments, he’s cut into his own bottom line by helping out “probably hundreds” of people who’ve come to him with sad stories, putting the cost of necessary items on his own tab.

“If someone is having a legitimate hard time, I probably would do anything I can to help them,” Rogers said. “I’ve done it over and over again. But these people — and a lot of them are the same ones, over and over — don’t bother to ask. They just take.”

The list of culprits is an interesting one, including everyone from a pastor who purloined oxtails, an employee who, oops again, “forgot” to ring up a large number of items while checking out a relative, and the run-of-the-mill dregs who walk into his stores and brazenly take what they want.

In a moment of frustration, Rogers admits that the number of thefts — and the lack of justice meted out by the local justice system that he speaks of with disgust — often leaves him wondering if it’s worth his while to keep doing what he does.

“Look, the No. 1 issue in Albany and this area — greater even than crime — is business, bringing jobs to the area,” Rogers said. “When you have these thieves taking from you, it forces business owners to raise prices, it reduces the chance that employees will get raises, it cuts into the number of people we can hire.

“Plus, I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to know that, after all is said and done, the lawyers get paid — often by taxpayers because the criminals don’t have money to pay them — the criminals spend very little, if any, time in jail, and the only person who suffers are the people who were stolen from. I’ve been in business for a lot of years, and I’ve never gotten a penny back for the things that were stolen from me.”

Decent people, people who pay for what they get and wouldn’t think of stealing, can understand Rogers’ frustration. Sadly, those people are the ones who’ll likely suffer most if the thieves continue to get away with their actions and business owners like Rogers decide they’ve had enough.