A 7-Eleven owner caught a teen thief. Instead of calling 911, he asked him why

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/7-eleven-toledo-ohio-jay-singh-owner-caught-teen-thief-instead-of-calling-911-he-asked-him-why/

On Saturday night at a 7-Eleven in Toledo, Ohio, store owner Jay Singh spotted someone who made him suspicious.

"You can see he's turning here, putting stuff in his pocket," he said.

Singh told an employee to call 911, and then he confronted the customer.

"He said, 'Oh, I'll put it back.' I said 'No, put everything on the counter. I want to see all the things that you have,'" Singh said.

He wanted him to answer a simple question: Why was he stealing?

"He said, 'I'm hungry. I'm stealing it for myself and my younger brother.' I said you need food? I'll give you food. That's not a problem," Singh said.

So he did, filling a bag with food for free and waving off the 911 call. Singh said there was no point in getting the young thief arrested.

"He's a young kid. That will go on his record that he was a thief. He cannot do anything in his life. He will not get a good job. This will not solve his hunger problem," Singh said.

[samnsara]

1. a cpl years ago i saw a teen with a back pack blantently filling it with food..

...right in front of me. I notified one of the store employees who kind of rolled their eyes at me. I explained that the kid needs to be stopped IF hes shoplifting. But..he needed to be fed if hes hungry...and then again maybe hes using the back pack as a grocery cart.

Im not sure what they did.

[Perseus]

2. There are beautiful people in this World

It is unfortunate that the bad people make all the noise.

[malaise]

4. Ditto

Thankfully

[MFGsunny]

10. Amen! n/t

[Kind of Blue]

12. Yup! I was surprised a while back that Darwin

thought that kindness is hard-wired. "...in Descent of Man, Darwin argues that we are a profoundly social and caring species... Darwin argues that our tendencies toward sympathy are instinctual and evolved (and not some cultural construct as so many have assumed), and even stronger or perhaps more ethical than the instinct for self-preservation." From the article "Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts," where Dacher Keltner, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, is interviewed about the science of kindness. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-emotions-psychology/

"I have always felt that our science is only as good as the truthful rendition of reality that it provides and the good that it brings to our species. In summarizing the new science of emotion in Born To Be Good, I was struck by how useful this science is. The ancient approaches to ethics and virtue—for example, found in Aristotle or Confucius—privileged things such as compassion, gratitude and reverence. A new science of virtue and morality is suggesting that our capacities for virtue and cooperation and our moral sense are old in evolutionary terms..."

[lunatica]

19. Well if you look at People earth like Trump

who is a Malignant Narcissist you can see that the lack of empathy or of caring has barred him of any true humanity. In other words he’s an aberration. An incomplete person. If he were normal it follows that he would be a sympathetic person who could react to the needs of others.

I’ve always believed people are instinctually, intrinsically good, but for a large part of my life I thought I was wrong and weak to believe that. Maybe I’m not.

[Kind of Blue]

21. I whole-heartedly agree, lunatica. The bottom-line

to me is people learn hatred. As Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

[Hortensis]

37. Actually, personality traits are genetically linked, and

many are born with above-average tendencies to suspicion and rejection of those who are different. In varying strengths from very mild to rabid. After that, environment works powerfully on us, but we are not born as blank slates and the people we become reflect wired-in personality traits as well.

Reminds me of a woman from the liberal NE posting her distress about an old friend who moved to the southwest, fell in with right wingers, and became a passionate right winger herself. The liberal northeasterner didn't understand what had happened to her friend, who for years didn't seem to really care about politics. But of course what happened is that the friend for the first time found herself among people whose views made good sense to her, and to whom she could talk openly without getting surprised stares in return. Such a relief it must have been.

[Kind of Blue]

48. Yeah, what you've said is true. The point that I'm driving is

that kindness is biological, deeply rooted in our evolution as a species. I wish I had a documentary link handy that disproved the myth of competition among early hominids killing each other off. Fortunately people with above-average tendencies for hatred are not the norm, otherwise I don't think we'd be conversing now. Again, kindness is not a cultural construct. But as Perseus says, "It is unfortunate that the bad people make all the noise."

Here's Keltner talking about his kindness research findings.

[PatrickforO]

45. Unfortunately, though, our capitalist 'primacy of the shareholder' doctrine

actually encourages narcissistic or sociopathic personality disorders. If a person is going to claw their way to the top of the corporate ladder and amass billions of dollars, it is arguable that there is something fundamentally wrong with them, something missing in their personal makeup that forces them to pathologically amass wealth to somehow compensate for that great, empty hole in their soul.

[marble falls]

24. I've always noticed all small kids share. They have to be taught to be selfish and ...

rewarded into meanness.

I always thought that actual hunger is the mother of a lot of crime. People learn disrespect by being disrespected and seeing so much disrespect passed along with no repercussions.

[Kind of Blue]

27. marble falls, you remind me of comedian Bill Ballamy

whose memory of childhood experiences are so amazingly clear they take you back to those days. In one sketch, talking about kids forced to go with parents to visit their friends in other towns/neighborhoods, parents shoo their kids outside to play. Scary because you don't know these kids. Kids size each other up and always the prevailing thing among them was, "I don't know who are but we're gonna play!" because we know we all want to So natural when we're taught fair-play and kindness.

Yes, indeed, it's learned especially when there are no countering actions and it starts early.

I totally agree that a hungry person will do anything for food and perhaps then easier to control, as wonderful Mr. Singh has done in great way.

[marble falls]

30. I'm the oldest of eight kids and a slew of cousins. Add to it my own having held onto being ...

a child till I was about 30 - I understand children really well. Babies smile when the see me. They know!

And I do know this: the child is father/mother to the adult. Like Floyd said "Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"

[Kind of Blue]

49. Oh, don't I know it! I held on for as long as I could, too.

And, indeed, had to finally grow up when kids came along.

[marble falls]

50. My kids and I grew uo together, in this case the kids really were the parent of the man.

[Kind of Blue]

51. Oh my goodness, yes! And I bet that you have

a beautiful relationship with them.

[marble falls]

54. I was a good dad. I learned from the best dad of all, my step-dad. It's the one accomplishment ...

I am truly proud of. Now If they'd move in a little closer, I'd be a wonderful grandpa!

They call me and my wife "granpa and granma hippy".

The biggest lesson my dad taught me was empathy, and kids can be taught it so easily. Even prison inmates can be taught empathy. Yet somehow we keep ending up with GOP politicians with unable to spell empathy let alone having that one most human of needs.

[uponit7771]

42. +1

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Community solutions over cops.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. 100% win win. . . nt

[GWC58]

8. Definitely!

Because, depending on the shoplifters race, sorry, I hate having to bring race into this, that person may end up being shot and killed. A not so unlikely occurrence. 😱

[Scarsdale]

15. Very true.

It is shameful that people are going hungry in "The greatest country in the world" according to tRump and the gop. What a nice gesture for the shop keeper to extend to this kid. We need more like him in this world.

[marble falls]

31. As someone we know once wrote - It takes a village.

[Kind of Blue]

52. +1000

[IronLionZion]

6. This is a nice story with happier ending than the usual police shootings

but our country has plenty of food and money to share that we shouldn't allow people to be in this predicament.

It would be nice if we had more systemic solutions to help everyone get the basic necessities of life and jobs and not be stealing either of them. (brown immigrants stealing jobs, black children stealing food, white Republicans stealing elections, etc.)

[erronis]

32. A very sane concept. But goes against greedy capitalism/libertarianism which seems to rule.

At least for now.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

9. I was walking out of a Safeway once

And I witnessed a man running, his arms full and a security guard chasing after him. Guard tumbled him to the ground right in front of me and I watched two cans of baby formula roll across the parking lot. The box of diapers were crushed under him. It deeply saddened me.

It still haunts me.

[smirkymonkey]

39. That's so heartbreaking.

He was just trying to take care of his baby. I know stealing is wrong, but people get desperate, especially when it comes to their children. I hope they went easy on him.

[lgrnwd]

11. Love trumps hate

Every time

[colorado_ufo]

13. If his name was Singh,

then he probably was a member of the Sikh faith.

A reminder of the importance of tolerance and diversity.

[Tanuki]

18. Yes, most people in the U.S. wth the surname Singh are Sikhs, and feeding people is an essential

practice of Sikhs to put their faith in action. Good for Jay Singh for caring about this teen and wanting to help him instead of taking a punitive, zero tolerance reaction. It is like something out of Les Miserables...hopefully it will give the teen a sense of hope. It is sad that people are hungry in this land of plenty. That is at least as much of a crime as his theft of food.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langar_(Sikhism)

[ChazInAz]

22. That was the first thing I noticed.

Over the years I've known a few Sikhs, and have developed considerable affection for them due to this sort of thing.

[SunSeeker]

46. It is supposed to be an essential tenet of Christianity as well.

It is how Christians are supposed get into heaven. "That which you do to the least of us you do unto me." - Jesus Christ.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. The telling comment: he saw him as a young kid.

[niyad]

16. thank you for sharing this story. definitely makes my day.

[Grins]

17. Damn those immigrants!!!!!

This story was on CBS News last night and it mentioned that store owner, Jay Singh, immigrated to the United States in 2007. Bringing his "terrorist" culture of helping others with him.

Should someone tell Trump and Stephen Miller...?

[PatrickforO]

20. Two observations:

We have chosen as a society to further enrich the billionaires and create an oligarchy, thus squeezing the middle class to near-extinction and creating a larger underclass of people living in chronic poverty. But, hey, those billionaires sure did get nice tax cuts, though, didn't they?

Second, Singh is a name that originated in northern India. It may well be this man is either a Hindu or a Muslim. Isn't it interesting, and revealing, how he cares more about the poor around him than the so-called 'christians' in our conservative evangelical churches.

[Moostache]

23. I don't agree this was a choice...

The current system has been established on lies, deception, fraud and outright theft on the part of those in power....NOT an informed choice or decision by the electorate.

Voting rights have been trampled, minds have been systematically poisoned and distorted via propaganda and corporate lies, politicians have broken with truth and trafficked in perversion of it for nefarious ends.

Billionaires should NOT exist in a free and open society. They only arrive at those levels of wealth accumulation via illicit means - usually a combination of anti-trust and tax-evasion coupled with buying off unscrupulous vultures disguised as "concerned citizens". Our laws are not written by our representatives but rather by corporate lobbying interests. Our corporations have lost sight of the overall interests of a "corporation" (originally a trust between communities and business interests to provide a service/meet a need and MUTUALLY benefit --- NOT maximize profits and externalize costs to community and away from the business interest).

Money rules all. Unless we wish to utterly do away with money (not a bad idea but no way the world is ready to handle THAT while we still 'debate' climate change causation or willingly pretend believers in 'creation' are equally valid to other scientific theories), we MUST realize that uncontrolled capitalism is an evil and only a form of CONTROLLED and Moderated capitalism is a net benefit for society.

For my money, the best possible system of governance and economy revolves around the original understandings of what a corporation should be - a LIMITED partnership or permission between a business interest AND a community to meet mutually beneficial aims. Maximum profits serves exactly ZERO public interest and only serves to privatize gains and socialize costs or losses. Tax cuts that disproportionately benefit Billionaires is only the tip of THAT iceberg...IMO!

[PatrickforO]

26. You and I are on the same page, my friend. We did not make this choice, but

it was made for us by those billionaires, organized criminals and corrupt politicians that have made up iron triangles for millennia.

When we can shake off their yoke, then the choice becomes ours. Naomi Klein believes that global warming will be the end of capitalism, and Elizabeth Warren is already attacking the worst of it in the Senate through introducing things like her 'Accountable Capitalism Act,' which expands the fiduciary responsibility of C-Suite officers in publicly held companies beyond mere shareholder earnings to encompass worker welfare, consumer welfare and environmental consequences.

Eliminate the primacy of the shareholder doctrine and we make a huge step toward regaining the choice of which we speak.

[Duppers]

33. +1000

[grantcart]

35. Singh is the name all Sikhs use. There are some Hindus who also use it

And some others like Brahmins who might use it but 95% of all Singhs are Sikh's.

I doubt many Muslims are named Singh but could be wrong.

[PatrickforO]

44. Sorry, I stand corrected.

I'm really sorry. Should have looked closer at google.

Still, I'm sure the Trump administration and Trump's supporters dislike Sikhs also.

[grantcart]

47. NP. Many Sikhs were at the end of hostile interactions after 9/11 because

They were conflated with Muslims.

[Blue_true]

25. Wow. Powerful humane act. nt

[hotrod0808]

28. This store is near my job

and I have stopped there often. Jay is a great guy who does a lot for the community. I'm glad that the nation got to see that in this report.

[Karadeniz]

29. When I was in the second grade, living in govt multi housing units, a neighbor stole our car.

Dad didn't press charges, probably remembering all the mischief he got into as a kid and thinking the episode probably scared some reason into him. He also marched me over to the officers club to confess to breaking a mirror to pay for it. Both the neighbor kid and I were thoroughly scared and learned some responsibility.

[DirtEdonE]

34. "It's basically our Indian culture"

The part after the segment posted:

"It's basically our Indian culture that if you give food to a hungry person, that's considered like God will bless you for that," he said.

We starve children here. We cut their lunch programs. We pay their parents a disgusting inadequate minimum wage while giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks to billionaires.

We put children in cages.

Will "god" bless us for this? I believe in a higher power and I believe in karma. This man will be blessed for his actions as we are cursed for our actions.

[Honeycombe8]

36. He couldn't give him a job?

It's like the saying: Give someone a fish, he eats for one day. Teach someone how to fish, he eats for a lifetime.

The young lad needs a part time job.

[whathehell]

38. A good and wise man..

These are the people who renew our faith in humanity. Many blessings to you, sir.

[lindysalsagal]

40. The "greatest country in the world" where people go hungry, in the middle of the farm belt.

And we don't offer basic healthcare, either.

But we've got jails. Damn, do we have jails. We don't have enough courts, judges, or public defenders to render justice, but we've got plenty of jails. Lots of cops, too.

[smirkymonkey]

41. What a wonderful, decent human being.

Mr. Singh restores my faith in humanity. I hope the young kid learned something by being treated with such compassion and I hope his situation improves.

[Ferrets are Cool]

43. Was the kid African American?

The cops would have just shot him.

WTG Mr Singh. I hope Karma pays you back generously.

[Kind of Blue]

53. Yes, he is. Mr. Singh said he waived the 911 call.

"Cedric Bishop was a witness," an elderly African American man. "He thought what he saw was amazing, so he shared it on Facebook. 'There was over 1,000 shares. Brought tears to my eyes honestly,' Bishop said."