Between rampant shoplifting and online competition, it's a miracle there are still any retail stores in Oakland.

Saturday, Betty and I went to McCaulou's Department Store in Montclair to buy a couple of pairs of Levi's 501s. We didn't see any on the racks, so the salesperson explained that she would have to retrieve them from the back room.

I tried several on and got exactly what I wanted.

As I paid, I asked why they were in the back room.

The reply was that on Friday early afternoon, three adults, two women, and a guy, had entered the store and wandered around. A customer alerted the salesperson that there was something odd about the trio. The three left and went to the nearby shoe department. There, they asked if some expensive brand of shoes was available and then returned to the main clothing store, where they proceeded to grab the most expensive Levi's jackets and pants off the racks.

The petite store manager tried to wrest some of the items out of the arms of one of the female criminals. The perp yelled 'don't touch me." Those are the words that normally work in big box stores where employees get fired for physically trying to stop shoplifters. The store manager continued tugging but was overpowered.

The three criminals left the store, got into a late model Mercedes, and drove slowly away.

From past experience, the manager didn't call 911 because the dispatchers always told her they wouldn't send out police unless someone had been hurt and to just file a report online.

So instead, the manager called the non-emergency OPD. She was on hold for 59 minutes and told to complete a report online.