An Employee Quietly Built An Aquatic Empire Using The Store’s Fish, And The Records Never Caught On
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Some confessions sound worse until the details start swimming into view. Back in the early 2000s, a PetSmart employee discovered a remarkably easy way to sneak tropical fish home.
Before long, ordinary shoplifting turns into special orders, fake death reports, and more than 1,000 gallons of aquariums.
Check out the details below.
I worked at PetSmart in the early 2000s and stole hundreds of $ worth of tropical fish
I was the “fish guy.”
I set aside two of the tanks to put problem or bully fish, and fish that people brought into the store to get rid of (usually just overgrown plecostomus).
There were no cameras at all on the fish section.
So he took advantage of this.
I would very often just put fish (ones for sale) I wanted into one of those tanks, mark them as dead in the system, and bag them up at the end of the day.
Then I’d walk out with them in my lunchbox.
As his confidence grew, so too did his brazenness.
I eventually started ordering fish specifically for myself—fancy stuff like discus, ghost knife fish, pacu, and tons of others. I marked them as “dead on arrival.”
This went on for nearly two years, and I ended up with over 1,000 gallons of tanks running in my house.
Sorry.
Seems like he looks back on this endeavor with more pride than guilt.
What did Reddit think about these wild antics?
This commenter seems to think the fish ended up getting a better deal out of being stolen.
This user ended up getting roped into a similar scheme.
PetSmart isn’t exactly known for treating their animals humanely.
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This commenter has heard similar horror stories.
OP admitted marking healthy fish as dead, taking them home for nearly two years, and even ordering expensive varieties specifically for himself.
He never got caught, eventually quit over concerns about an unsafe animal sale, and many commenters were surprisingly forgiving because they believed the fish ended up better cared for.
He confessed to stealing fish and somehow swam away with most of the jury.
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