The viral video of an Indian tourist being caught allegedly shoplifting in Illinois in the US in May that has surfaced two months later on YouTube now raises a lot of questions. The only certainty, of course, is that shoplifting is illegal everywhere, including India and the US, and doing so will lead to arrest, charges, fines, and/or jail. Moreover, given the ongoing crackdown by US authorities on criminal activity by non-citizens, it could lead to the forfeiture of all future entry.

But why would a woman who could pay thousands of rupees to buy plane tickets and a visa to visit the US then get caught trying to walk out with $1,300 (some reports say just $300) worth of goods from a mid-market chain store like Target, stuffed into reusable bags with tags torn off? Even the woman’s attitude caught on video was strange: she seemed utterly unable to understand she had committed a felony and would end up with a fine if not a jail term as a penalty.

She appeared to be appealing to the goodwill of the security staff of the store and the policewoman who came to arrest her, apparently believing that offering to pay for the merchandise that she had tried to take out of the store was a viable solution. Shopping in the store for around seven and a half hours and exiting several times earlier before being caught the last time is extremely odd too. Is that evidence of utter naivete, cunning disingenuousness, or a mental health issue?

If indeed the tags had been........

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