A trendy Los Angeles boutique has garnered positive attention for the very public way it has decided to shame shoplifters.
Kitson, a lifestyle store in the Beverly Grove neighborhood, is being praised by community members and people around the country for displaying the names and faces of those who dare to steal from it in its shop windows.
In a video to the tune of Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” Kitson owner Fraser Ross shared images of suspected thieves’ social media profiles, along with security camera photos of them shoving merchandise into their bags without paying.
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Ross, who has regularly called out progressives — such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — for their soft-on-crime policies, captioned the Instagram video with: “Remember this when you vote. You steal from us, we expose you to your friends, neighbors, family, and coworkers.”
“You guys are savage, and I love it,” wrote one commenter.
“Make public shaming great again,” said another.
Ross opened Kitson on Robertson Boulevard in 2000 and has been a hotspot for A-listers — including Paris Hilton, Victoria Beckham, Halle Berry, and the Kardashian sisters.
“It was where Britney Spears went on a shopping spree at two in the morning, in ripped-up tights, before being hospitalized,” according to style magazine the Cut. “It was where Kobe Bryant bought bracelets (leather, diamond-studded, $3,000 each) for his wife after being accused of infidelity.”
Despite Kitson’s popularity amongst celebrities, Ross has stayed down-to-earth with his anti-establishment beliefs.
In 2020, the Kitson storefront hilariously displayed unflattering photos of Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Hunter Biden, coronavirus czar Dr. Anthony Fauci, and left-wing personalities Alyssa Milano and Chrissy Teigen in a parody of TIME Person of the Year magazine covers.
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Not only did Kitson stand strong against the coronavirus lockdowns, it banned mask-wearing inside the store due to shoplifting concerns in August 2022, Breitbart News reported.
“I’m neither Democrat [n]or Republican. I’m just stating what’s affecting small businesses,” Ross told Breitbart News in December 2020. “I didn’t see one celebrity come and help do clean up [after the BLM riots]. They stayed in their houses and watched TV. We need to out these celebrities.”
More recently, Ross has turned his attention to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), whose home was broken into on Sunday.
“If the suspect is homeless, she needs to house them in her home with her two guns. Maybe they wanted her expensive bright colored pantsuits,” Ross wrote on Instagram, apparently referencing Bass’s request to wealthy Angelenos to donate money to house the homeless.
