Klepto Analysis

Now, you see it; the next thing you know it’s gone.

I was at McDonald’s in Katipunan with my friends last week. We were just chilling and eating fries when I saw a man so awkwardly sitting alone near the chair where one of my friends’s DSLR or digital single-lens reflex camera was placed. I felt that he was so out of place because for one, I was sure he was not a student just like the rest of the crowd so he didn’t quite fit in, and two, he was alone yet he was facing the chair where the camera is and not the table which he is supposed to face. Why on earth would this dark man wearing a white shirt and jeans with a black bag be seated this way?

He saw me looking at his direction. My gut told me something I didn’t understand. So, I turned away and went on talking to my friends instead.

“AAAAHHHH! Nawawala camera ko (My camera’s missing)!” Dee, my friend who owns the P40,000 worth camera, cried.

The guard confirmed through their security cameras that the man who I felt was someone suspicious stole the camera.

“That kleptomaniac! He will pay for this!” I said to myself.
Later that night I searched on the net about kleptomania and it was surprising to realize that all along my perception about it was wrong. Here’s what I have found out.

Kleptomania cases are rare. People, myself included, have a habit of calling everyone and anyone who steals a “klepto.” This is irresponsible, because kleptomaniacs are different from plain thieves. The motive of a kleptomaniac is gratification in the act of stealing, not for economic benefit.

It is also known as “compulsive theft behaviour disorder” or simply “pathological stealing.” It is a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) wherein certain behaviours become uncontrollable and seem to take over one’s thoughts, feelings and even one’s life. This means that it is not a person’s fault or the result of a weak, spineless, unstable personality. It’s can be called a brain malfunction since information processing in the brain suffers as the communication between parts of the brain fails. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that acts as chemical messenger in the brain, is insufficient in those who have OCD.

This means that calling the man a “klepto” (which I doubt that he is) will mean that it was not his fault to steal. So is he or is he not a kleptomaniac?

The bible of mental health professionals, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th (DSM-IV), shows the symptoms of kleptomania.

* Recurrent failure to resist impulses to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or for their monetary value.
* Increasing sense of tension immediately before committing the theft.
* Pleasure, gratification, or relief at the time of committing the theft.
* Stealing is not committed to express anger or vengeance and is not in response to a delusion or hallucination.

For me, the one who stole the camera was NOT kleptomaniac. Okay, I admit that I was wrong. It was shown in the security camera that when the man took the camera and put it inside his bag, he quickly got up from his chair, roamed around a bit and hurriedly went out the door. Obviously, he did it for profit. It’s quite hard to prove that he’s kleptomaniac especially if he’s been caught stealing a P40,000 worth of DLSR camera. If he stole a piece of our fries, then maybe, right?

Thanks to him (I still hate him though), now I know, there’s really a BIG difference between “kleptos” and just plain thieves.