Sometimes you just have to marvel at a thief's chutzpah.

Last week, two women allegedly shoplifted approximately $600 worth of cosmetics from a Murrieta, California nail-supply store, but left behind a cellular phone that was not only worth more than the stolen goods but also contained the alleged thief's driver's license and a credit card. When the shoplifters returned to the store to demand the return of the phone, things went downhill.

One of two women who allegedly shoplifted from a California nail supply store returned to the business minutes later to demand her cellphone, which she had dropped, police say.

The store owner offered to exchange her electronic device – which Murrieta police said had the suspect's California driver's license and a credit card inside the case – for the stolen goods, but the suspect allegedly assaulted him prior to leaving a second time. 

The incident unfolded just after noon on Sept. 19. The event was caught on Premier Nail Supply's surveillance cameras, and footage was shared with FOX 11 Los Angeles. 

The alleged assault turned the theft of about $600 in merchandise – less than the value of the suspect's phone, according to police – into a robbery charge. The store owner suffered minor injuries after being thrown to the ground by one of the suspects.

It's important to note that in most jurisdictions, the addition of assault to the original charge of theft would escalate the act from shoplifting to robbery. The Murrieta Police Department confirmed that this would likely be the case here.

The store employees refused to give her the phone back after she refused to bring back the items she just stole. The suspect decided to assault a store employee prior to leaving for a second time. Now the theft (which was for less than the cost of the phone) turned into a robbery charge.

The suspects left in a black vehicle only to be contacted minutes later by police while they were still sitting in the car, outside their home,  just 1 mile away.  The stolen merchandise was in plain sight inside the vehicle and both women were transported to the #ByrdHouse on numerous charges.

This kind of small-scale thievery may not be causing the kind of wholesale disruption as the mass looting of the kind that is forcing major retailers out of some of our major cities, namely, the general breakdown of the established order. The perpetrators here obviously felt entitled to return to the scene of a small business they had just stolen from, demand the return of their property that they had carelessly dropped in the commission of a crime, and then to assault the store owner when said return was refused.

Greedy? Mean? Stupid? All three?

It can be easily argued that there was a good dose of stupid added to this devil's brew, as the perps were apprehended only a mile away, with stolen merchandise in plain sight.

One of the (few) legitimate roles of government is to prevent others from harming citizens or from taking their property — in essence, to protect liberty and property. Too many major municipal governments, and their subordinate police and legal apparatuses, are failing, badly, in those responsibilities. It's nice to see that the Murrieta Police Department isn't one of them.