boosting

When I lived in Detroit in the early 90's, it was a term widely used to refer to professional shoplifters.

Craig was a hustler whose main source of income derived from boosting. One of the items he regularly boosted were as many 4-packs of alkaline batteries as he could fit in the outer and hidden inner pockets of his overcoat, usually off the shelves of K-Marts, large pharmacies or wherever they were on display in racks some distance from the cash registers. He had a fence who operated out of a liquor store on Michigan Ave. who would pay him 1/3 their retail price.