UNSTEAL NONPROFIT INC

Unsteal’s goal is to assist in 500 million recompense transactions worldwide by 2034. To reach that target, we’re starting our focus with Los Angeles County. Next, we want to expand throughout all of Southern California. We will leverage social media with awareness events and interact with talk show hosts in order to attract a national audience to our cause. Lastly, Unsteal will host global transactions.

Next, we had a goal of giving away 25 paper Unsteal boxes to 25 stores in 2019. We achieved that goal but unfortunately, all of these paper boxes were stolen. The purpose of the Unsteal Box is give shoplifters an anonymous way to repay a store in cash for a past petty theft.

Our next goal was to crowd fund to pay for 25 metal boxes, recruit volunteers to design stickers for them, and donate these boxes in 25 stores, with a preference to the previous stores featuring a paper Unsteal Box. GoFundMe covered the $446 needed to fabricate 25 boxes and the shop gave us 2 free boxes. VolunteerMatch connected 3 graphic designers who originated and finalized the sticker design. A local printing shop provided free stickers for the metal boxes and a hardware store donated 20 free fasteners for secure installation of Unsteal boxes. Now we are in the process of placing the newest metal Unsteal boxes and 6 stores have already accepted them to date.

We serve the public as a mental health service to clear one’s conscience after feeling guilty about a prior petty theft from a store. Unsteal does this by collecting money online or by mail, and returning the funds back to the merchants. Wellness improves for both the users and the storeowners, who recover part of their losses from theft. There are fees taken out from the wiring service, but Unsteal collects NO FEES on recompense funds.
We also facilitate recompense for petty theft transactions via Unsteal Boxes that we donate to stores.

Unsteal offers retribution for any past theft by collecting money and returning it to the victims. Initially, we are using a website to host actual transactions, but we plan to launch a mobile app. Also Unsteal donates Unsteal Boxes to stores to offer recompense for petty theft in person, with maximum anonymity. To date, Unsteal has donated 10 metal and 25 paper Unsteal Boxes in independently owned convenience/liquor stores in Rockford, IL (3) and metro Los Angeles (26) from November 2016 to September 2021. Some stores received a 2nd replacement paper Unsteal box and some stores received a metal Unsteal box after the paper Unsteal box was stolen, hence 35 boxes donated to 29 stores. The People’s Liquor in Bellflower, CA estimates one Unsteal Box was seen by 390 people per day, and collected $4.50 per week. That averages out to 142,350 shoppers per year in one store returning $234 per year in one store.

Similar to the police’s “no questions asked” gun collection drives to reduce overall crime, we will gain support from law enforcement to give the public a chance to return something stolen without any fear of punishment.

After placing 10 paper Unsteal Box in 10 different convenience stores, 3 were already stolen so we replaced them. In total we gave away and displayed 25 paper Unsteal Boxes in 22 stores in metro Los Angeles in 2019. As of April 2020, 20 Paper Unsteal have been stolen from the stores, leaving 5 stores with active Unsteal boxes. It’s very likely that all of those remaining Unsteal boxes are also stolen since my last visit a few months ago.

Paper Unsteal boxes getting stolen were an important failure so we know paper is not the right material for an Unsteal box.

We have the next 25 metal Unsteal Boxes in hand plus 2 bonus boxes gifted to us, and volunteer graphic designers completed the graphic design for the stickers for the boxes. A local printing shop made the stickers for free for us. Next, a hardware store donated 20 fasteners used to install the Unsteal Boxes. To date, six stores have accepted the newest generation Unsteal Box in the Paramount, CA and surrounding cities with 21 more to install.