“Free ride in a police car if you shoplift from this store” (anti-shoplifting sign)

Entry in progress—B.P.
‘Free ride in a police car if you shoplift from this store” is a popular sign at many businesses.
     
Google Books
American Abstract Expressionism
By David Thistlewood
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press: Tate Gallery Liverpool
1993
Pg. 106:
While some stores demonstrate charmingly blunt Scouse humour in an attempt to warn off potential shop-lifters (one sign reads: “Free ride in a police car for shoplifters and bagsnatchers”), the Tate is rather coy about its arrangements for protecting the gallery merchandise: guards now go by the cuddly name of “invigilators.”
 
Google Books
Crime and Social Control:
An Introduction
By R. D. White and Santina Perrone
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
1997
Pg. 211:
Notices which say ‘shoplifting is stealing’ or ‘free ride in a police car for every item stolen’, and advertisements which emphasise that ‘bloody idiots drink and drive’ are examples of this approach.
 
1 October 1997, The Sun (Baltimore, MD), “Fluffy, if you can hear me, speak to me please” by Dan Rodricks, Metro, pg. 1B:
Sykesville merchants have posted blue-and-white signs in their storefronts that offer: “Free ride in a police car, if you shoplift from this store, compliments of your police department.” I love small-town hospitality.
 
Google Books
Controversial Essays
By Thomas Sowell
Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press
2002
Pg. 314:
Sign in a store window: “Free ride in a police car for shoplifters.”
     
Hannibal (MO) Courier-Post
Hannibal police offer free signs to deter shoplifters
The Hannibal Police Department (HPD) announced Thursday that it is continuing to offer free signs designed to deter shoplifters to any and all retail businesses within the city of Hannibal.
Updated Nov. 18, 2011 @ 5:11 pm
Hannibal, MO — 
The Hannibal Police Department (HPD) announced Thursday that it is continuing to offer free signs designed to deter shoplifters to any and all retail businesses within the city of Hannibal. 
 
The 9-inch by 12-inch signs have a white background with blue lettering offering a “Free Ride In A Police Car” for shoplifters. The HPD has been offering the popular signs free of charge to local business for the last 11 years.