It is 5:55 am, the day after Christmas, and four unassuming women sit comfortably in a rented full-size cargo van near the entrance of the Sherwood Mall waiting to begin their annual shopping pillage for Christmas sales.
All of the women are related, but the youngest is participating in her first shopping pillage. When she turned 21 two months prior, the elder of the group trained, educated and groomed her to become a team member.
All of the women are outfitted with black ankle supported athletic shoes, black cargo pocket pants, with knee pads with black vests with multiple pockets filled with coupons.
They wore black long sleeve shirts and gloves with cut out fingers. They all used a military-type wireless blue tooth headset for communications, over their knitted hats and caps with the embroidered with the acronym “SPAU” for “Shopping Pillage Attack Unit.”
When security opened the doors to the mall, the group formed a single line like a SWAT team walking briskly towards their designated targeted stores.
The elder of the group was in the rear, (“their six,”) with the newbie ahead of her to be sure of her abilities on their first time in the shopping trenches.
The elder team member knew of her diminishing abilities and was happy to have the youngest member to pass on her wisdom.
They were a great duo as the team leader, gather items. The elder took a position in line while the newest member finished collecting listed items. With credit cards and cash inside their cargo pants pockets, the eldest member was shocked when the newest member, took out her secondary communication device, (her cell phone) to complete the sale.
The lead member was impressed with the quick payment move as they exited the store to continued to their next shopping objective.
With shopping bags hanging from the hooks on their cargo pants, the two traveled one behind the other. Their appearance was intimidating as they moved through the crowded hallways of the mall.
At 0700hrs, the teams completed their pillaging assault of the designated stores at the mall, and the SPAU team were packing the cargo van.
When they entered the van, the team members began conducted an equipment check of credit cards, monies, coupons and communications.
The elder team member patted the newest team member on the back telling her, she was great in the field using her cellular phone to pay, shortening their transition time.
She smiled and knew, and she was the newest member of the SPAU team.