At least partly, maybe.
I'll be honest: I fantasize fairly regularly about being a "hero" and "saving the day", like stopping a shooter or something like that, cuz I'm just so, so desperate for my life to have meaning or a purpose. I just feel like if I did a heroic act like that, maybe I'd finally feel at peace, that I had finally fulfilled my "purpose" and "reason for being here".
I don't support tackling shoplifters or anything like that just to clarify, I just think I might understand at least a little bit why someone would feel motivated to do so.
I've shoplifted most of my life and it's never even occurred to me someone would tackle me to protect some chain stores profits. I'm always discrete and usually buy something though, I did trigger the alarm once years ago but the employee just waved me through when I acted confused and looked at the bottoms of my shoes like I was expecting a security tag to be stuck to them.
Yeah, breaking open a pack of something kinda calls attention to yourself. I don't know of any sotuation where it's useful to shoplift a fraction of an item.