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A CBS anchor went viral for excusing a shoplifter who rode his bike into a San Francisco Walgreens and cleaned the store out.

“CBS This Morning” co-host Tony Dokoupil went viral on Wednesday morning after he excused a man for stealing a trash bag full of goods and fleeing the store on a bicycle.

“So crime is never justified of course,” said Dokoupil. He was interrupted by co-host Anthony Mason, saying, “I will say that I think they could have made a little better effort to stop that bicycle. I mean you could have disrupted that bike.”

“Well, I mean, I don’t know,” Dokoupil said. “You don’t need to be a hero over some toothbrushes or whatever it is.”

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Dokoupil implied that the Black male shoplifter was “desperate” and probably needed essential items, such as a toothbrush and hair products.

“That reads also as an act of desperation. I mean, you’re not getting rich off what you take from a Walgreens, you’re getting probably something you need. I don’t know the details of that particular case.”

The incident happened at the Walgreens on the corner of Gough and Fell Streets in very liberal San Francisco.

The police stopped answering shoplifting calls after a 2014 ballot referendum downgraded property theft of less than $950 to a misdemeanor.

Now shoplifting is so routine in San Francisco, that shoplifters often sell their stolen merchandise on the sidewalk around the corner from the store they stole from.

ABC7 reporter Lyanne Melendez tweeted a video of the shoplifting incident on Monday, and her video went viral.

Pop singer Aubrey O’Day was also criticized for saying shoplifting is justified because Walgreens’ CEO earns millions of dollars in bonuses.