Synopsis

Jane's Addiction turn a grocery store into a playground for petty crime. The band performs among shoppers and aisles while a series of eccentric characters quietly pocket merchandise, including a man in drag who hides goods inside a fake pregnancy belly. The comic, fast-cut presentation matches the song's gleeful celebration of shoplifting, blending performance footage with surreal store antics and a deliberately unruly visual style. The result is less a conventional narrative than a mischievous portrait of stealing as performance.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed inside a grocery store in Venice, California. The building was later demolished.

• "Been Caught Stealing" won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video in 1991. It was the first year MTV presented that category.

• Casey Niccoli and Dave Navarro accepted the MTV award together rather than having a record-company representative collect it.

• The song became Jane's Addiction's biggest hit and reached No. 1 on the US Modern Rock chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1990.

• The opening dog bark came from Perry Farrell's dog, Annie. The band recorded the actual bark during the studio sessions instead of using a conventional sound effect.

• Farrell described the song as being rooted in his own experiences with stealing and in the idea that karma eventually catches up with people who take from others.