One of the more interesting cases of sci-fi greebling is in Infinity Chamber. The film was shot on a budget of only $125,000. Most of the movie happens in a single room. To save money, the backdrop used 2 liter soda crates the filmmakers found discarded at the back of a grocery store. Later they discovered that the crates are regularly reused, so they returned the unintentionally-stolen props after filming.
I saw in the news someone getting 6 months in jail for a milk crate theft. It is apparently an $80m/year problem.