Reporting Lou in Probably Stolen earns 1,500 Credits and Security +5 but starts her revenge storyline, while letting her go means she never returns. Her first visit follows the Business Permit purchase, with Known Snitch preventing that appearance. If you report her, the later sequence includes a harmless dud, a box you must preserve, and a demand for goods. The important choices are whether to report her, whether to keep her toys intact, and how you meet her final demand.
When Lou first visits your shop
Lou is a wanted Black Market customer whose first appearance becomes possible after you buy the Business Permit. Starting the following day, she arrives on the first morning when you have under 75 Credits or cannot afford a rent or mortgage payment that is due. This makes your morning finances relevant to the encounter, including an unaffordable housing payment as well as a low balance. Known Snitch prevents this visit, so that exception matters before you try to use the financial conditions to meet her.
Without Known Snitch, Lou's first arrival is listed as no later than 15 days after the Business Permit purchase. That upper limit belongs to her initial appearance, while the financial trigger can bring her in from the morning after buying the permit. Keep the permit purchase and your morning payment situation in mind when watching for her, and apply the Known Snitch exception to the arrival window.
First purchases and the reporting decision
On her first visit, Lou has a budget of 250 Credits and shops for melee weapons, a Plasma Cutter, or a Screwdriver. The listed item values are 80 Credits for a Plasma Cutter and 25 Credits for a Screwdriver. She normally accepts retail markup and haggles, so these listed values should be distinguished from the terms you negotiate during ordinary trading. Remember what she actually buys, because those purchases become the toys in the box she delivers later if you follow the reporting branch.
Reporting Lou gives you the immediate reward of 1,500 Credits and Security +5, and she promises to come back. Choosing not to report her ends your dealings with her because she does not return. If your aim is to avoid her later visits and demands, letting her go is the choice that does that. If you want the reporting reward, weigh it alongside the subsequent box check and demand for goods, since her arrest does not end the storyline.
Her return and the harmless container bomb
After her arrest, Lou returns at least 3 days later and waits at your door in the morning. From that point onward, you cannot report her or shoot her, which rules out those responses to her later appearances. Treat this as the start of the post-arrest sequence rather than another opportunity to repeat the original reporting decision, and allow for the return to happen later than the minimum delay.
Two mornings after the door visit, a bomb is hidden in one of your containers. This particular bomb is a dud: it will not explode, and using it disarms it. At night it becomes a fake whether you found it during the day or left it undiscovered. That harmless behavior applies to this container event; missing toys at collection and an insufficient final payment have separate, fatal bomb outcomes.
Keeping Lou's Box of Toys intact
The next delivery comes at least 4 days after the dud event, when Lou leaves Lou's Box of Toys. The box contains the Old Republic Orders and the items she bought from you during her first visit. Her earlier shopping therefore determines which purchased items appear among the toys you need to keep. If she bought nothing, the default toys are a Wire Cutter, a Plasma Cutter, a Tazer, and a Kitchen Knife, so an empty first transaction does not mean an empty toy box.
Lou comes to take the box back at least 3 days after leaving it. If either the box or a toy is missing when she collects it, a real bomb goes off and the game ends. Keep the box and all of her toys available for collection rather than treating the delivery as stock you can freely remove. The earlier dud offers no protection here, because this collection check explicitly carries a real bomb consequence.
When the box and toys are intact, Lou talks to you and hands back anything you added. Adding your own items does not replace the requirement to preserve her toys, since missing toys still trigger the fatal outcome. The practical priority is to retain the delivered box and its toys until collection, while recognizing that your additions are returned during the successful exchange.
The Security Inspector disguise and demand
At least 4 days after collecting the box, Lou appears disguised as a Security Inspector. She demands 1,500 Credits worth of weapons, ammunition, and medical goods within a week. This is a demand for goods she takes without payment, so prepare for the loss of those items when considering the cost of having reported her. Her normal trading rules also change on the demand visit: retail markup and haggling do not apply.
The collection step follows at least 7 days later, when Lou takes weapons, ammunition, and medical items from the counter. Providing 1,500 Credits worth of those goods makes her leave for good. Put the relevant goods on the counter for this collection, since that is where she takes them. Keep the requested week and the collection delay distinct: the demand gives you the preparation window, while the later visit is described with a minimum delay.
Partial payment and the final news report
If you use the "That's All I Have" branch, the alternative outcome depends on your goods and cash together. With a combined value of 500 Credits or more, Lou takes the rest from your register and leaves. This threshold belongs to that specific branch and should not be confused with fulfilling her full demand in goods. A total below 500 Credits produces the Bombed game-over outcome, so the amount you can offer determines whether this branch ends with her departure or game over.
After Lou leaves for good, the following day's news reports that a visiting Republic admiral has been assassinated. That report is the closing story beat after her permanent departure, following the earlier progression from arrest through retaliation and collection. To reach that point through the full-goods route, preserve her box and toys at the collection check, then satisfy the later demand with the required weapons, ammunition, and medical goods.