Stopped from taking my child into a changing room.

Interesting @LemingsLemon never came back

It's not an excellent point, it's a silly comparison.

No one in a wheelchair is going to be told they cannot take their wheelchair into a changing room, being disabled is a protected characteristic in UK law, unlike having a child in a pushchair, and is not a reason in and of itself to be suspicious of someone, why would it be?

Someone trying to put a pushchair/pram in a completely private cubicle, when they are already in a private area with an attendant at the entrance is suspicious, there is absolutely no reason OP couldn't have left the pushchair the one side of the curtain while she tried on a top the other side.

Pushchairs and prams have been used as tools for stealing for years, the stores are well within their rights to mitigate the risks of it happening, she was allowed to take it into the changing rooms, just not inside the changing cubicle.

Excellent point.

But she was given a card saying how many items she was taking in.

I would say no one can be this naive, but it is evident from this thread how many people don't understand how devious shoplifters are.. and they honestly think that the card system is some sort of infallible system to stop them.. good grief!

What they take in the changing room is nothing to do with what they actually steal, it's just a reason to get in there and have some privacy away from cameras. Anyone could covertly stash something inside their clothing or 'drop' something in their bag while 'shopping'.. they then take 4 legitimate items in to the changings room, while in there they take the stolen items out of their clothing/bag/whatever, remove the security tags, and stash them properly underneath their sleeping baby, in with the baby stuff (while pretending to try on their items), then they give the 4 items back and walk out of the store with their stash without setting off any alarms.

How do people not know this as common knowledge? It's been happening for at least 20-30 years!

"But she was given a card saying how many items she was taking in."

Which is irrelevant to why prams are banned from cubicles, as multiple posters have explained.....

But she was given a card saying how many items she was taking in.

sorry this happened to you op. How old is your baby?
a new mum myself, and we are south london based I have noticed the hostility towards buggy users not just in retail but cafes etc. my little one is 17 months old but I wouldn’t have left with anyone, would have either left the blouse or woken up toddler but leave her unattended no nor would I have challenged staff - particularly in a store like JL as those on the floor don’t make the rules…

Outrageous!!! Could understand if it was a shopping bag but expecting you to leave your child with them is crazy!

Another batshit JL story.

They're going to lose their faithful customer base with things like this and my frustration that they insist women have bra fittings in changing rooms where men can be, with only a thin curtain to change behind.

"I’m sure this is not a rule"

I'm sure you have no idea what you are talking about despite multiple posters explaining exactly why prams are often not allowed in changing rooms.

To cap it all you would then, in your entitlement or ignorance, make a complaint..

I would put in an official complaint. I’m sure this is not a rule and why on earth would you trust someone with your baby. What if she got called away and walked off, who is watching your baby then? Make a complaint.

What an absolutely stupid thing to say!

OP has gone into a private changing room with multiple cubicles, the attendant who stands at the entrance, welcomed her in but when she realised she was trying to take the pushchair inside a cubicle said she wasn't allowed to for security reasons.

The attendant said she could 'keep an eye on her', in the changing rooms, while the pushchair was one side of a curtain while OP was on the other side of a curtain.. What part of that means she was "removing her child" or "taking her away" her child, what a load of made up nonsense by some hysterics on here.

There was absolutely no need for OP to insist on having the pushchair INSIDE a cubicle, while INSIDE a private changing room with someone standing guard at the entrance.. it's a case of being offended for the sake of being offended IMO.

Shoplifting is a massive problem and that is exactly how people do it, and exactly how people respond to be challenged.

The “girl” clearly did not want to remove a child from its mother’s care, she wanted to facilitate the mother trying on a blouse without breaching the store’s policy not to allow pushchairs or prams into the changing rooms. At no point was the child removed from its mother’s care - the decision on whether to leave her child in the pushchair directly outside the changing cubicle was clearly left for the mother to make. That the mother decided not just to politely decline the offer but to aggressively suggest the shop assistant was a stranger and therefore untrustworthy indicates to me that with a mind so suspicious, she should not find it at all surprising that shops are no more trusting of the strangers who aggressively argue about their right to take shoplifting facilitators into changing cubicles with them than she is of strangers who offer to keep an eye on a sleeping child in a pushchair.

No, you absolutely can, because reality is a thing. The girl wanted to remove a child from its mother's care. That's what happened. So that's that, really.

"The shop worker could see how many items IP was taking in, so it would have been perfectly possible to simply check she returned from the changing room with the same number of items."

But that is not how shoplifters use prams to steal goods - rtft.

Yes she could have seen how many items the OP was taking in…if she didn’t have a pram.

But she did have a pram.

The op was not allowed to take the pram in. This is because shoplifters use prams as an aid to stealing things.

They shove items in the pram. Then they go to the changing rooms and take the tags off.

That’s why some shops don’t allow prams in because they know that some people use them to hide things they intend to steal.

They can’t just decide if people look like they are going to steal so some shops don’t not allow any prams in to changing rooms, regardless of what the owner of the pram looks like.

It’s got nothing to with the items a person takes in legitimately. It’s about the pram.

It all depends on how you spoke to the employee really, I agree crazy policy but for them to ask you to leave I suppose it depends on what happened next

The shop worker could see how many items IP was taking in, so it would have been perfectly possible to simply check she returned from the changing room with the same number of items.

Sadly its becasue of the shoplifters, if you managed to sort them out (i.e. none of this 20 counts at court and still given a slap on the hand) then this sort of thing wouldn't happen.

I can’t agree that she ‘literally did try to separate the baby from her mother’. She gave her the option that she would watch the baby. She said no and I would have said no too. I still feel like the middle part of this tale is missing.

Once I was travelling through Dubai from Australia to the UK with my two daughters who were probably three and five at the time and we were waiting in the line for passport control and a man came over and told me to go in a different line that was parallel so I started to usher my dc over there and he wouldn’t let them go with me. So they had to wait in one line and I was in another just on the whim of those man. My oldest was crying and I just had to give her a ‘pull yourself together or this could get worse’ look. That was being separated from your children.

Because if there was already stuff hidden, they wouldn’t know.
If you wanted to nick something but wanted to try it on first, you could hide one in the pram, take another the same size into the changing room, leave the pram with the attendant and then give back the item you’d tried on saying you don’t want it, leave with the unsearched pram. I’d guess most people who steal stuff using a pram are doing it to sell, and wouldn’t bother with the changing room anyway.
**
People take items in prams into the changing rooms so they can take the tags off, not so they can try it on.

Either there are lots of professional shoplifters on here saying it really doesn’t help them to shoplift successfully to be allowed to take a baby in a pushchair into a changing room with them, or a lot of ignorant people getting offended and encouraging a complaint because they think, in their extreme obtuseness, that there was no good reason whatsoever for the shop assistant to make her own life more difficult.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Whats the real story?

I think the shop was in the right. Pushchairs are a bit of a nuisance in shops anyway. Never mind maneovering them in and out of the limited space in changing rooms.

The Op has said her child was sleeping and why should she? Usually they count how many items you are taking into the changing room

She literally did try to separate the baby from her mother. Her reasons don't matter, you don't do that.