I accidentally shoplifted - advice needed

[iamsodumb]

NC as this will be outing.

I work in the NHS and there is a shop on the premises which I go to near enough every day Monday-Friday. Today at about 11am I went and bought (?!) my usual packet of crisps and can of Coke. I used the self scanner as I always do and walked out.

This afternoon I got a call from my supervisor saying the big boss wanted to speak to me. When I went to her office she said I hadn't paid for my items and the shop have me on cctv not paying. I was absolutely mortified and checked my online banking and sure enough there's no charge from the shop today so I don't dispute I have done it. I don't know if I've tapped my card and it's not gone through or if I've absent mindedly scanned the items then walked off with them. I genuinely haven't got a clue. She said the shop wanted to escalate it to head office but advised me to go and speak to them myself.

I went to the shop and apologised and offered to pay but the manager had gone home. The shop assistant phoned her manager and he said I was not to pay but was to come and speak to him on Monday?! So instead of this being resolved on the day I have to worry about it over the weekend.

I'm not particularly worried about police involvement etc, I know I didn't mean to do it and have never stolen in my life so can't imagine it would go anywhere. However, I am concerned about work. Could this impact my job?! I asked my own supervisor and she said she doesn't think so but couldn't say for sure. I'm so worried! I can't believe all of this drama for less than £3 which I have offered to pay!!

If anyone has any knowledge I would appreciate any insight you have on what I can expect the outcome of this to be.

No one would have time to check the CTV cameras without there being a reason. So whatever you did someone there on the day noticed you had not paid.

If its any consolation, I once scanned 2 big bags of shopping at tesco, picked them up and walked off! Didn't even take my purse out, I was just approaching the exit when it suddenly clicked so I rushed back in a panic to see the operator laughing at me. I felt a right idiot. Was thinking about a million things and just 'short circuited' the bit between scanning and picking up the bags (I think i was trying to balance them so they didn't fall over)

Sounds to me like this store manager has an inflated ego and rather than let a regular, probably knackered, shopper pay and have done with it, he wants to lord it over you.
If that's the case, pay him then shop elsewhere. Like in uniform, in a shop you use regularly, you would deliberately not pay? Surely the alarm would've sounded? Sounds like a technical issue with their machinery
The police wouldn't bother looking into it, in case it does put your job at risk I would demand the CCTV and if it looks like a tech issue I would be contacting head office and demanding an apology to you and an admission of incorrectly reporting to your boss by them as well.

I work on a supermarket checkout. Quite often someone will 'tap' their contactless card and walk away, the payment doesn't go through, and we have to call them back to the till.
The person supervising the self scan (l've worked on self scan too) should have noticed at the time that your payment hadn't processed, but l can understand how they didn't if it was in a small hospital shop.
It's £3 for god's sake. Someone's massively overreacting.
By all means apologise, and say that it will be very clear on the cctv that you tapped your card on the card reader. But don't let them bully you for such a small thing. Believe me, it happens regularly.
Just a heads up for anyone using self scan - get a receipt. I know it's a pain if you're in a hurry, but it's a few seconds. And it means you can't be accused of anything like this. Tills don't print a receipt (or ask if you want one) if your payment hasn't processed for whatever reason. It safeguards you. If you have the receipt they can't accuse you of anything.
Where l work, we're told that if we buy anything to take back into the store (ie, staff areas) to make sure you have the receipt, for this very reason. Even if we buy a bottle of water to have on the till, we're told to make sure we have the receipt with us. Some people even tape it to the bottle.

You need the mens rea to make out the offence, e.g. a guilty mind with the intention to steal, which is unlikely to be proven given what you say. Very unlikely to lead to any police involvement and I imagine that would be the only way it could impact upon your contract .e.g if you were convicted of an offence.

I'd be going to my union, too.

I'm rather disturbed that they 'went to your manager'. Are they allowed to do that, or is that misuse of privilege?

This happened to me with petrol once at a place I shop regularly. Luckily they knew it had happened, kept the receipt and actually came over to tell me and asked me to pay the next time they saw me! 🙈😆 So, there was no need to escalate this to your boss, especially as you shop there a lot 🙄😤

I also think take your statements available to prove you’ve been paying daily. It sounds to me like they think you’re regularly pretending to pay and then leaving without doing so. So scanning, pretending to use contactless and leaving.

Them checking rhe cctv indicates they were checking what you were doing.

As you can provide the evidence of the payments which correlate with their CCTV timings of your visits you’re defintely ok.

But checking the CCTV and escalating this, then not accepting payment, indicates something else is at play here, they think it’s more than you walked out without paying by accident. So be prepared, as you have the proof otherwise.

Bless you, OP, I’m sorry they’re leaving you hanging over the weekend about this total non-event. With a sensible and thoughtful manager, it could have been resolved so easily
It’s happened to me a couple of times where I’ve tapped my card and gone to dash off and been called back to verify the pin. At an unmanned till, I could easily have walked away
A friend once drove away without paying for a full tank of petrol (completely unintentionally) and had a visit from the police, who accompanied her to the petrol station to settle her debt. The police and petrol station manager were very understanding, most people are

I am sure this will be fine. I did the same once with £70 worth of shopping paid for but a large box of soap powder (which i didnt want to mix in with the food) at the bottom of the trolley, which I forgot to pay for. My toddler was climbing all over an empty conveyer belt and operating the till buttons, so I was very distracted! They told me off but that was it. I was mortified, but want to say it will be fine. They will have CCTV on all the other days you shop there and paid.

I once did that at tesco - scanned all my items and absent mindedly forgot to scan my card and walked out. The assistant came running after me in the car park and I apologised and went back in and paid.
The shop sound dramatic. You don't need to worry about your job or anything, it was an honest mistake and the CCTV shows that. It's not like you were hiding bottles of spirits under your coat to sneak out or something. You meant to pay.

For goodness sake why didn’t the manager relay the message “don’t worry just pay up when you come in on Monday”. To do this to an NHS worker is really mean minded.

It’s not theft as there was no dishonesty. It shouldn’t affect your job. Just go on Monday apologise and leave the money. Don’t worry about it, it’s not a big deal! Don’t know why they’re being weird about it but don’t let £3 ruin your weekend!

OP, I really wouldn’t worry about this too much. I bet most people have done this at least once or twice. I certainly have.
I’d apologise, show them your records to show that you’ve paid every other time you have visited and offer to pay.
I disagree with posters who say that a shoplifter wouldn’t scan there shopping or tap their card. That’s exactly what many shoplifters do. They just don’t use a valid card or pretend to tap.
I also disagree that the fact the shop know you and that you got there all the time mean they should know you are innocent. I know you didn’t do it deliberately but shoplifters come in all sorts of guises. I think shops are careful not try and have fair and consistent ways of dealing with possible shoplifters.

Having said all that I bet you will be ok. The fact they have already embarrassed you by speaking with your boss will surely be seen as sufficient to ensure you don’t make the same mistake again.

@iamsodumb I'm so sorry you are having to tolerate this!

Obviously a genuine mistake/cock-up.

I am worried for you though, because if they want to get rid of you for some reason, this is an excellent opportunity. Do you think someone wants rid of you? For some reason? Maybe not even anything personal, but just to cut staff/cut costs, without paying severance pay or redundancy.

Some time ago, a woman me and DH knew, took 1 loo roll from the place she worked (a restaurant,) as she had none at home and all the shops were shut. She was caught, and sacked. Worked there 7 years she had. Sacked for gross misconduct. For stealing 1 loo roll.

'1 or 1000, it was still theft,' said the HR manager.

Yet just 6 months or so before, one of the managers had seen someone take some envelopes, and said 'oi oi, no wonder we keep running short of envelopes!' But the person taking them wasn't sacked.

Depends who it is... But in my experience, sometimes, something trivial is used to get rid of someone.

The manager didn’t want you to pay? Sounds like they are looking to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Try not to worry, easier said than done I know. But if you are in there every day you will have lots of payments to show on your online banking which will help to show you are a regular, and normally pay. This sounds like an oversight. There is absolutely no need for it to be escalated to head office, that’s ridiculous.

Theft is the INTENTION to permanently deprive.

You never intended to shoplift and you remind the manager of that. They would need to prove intent.

Because the manager is being am arse I would never shop there again.

@DomingoinLittleOakley

I love your name. 💜

Sounds like you tapped your card, payment didn’t go through, you walked away without a receipt so it was still showing on the screen.
A genuine mistake, ask to see CCTV evidence if the manager says otherwise.

@millymae

This all sounds very fishy to me - is it a shop run by the hospital, how did they find out so quickly you hadn’t paid, and why did they feel it acceptable to contact your manager rather than you directly. I’d be beyond cross about this - surely it’s a matter between you and the shop. I can think of no reason why they felt they had to involve others. Try not to worry over the weekend - as soon as you knew what happened you went to apologise and pay and it’s not your fault that the manager had gone home and whoever was left in charge refused to take your money. FWIW after Monday I wouldn’t bother boosting the shop’s profit any more. I’d be taking a packet of crisps and a can of drink in from home, and even if you have to buy a cool bag to keep it in you’ll soon be quids in.

Yes this! Really very very odd to go through your manager!

All got sorted out in the end thank goodness!

@FlipFlapFlop1980

Theft is the INTENTION to permanently deprive.

You never intended to shoplift and you remind the manager of that. They would need to prove intent.

Because the manager is being am arse I would never shop there again.

Dishonesty is required too. There was a prof at uni who helped write the Theft Act.

I remember reading about a M&S cafe worker who was sacked for making a coffee or tea for herself while working.
I was shocked at the time. DH debated at the time that it was technically stealing. Imo very few office employees haven't taken an envelope, put a personal letter through the work post system or used the photocopier/email for personal reasons.
The OP didn't do anything intentionally. Perhaps this is their routine way of dealing with perceived theft but ringing your manager is out of order.

My local coop has had to add a new screen to the self checkouts as it isn’t always obvious when the contactless payment fails - so many people were walking out accidentally without paying. self checkouts are a nightmare - hope you get it sorted OP

I would definitely ask to see the cctv as you are quite clear you went to scanner, scanned your items but either card didn't work or you forgot. But your body language should show there is no intent, no furtiveness or concealment & truly accidental. And also I'd want to see it anyway to see what actually occurred. Also...were you in uniform...I don't understand how the shop contacted your job... they could have done enormous reputational damage or cost you your job. The appropriate thing to do, if they felt it was theft, would be to contact police & they'd have dealt with it by calling to your home or asking you to drop to station. I dare say outcome would be same, embarrassment, mistake & just pay now! It could happen to a bishop. I remembered about 2 days late that I didn't pay for diesel. My usual local village pumps, into shop, queue, picked up paper, read headlines, got distracted, paid for it & 2/3 other small bits & never thought about diesel at all. Only when I went back 2 days later & in the queue (not for diesel) & rem my items last time were only £10 whereas I'd filled about £50 of diesel. And I said it at till & they were just ' we knew you'd be back'. No problem at all. I'm not usually forgetful but busy life, stuff on my mind & I just got diatracted & forgot. Don't beat yourself up over it. You'll fix up with them & that will be that. I'd be cross about the call to my wotk though. But maybe keep your powder dry on that until they accept in the first instance that it was an honest mistake.