Accidentally nearly stole clothes from Tesco

[ThreeRingCircus]

I'm absolutely mortified.

Today I was doing my usual weekly shop in Tesco, I go in there all the time. I was using the self scan machine and scanned all my shopping as I went round. Then right at the end picked up a few items of clothing and hung them on the front of the trolley as I decided whether to buy them or not. DD was sat in the trolley and then started to cry saying she was fed up so I said don't worry, we're finished now and went through the tills to pay.

I'd forgotten to scan the clothes and the alarms went off as I went to leave the store. I stopped and must have looked confused but then when the woman came to check my receipt and found I hadn't paid I could have died of embarrassment. I think she could see I was mortified as she was really nice about it and said it happens but clearly will assume I was shoplifting 😬.

I'm still getting hot with embarrassment thinking abou it now. I go in there all the time, I assume now I'll be on some sort of watchlist? Am I going to get stopped for trolley checks every time now? I feel so awful about it I keep thinking I can't go back in there but know I'm being ridiculous as it was a genuine mistake and I can't avoid my local supermarket forevermore.

Please tell me I'm not the only one to have done this? 🙈

They have face recognition systems now, so every time you enter a store you flag up on their security cameras

KIDDING! Don't worry. Mistakes happen, they deal with hundreds of these a day.

I'm sure it does happen a fair bit. DM walked out of a shop with a handbag, no alarms went off or anything. We were in another shop when she realised and she went straight back to return it and the staff looked confused. No one had noticed. She had simply tried it on, gotten distracted and walked out with it on her shoulder with her own one.

I did it with a dress in Sainsbury’s. Walked straight out without scanning. The alarm went off, I went back.
Security guard saw I was wrestling with toddler twins and was very understanding, I just went back and paid for it.

I picked up a basket in Primark, and filled it (stocking fillers for teenagers). I continued with my shopping, wandered around M & S food hall, looked down and realised I was still holding the Primark basket.

I have rarely, if ever, moved so fast. I sprinted, literally, back to Primark, gasping at the security guard that I realised I’d taken the basket out without paying. He gave me a slightly bemused look and said nothing.

And I didn’t even have the excuse of a small child.

I think it’s normally pretty obvious when people have made a genuine mistake.

I wouldn't worry too much as embarrassing as it is, she clearly didn't think you were shoplifting or she'd have escorted you to the dreaded "backroom".
Security guards can tell a wrong 'un from a genuine shopper making a mistake.
She's probably gone home and told her dh and ended the story with "you should have seen her face, bless her, she was so embarrassed"
I did similar, went to Tesco for milk and was having a mooch, picked up a few extra bits, didn't get a basket and then saw a CD that I thought my dsis would like and I put it under my arm, I went through the checkout with the cd under my arm and then set the alarms off at the door, I was mortified, started blabbering that I wasn't a shoplifter, I could feel myself blushing but the security guard just laughed and I went back round to pay for it.
Absolutely mortifying, but now, years later, it's just a funny story of how I got caught pinching a cd in Tesco's 😁
Give yourself a break!

@ThreeRingCircus I am curious though….if at the checkout you decided you weren’t buying them would you have put them back in the clothing department or just abandoned them at the checkout for a staff member to do?
Cos (as an ex retail worker) that’s almost as annoying as shoplifting 😂

I once missed scanning a mascara in the bottom of the trolley, went back in when I got to the car, lifted bags out and realised. They were incredulous that I came back in to pay.

Don’t worry about it, actual shoplifters won’t stop, they just run right out while the alarms go off. They don’t give a shit, they’ll make eye contact and walk/run right out the doors. You can tell when someone genuinely forgot (I worked in retail many moons ago) because, like you, they look mortified.