Can't believe what happened... was l in the right?

[Oktagrammata]

Went to IKEA today... hardly any trolleys in the trolley bay .. but just manage to get last one.
I put my walking stick in the trolley.
Needed loo.. went to disabled loo..( l have a stoma). left my trolley outside with my walking stick in.. thinking surely no one will take my trolley.
Comes out of loo and trolley is gone.
Asks the security guy and a member of staff I'd they had seen it/ moved it.. they hadn't.
So l start walking... to look for it..
See a woman in the next section pushing my trolley .. with some items she had put in.
I explain she has my trolley with my walking stick in.
She looks at me like I'm mad but doesn't say a word. Takes out my walking stick and hands it to me.
I say.. " can you please take your items out of my trolley and let me have it back please".
She huffs and puffs.. but doesn't speak. Put her items into her friends trolley and pushes my trolley to me so hard it bangs into me.
🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I agree. I wouldn’t and know that others that also wouldn’t but I expect there are plenty that also would. Some people are more trusting in other people’s motives than I am. I vividly remember being in secondary school and having it drummed into us that we don’t leave especially drinks unattended ever due to the risk of spiking. You would imagine that sort of thing only goes on in nightclubs and bars but you just never know. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

I think it’s safe to say that the general consensus bar a couple of the usual suspects who just get a kick out of being nasty that it’s not acceptable to take a trolley that isn’t yours especially when it has other people’s belongings in it. It is the high of laziness and bad manners and to assault someone after because they’ve been brought up on their poor behaviour is the pinnacle of scum behaviour and indefensible.

This was our first communication her responding to my comment. To which I replied some people have medical conditions meaning it's not always possible to wait to go to the toilet

I also had it drummed into me not to leave drinks because of spiking risk. As for the rest, there are selfish people in all parts of life. I used to be more trusting, I think. A walking stick though, you'd think you could leave that. It takes a special kind of selfish to run off with a mobility aid.

It’s not abandoned if there is someone’s stuff in it.

The woman taking the trolley though could be seen as committing theft, of a mobility device of all things! (And yes a walking stick is a mobility device).
Who takes away someone’s stick??

Thanks for that, apologies I did actually miss that because I went back and looked for the other posters original comment - I missed your reply to @TheShellBeach. I still don’t think that her saying that she wouldn’t leave her food unattended is her saying she agrees with the trolley thief. I think she was just offering alternative perspective with that one but had already said by that point that it wasn’t acceptable.

Exactly. I wouldn’t put anything past anyone these days. Some people are so entitled and self-serving. Dragged up with no manners as far as I’m concerned and I say that as someone around the same age as the trolley thief by the sounds of it. I’m surprised passers-by didn’t stop and say something because if I saw someone in their 30’s push a trolley into an older lady I definitely would have done. Pure laziness and spite.

Then you should know that sometimes you have to get up before you're done.

Yes, and as I also said, I'd grab my coat and not leave it at the table because I don't trust people enough. Not being willing to leave my coat doesn't equate to agreeing with the trolley thief though.

That woman's actions would justify a CF diagnosis.

You were very right @Oktagrammata I'm sorry people are so ignorant and self absorbed.

How empathetic of you😐

Sounds like she behaved horribly!

Glad you can comprehend. My point was just that I'd be worried that the staff would clear my table thinking whoever was sitting there was done (which doesn't mean I agree with the trolley thief). Or that someone else would take the table during a busy period, thinking it had been abandoned and not yet cleared by staff. Sometimes tables are like gold dust. (This does happen in some cafes I know when it's busy and is understandable in that context, but also doesn't equate to agreeing with the trolley thief).

Surprising number of people on here happy to out themselves as absolute shitheads. OP, you were 100% in the right. That woman was an opportunist arsehole.

That "....healed by IKEA Jesus" should have instant Mumsnet Folklore status! 😅

If Jesus is healing at IKEA, I'm going straight there with a few other family members who could use some help!

Talking a walking stick or other form of mobility aid is a literal crime.

I know because it happened to my mother, although it didn't go all the way to court because my mam dropped it. The person lost their job (career really I guess, as they where a manager who had worked their way up the company) and the company where exceptionally apologetic.

It wasn't even the only time people tried to tell my mam she wasn't allowed her wheelchair in a place but the only one to physical snatch it off her and take it away.

It's deemed a SERIOUS health and safety matter, you have removed/reduced a persons ability to move which in an emergency (like a fire) could be fatal and thus its a deliberate discriminatory action with a risk of causing death to an already vulnerable person.

There was a case not long ago of a drug addict that stole a mobility scooter fir a joy ride when the owner stood up to use a cash machine at the supermarket from a man with Parkinsons. The owner lay in the cold for hours before being found and essentially froze to death (he was found alive but died of exposure related issues in hospital). The thief was found guilty of manslaughter as taking of the mobility aid is the direct action that lead to his death.

I'm sure that MÅNGER will be in stock soon.

If you were disabled, and every step you took was both painful and exhausting, you would be trying to save your dwindling energy reserves to get through the shop, the check out queue and back to your car in the car park.

The notion that a person who finds every step agonising and exhausting would be able to traipse all the way back to the trolley bay to pick up a replacement trolley (or even be able to walk that far without her stick) shows a sublime ignorance of what it means to be disabled.

I'm actually quite shocked by the casual cruelty of some of the comments on this thread. The IKEA stores themselves show no consideration towards people with walking difficulties (keeping their short cuts through the labyrinth secret to force everyone to take the long way round), and I personally am no longer able to visit IKEA, because I can't stand up for long enough, or walk far enough to survive the experience.

However, back when I was still just barely managing to drag myself around I remember how relieved I was to have a trolley to lean on, allowing me to take more weight off my painful leg. The thought that I might leave it outside the disabled toilet with my walking stick inside, and come out to find it gone is horrific.

I probably wouldn't have been able to walk far or fast enough to catch up with the trolley & stick thief, and would have ended up collapsing to the ground and being unable to stand up again. If and when I did catch up with them and they snarled at me and shoved the trolley into me when I asked for it back I would probably have had to leave the store and spend the next couple of days in bed recovering.

Maybe it makes me a nasty evil person, but if I was the resident Deity of IKEA I would ensure that everyone who would defend stealing a disabled person's walking aid should suffer at least a month of the exquisite agony of having to walk when every single step is a symphony of at least 5 different stabbing, wrenching, burning pains. Teaching them the miserable art of carefully mapping the shortest distance between two points, and hoarding every last scrap of strength, dreading any unforeseen obstacles that would be enough to leave them stranded, in a state of collapse and unable to get home. If it teaches them a tiny bit of empathy that would be a plus, but as a vengeful deity I'd also enjoy torturing them.

It was pretty obvious the trolley had been left outside the toilets while the person (who was clearly elderly or disabled) used them, it had her walking stick in it ffs.

Imagine what kind of nasty twat you’d have to be to just not give a fuck and take it? And then when said person asked for her trolley back to aggressively shove it at her?

Horrible, horrible cow.

I swear people in general are getting ruder and more antisocial.

That's terrifying!

OP I could understand her taking it if you'd left nothing in it, as sadly people are opportunistic and will have assumed it was abandoned. But to take it with your stick in it when you'd quite obviously just nipped to the loo is disgusting and of course her pushing it into you afterwards is vile. There's no justification, I'm sorry it happened to you.

You should have fell to the ground and rolled around the floor in pain for effect.

If it was outside of the toilets with a walking stick in it you would presume it was someone's trolley

She was definitely wrong to take the trolley. Left outside the toilet and with a personal item on it it is likely to belong to someone.

You should have fell to the ground and rolled around the floor in pain for effect.

Ah yes, because somebody who has to use a walking stick, is really likely going to throw themselves to the ground, just to make a theatrical appearance. I feel like I have entered the Outer Limits, reading through this thread.

Agree.Unbelievable how some people think, complete ignorance.

My late husband could manage very short distances without his walking stick and - indeed - would find it a hinderance in public toilets: he only had one good hand and needed that in order to push open doors, etc. (Latterly, I had to go in with him.)