Friend tried shoplifting in Asda via scan and go

[bunnyhops90]

My friend who I was due to meet this evening rang me in tears and really panicked this afternoon following doing her weekly shop in asda this morning via the scan and go thing. She is a newly single mum to a toddler and twin 14 month old and I didn't realise until we spoke today just quite how much she is struggling with everything, she has been left with a lot of debt from her abusive ex-partner and is very much struggling to get by.

Anyway she said always uses the scan and go but today she said she doesn't know what made her do this but with Christmas coming up she is getting increasingly stressed about finances and making it through, she knows this is no excuse and accepts her unwise decision, she deliberately didn't scan a few things including baby food, fruit and pizza. When she went to go and pay it said she had been chosen for a staff member to go through some of her shopping and check for accuracy or something along those lines. Staff member scanned quite a few which were all fine then came to one of the items that she hadn't scanned and was told her full shopping would need to be checked. She panicked at this point, pretended she was taking an important phone call and swiftly walked away and left the shop with all the shopping behind before they realised there was a few I scanned and she drove home. She is terrified the police are going to show up on her doorstep and arrest her and is kicking herself for her stupid choice and worried she's got herself into even more difficulty now, I said I thought was unlikely the police would be contacted but apparently they will have her details since she used scan and go so thinks they will easily be able to find her. Does anyone agree with friend and think the police will come looking for her? I want to try and re-assure her but I really have no knowledge around this kind of thing!

I've missed something out of my shopping twice. And got caught twice too. I didn't do it deliberately it must've just not scanned. Once was a £1 box of chocolate fingers and another time part of my meal deal..would've cost me more to not get it as a deal! Both times the person scanning just said you missed this or this wasn't scanned then they rescanned the whole thing. I still go and still use it because it wasn't intentional so I don't care. If I was your friend I wouldn't go back and just leave it as that. She intended to steal but how can they prove that? They can't prove it wasn't an accident and she didn't actually leave the store with stolen goods.

I know she meant to do it but I'd imagine it's easy to do innocently too. It's why I won't use the scan things. I would be forever reading the screen and when I'm.with my husband it would be chaotic.

I've no idea what they will.do but hopefully it won't be too bad and has been a wake up call for her to get help and to never do it again!

My understanding is it's not shoplifting until you've left the store with the unpaid items.

What else would they do? They're hardly going to rugby tackle her.

Anyway from the posts on here they'd be having to do it constantly as it sounds like absolutely everyone who's ever used the Scan and Go "forgets" to scan something almost every time. It's been quite shocking really, mostly because Mumsnetters are always really unrealistically horrified and personally offended by even very petty theft, like they've never heard of it or something. It's weird to have them all on here admitting to "forgetting" a few items, makes for a refreshing change I suppose.

I'm sure the staff won't bat an eye, it's obviously really common to have the scanned items not tally with the basket so they'll never remember her particularly and the store will have calculated that having this system still saves them money compared with having more staff to man the tills.

OMG I did that recently as an honest mistake (I'd changed one flavour of chocs for another, un-scanned the first but forgot to scan the second). I just stood making cheery self-deprecating conversation as they re-scanned me and they just checked me another couple of times but now all seems to be back to normal - but it's my usual shop, I guess maybe they know me... It must surely happen loads of times by mistake?

Often a person's reaction will tell you their intention.
It's not just police who are trained to read body language
I'm sure there is a certain amount of 'grace' to each situation, obviously not everyone is trying to get things for free & errors happen but I've not worked retail in a long time so I would presume protocol changes over time.

The police won't be interested as she didn't actually steal. She should find another shop to go to though.

Oh yes, my heart goes out to her. She really must have felt desperate to do that. I doubt very much the store will do anything but it might be a good idea for her to shop at another store for a while.

I really do hope she gets some good help and advice.

Already been said

If they see baby food they'll check that

You can't get arrested for displaying dodgy body language it wouldn't stand up in court, you have to have left the store with the items otherwise every man and his dog would get arrested for "looking dodgy".

I really doubt they would call the police, given she had not left the store and she could have legitimately made a mistake when scanning some items. Unfortunately, if she had played dumb she would have got away with a stern look or a sympathetic "this happens all the time". Instead, by walking away she has made it look like she was perhaps trying to steal something, which means I doubt she will be able to use scan and shop again, or at the very least should expect staff to check her shopping the next few times she does.

Your poor friend. Can you help her to get in touch with food banks or other local charities that will help her get through this difficult time?

Nothing was stolen so I can’t see the police doing anything. And I expect plenty of people walk off rather than wait for a complete re-scan, as based on posts on here it takes ages!

Home deliver is much less effort all round, though not if you want to help yourself to a discount…. Though, there was a post recently where someone milked the system by cancelling an order once it was out for delivery, and then accepted it anyway…

@Wintersgirl fully aware, was my job , I was replying to some up thread but missed the @ never did I say any thing about being arrested for looking dodgy
If you want to check legalities I linked it earlier

This is what I was going to say!

And it's been answered

I work next door to the biggest Asda and know security, they certainly do keep photos and could share with other stores..but, as she left the shopping, she will be fine.. unless it happens again ...

Unless it was half a shop
not scanned I would imagine they have to accept that it’s just customer error. This is why they check even if one things hasn’t been scanned.

She really need not worry about this though

(I work in retail and shopping is abandoned frequently)

Well she didnt actually steel anything in the end. I doubt the police would waste any time on this. Also As a teen I was caught shoplifting and police were never called, it was a sharp lesson but the store security do take each case into consideration and you might get banned from the store. Very unlikely they would take this any further.

Well she’s obviously not cut out to be a shoplifter! It would be easy to genuinely forget to scan something or not scan properly so even if they had ‘caught’ her the best they could say is she was careless, until she’s walked out of the door with the items she hasn’t stolen them and the police aren’t going to turn up because she hasn’t actually stolen anything and intending to steal isn’t a crime.

Unless they summoned the police on the spot I really wouldn't think so. There must be a massive surge in normally fairly law abiding people shoplifting at Xmas with COL.
Of course it was out of order as it's not fair on those who pay. But it's done now. Hopefully she won't do it again.
I hope she can find means of getting more money honestly. If it's stuff for babies I think there a few charities for that, apart from food banks. I think they don't do fresh food usually.
Can she get a referral to that from CAB or GP?

I’d just add to the thread that when a full scan of shopping is done, it’s literally that. It doesn’t show/compare to the scan that the customer did. Therefore, the only thing that made her look guilty was her running away!

My knowledge of this comes from me having several times endured random full scans at Sainsburys, despite not having attempted to steel anything.