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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think we may as well all stuff our pockets with stuff and not bother to pay for them?

43 replies

Alicetheinvisible · 05/08/2010 09:10

Yesterday i was in a well known garage getting some chocolate.

There was a bloke in front of me stuffing his pockets with sweets, cakes (from the pastry stand) and a dvd. Not very subtle.

When i went up to pay for my chocolate i said to the woman behind the till "You may want to check his pockets" Her reply? "Oh yes, he does it all the time, it will be on camera"

WTF? If he does it all the time, he has been caught on camera, then why is he still doing it and getting away with it? How is it fair that most people pay for things but some scum can just go and help himself when he feels like it?

OP posts:

wastingaway · 05/08/2010 10:25

If there were a few members of staff, then I'm more surprised.

Perhaps that's why we're assuming he has a mental health issue, as surely, the staff would tackle someone, unless they've been told by the police to contact them if a particular person does it iyswim.

When you work in a shop and see how much perfectly good stuff gets thrown out it's harder to get worked up tbh.
Especially when the company won't pay for security to keep you safe.

Original poster

Alicetheinvisible · 05/08/2010 10:28

Right, well i am off to the Daily Mail, i feel they would be suitably outraged on my behalf

Seriously need to get my DD dressed (see, broken Britain, children still not dressed at 10.30 )

OP posts:

HotSprocket · 05/08/2010 10:32

Whenever i have worked in a shop we have been told not to confront shoplifters. Guidelines were to call security or police, make sure you could give a thorough description and try and see what they had taken.

It is just not worth the risk. One of the guys i worked with broke the rules and confronted a shoplifter. He got punched in the face and the culprit ran away.

HotSprocket · 05/08/2010 10:33

Oh but i meant to say that shops with a regular problem should employ security guards, because stealing is not okay.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 05/08/2010 10:36

If they were just planning to ignore it completely she wouldn't have said "it will be on camera". The strong implication is that there is some policy and procedure for dealing with this. But the shop assistant doesn't have to share what it is with you in detail.

Maybe he has mental health problems and they have some billing system like the one strawberrycake mentions above (I think the reason people are suggesting mental health issues is that if he's being so unsubtle about it, and does it repeatedly, and the garage seem unconcerned, then there is probably something out of the ordinary going on, and that's the most obvious thing). Maybe they do contact the police (after all, it's a garage -- they have his car registration on film and they have the CCTV of him stuffing his pockets. It's not as if it's going to be a difficult case to prove later). Maybe all sorts of things.

Rocky12 · 05/08/2010 10:37

A couple of weeks ago I was in Waitrose in Marlow and a group of Eastern Europeon people walked in. They were casually taking the most expensive toiletries and anything else they could slip in the women's large skirts. The staff and a number of customers were up in arms.

Waitrose put a number of staff on the exit and of course the group realised they had been spotted. As the women were walking out all the products they had stolen were falling out.... They sauntered out without a care in the world!

mayorquimby · 05/08/2010 10:45

"Seriously need to get my DD dressed (see, broken Britain, children still not dressed at 10.30 shock)"
probably being dressed on the back of tax payers handouts too.

Shaz10 · 05/08/2010 10:46

I know someone who is banned from a local supermarket. He has Alzheimer's and goes around eating all the food. He forgets he's banned and goes in most days. They don't call the police, they just escort him out. I'm sure they have a system at your garage too.

Lynli · 05/08/2010 10:51

If you catch someone shop lifting once and have them arrested, the police do nothing but give them a caution.

If you have ten pieces of CCTV evidence, then it will be taken much more seriously.

I have been advised by a police officer to get ten pieces of evidence before having a habitual thief arrested. They are then likely to receive a custodial sentence. If you ban the person legally as well, they are also charged with trespass.

If the shop lifter is dangerous when confronted it is often advised that the sales assistants do nothing at the time. The police will be called and they will be dealt with.

If this is the case she should have explained, as she is giving everyone the impression that it is ok.

Original poster

Alicetheinvisible · 05/08/2010 10:59

Thank you Lynli, you have explained what i expected from the garage

Mayor - yep, Primarni specials

OP posts:

skidoodly · 05/08/2010 11:06

"Oh but i meant to say that shops with a regular problem should employ security guards, because stealing is not okay."

Presumably the owner of the shop will decide whether they lose more to shoplifting than paying a security guard would cost? They might well decide to take the hit on the theft rather than pay the wages.

Also they might take into consideration the effect on custom of having a security guard at the entrance.

For shop owner I'm not sure "stealing is not OK" is going to figure much in a decision about how to run your business.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 05/08/2010 11:20

So the shop assistant should have said "Yes, our policy is that we don't take any action until we've caught someone stealing from us on ten separate occasions, at which point we batch up the evidence on all the incidents for the police."

Because clearly that wouldn't have made any of the people who you worried were going to get the impression that stealing was OK think "ker-ching" and plan nine shoplifting expeditions. Or have tipped off the bloke that he wasn't actually getting away with it when he thought he was.

Mouseface · 05/08/2010 14:01

Alice - I used to work for House of Fraser. We had great security in the store, CCTV, etc.

We also had lots of shoplifters. Regular shoplifters, that were caught and prosecuted. Yet, they came back. Time and time again.

We were told NEVER to approach anyone we suspected of stealing. To call security and leave it there.

I think what you did was spot on. I'm sure you were shocked to see what you did. And thank God you didn't approach him, being so heavily pregnant.

I too would have told the staff. You weren't to know that this guy was 'known' to them.

Hopefully, they will have a decent and proper way to deal with the situation and who knows, maybe he is dangerous.

I don't think you're being unreasonable by feeling the way you do about stealing.

TrillianAstra · 05/08/2010 17:56

YABU (obviously) to think you should join in with the stealing.

YANBU to be annoyed at what you saw

Especially since you are 9 months pregnant and probably not able to run off with the sweets as fast as this guy

Original poster

Alicetheinvisible · 05/08/2010 20:34

OP posts:

stirlingstar · 05/08/2010 20:52

I once stole some stuff (from Holland & Barret) by mistake - I put it on top of the buggy while going round the shop and it was half-hidden within the hood of the buggy. Forgot about it, walked out of shop, and noticed it in next shop.

Went back to H&B, said "I'm really sorry - just took this without paying". The assistant just said "I know". But she hadn't said anything to me as I walked out. I was a bit at the time, but reading this can see she was nervous about my post-natal-mummy-on-the-edge violence potential...

PirateJelly · 05/08/2010 20:55

Apart from other obvious reasons, one reason why the vast majority of us wouldn't steal is that we wouldn't want to cross that line and become a criminal even if it just meant receiving a caution. Once a person has crossed that line several times it's no longer a deterrent because they are already criminal and known to the police if that makes sense.

When I was a deputy manager in a clothes shop we used to get the same faces in nearly every day shop lifting, we would call security and they would get arrested but be out again the next day. The vast majority were drug addicts who had a habit to feed and already had a long list of convictions I would asume, they didn't really care if they got caught or not. All we could do was keep informing the police and secruity would contact us via radio if they were approaching, but there was naff all you could do.

On one occassion I was following a man round the shop hoping that would prevent him from lifting, and he put his hand in his pocket, produced a dirty syringe and said 'I've got the virus you know so I'd stay the f**k away'. As others have said, not worth the risk for the little pay you receive.

edam · 05/08/2010 23:06

V. good point, Pirate.

ds once half-inched a whole tray of wrigley's from Sainsbury's. Back when he was a toddler in a buggy. I'd walked almost all the way home before I looked over the hood of the buggy and saw the tray nestled in his lap. Had wondered why people walking towards me were giving me funny looks.

He must have leant over and grabbed it while I was paying. I felt embarrassed that I was such a bad mother I'd not really looked properly at my son for 10 minutes, and also a bit irritated that he'd gone for something I don't like or use... if it had been a tray full of chocolates, I might have been tempted to scoff them!

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