AIBU in thinking this was uncalled for?

[armani]

ok so yesterday i had the most embarassing day of my life ever. Rushing through primark to get to boots to get some nappies for dd.dd and ds in the double buggy.

i get half way through the doors out of primark and am aproached by a security guard. to my embarassment ds, age 2,had grabbed a pair of mens boxers and i hadnt realised.

i explained to the security man that i had no idea he had them and offered to pay for any damages caused. he then went on to say he would have to call the police as shoplifting is an offence .

i still cant quite beleive it. i was arrested for shop lifting :(

AIBU in thinking this is over the top? if they had had checked the cctv they would have seen that i had no idea ds had the pants!

What happened at the police station, OP?

my little sister used to steal chocolates from stores and we wouldn't know until we left the shop and she would have chocolate all over her face, she would hide them in her coat pockets!!! the security guard could have checked that there was noting else taken and left it at that. i would make a formal complaint to primark about your treatment if i was you!

Don't accept a caution. Far better to go to court (very unlikely it will get that far) and let the jury decide Primark are a bunch of arses.

Thank goodness Mothercare were more sensible the other week.

I was in there doing some xmas shopping with my sister who has Downs Syndrome and she lost sight of me and wandered past the alarms and stood in the doorway with goods, i heard the alrms beeping and looked over to see her standing there and an assitant standing with her asking if she was ok.

My sister is non verbal and looked upset, as soon as i got there the assistant look relieved and i asked my sister to come inside and the assistant asked if she was ok and when i reassured her she had probably just lost visual contact with me and i apologised she wandered off back to the tills.

Some people do use common sense and i hope you have a good outcome Armani

Really? You were arrested, your partner had to collect the kids and you were taken to a police station because of one pair of boxer shorts?

I'm surprised. I thought the shops would be well used to small children nabbing things and actually check the cctv if they really thought you were guilty.
Not worth the bad press for them.

Have you been bailed then?

God, you poor thing, that must have been traumatic.

Agree with others, don't accept a caution.

Very shocked at this!
My DS - also 2 - has grabbed things off the shelves in the supermarket before but thankfully I have always noticed and managed to put them back before we left.
I hope it will all be cleared up after CCTV is looked at.
You poor thing - what an ordeal!

Bloody hell, the world's gone mad. DO NOT accept a caution. All they needed to do was check the CCTV. I don't know a single mum who has not had a similar thing happen at some point or another.

Keep us informed.

Primark have not been very sensible here.

altinkum so you believe that Primark have acted reasonably here?...given that the shoplifter was a 2 year old?

OMG - DS did that to me in GAP, I got back to the car & he was waving a tshirt around on it's hanger!

Felt quite ashamed but also very embarresed that I had not noticed that he was holding it as it must of taken a good 5-10 mins to get to the car!

Your poor thing! Hope it gets sorted out in your favour!

Can you get a solicitor to demand the CCTV footage. If Primark wipe it your case is fucked. Please do this. My son was assaulted on a stagecoach bus about 2 years ago. The bus driver was useless and surprise surprise, when I got the police involved, the cctv footage was 'accidentally wiped' A lot of businesses wipe the film every 24 hours.

Daily Mail stuff this. Madness. I can't see a court taking this seriously.

Why are you taking the rap for your 2 year old?
They should have arrested him!

How silly.

Why are you getting done for it , when it was your 2 year old child that was "shoplifting"...(kids at that age pick up anything nearby to play with) .

BTW when ds2 was that age from various shops he took ...mobile phone, sweets, a left shoe , a dog lead (we have no dog) and a block of cheese.

My friends daughter took a can of castrol gtx once....she was 18 mths.

YANBU they didn't need to arrest you- these things happen quite alot in the shop I work in and very rarely do we even bother checking the CCTV, just tell the adult with them, take the item back and reassure the embarrassed party it happens all the time.

If anything the security guard should be the one arrested- for wasting police time!

What happens next?That is so easily done,a child grabbing something. Did you get a solicitor?You must be devastated, what are your family saying?

My ds has shoplifted before (he used to stow stuff away under the buggy...). I always made him take the stuff back and apologise (once it was quite a nice thing from Next ). Makes me think about whether I'd own up to it now.

I can't believe they did this. I guess if you were rushing, it looked like you were running out of the shop. And for some boxer shorts. Guess the security guard was bored, but am surprised the shop manager endorsed the police involvement.

that's awful! so what happens next Armani??

do you have a solicitor?

I was in poundland the other day and noticed my ds2 had put some stuff in the shopping basket of the buggy, which i removed and apologised to the lady on the till and said we didn't want it
she said that a LOT of people do that in order to steal and then pretend the kids put it there.

maybe Primark have a similar problem and are really cracking down on it???

not saying that this is what happened, or that they were justified, but I guess if you get that happening a lot then eventually you hav e to start taking a hard line

still, it ought to have been clear to them that you weren't stealing. you'd have hidden them if you were nicking them surely?

I hope this gets sorted without you gong to court

Second DO NOT accept a caution don't even consider it, it will stay on your record and could cause you serious problems.

You have been wronged here they should have checked the CCTV or had some more common sense, really unbelievable.

I can't believe they arrested you!
It happens all the time. If you have a child in a buggy, chances are they are going to swipe something - or even if you give them something to hold to shut them up occupy them, its easy to forget about it.

You just go back and pay or apologise or whatever.

Honestly, it could have been me, or any one of the thousands on here. You weren't even out of the shop.

How horrible and upsetting for you. Really unnecessary.

I didn't think they could do anything until you had left the store.

Anyway, what have the police said?

If the tag was snapped off that right there is the reason why, it's called blaming it on the kid when you get caught, if the tag was on they would have accepted that he must have grabbed it.

in that bloody shop I'm in danger of dragging something out attached to the wheels, there is so much crap on the floor.