To tell you about my accidental shoplifting and ask - has it happened to you??

[Spice17]

Mortifying and please no flaming, this was 100% accidental.

Shopping with DM, her DH and my DD in her buggy yesterday and we're sharing a basket, I plonk loads of baby essentials in it and then wander off to get some toothpaste, leaving them looking at crockery. Anyway, I chat to a friend I know on the till next to the one I'm paying at and leave.

An hour later, I go to top up the car parking and find the toothpaste in my bag! Can only asume I absentmindedly chucked it in the bag as I had it over my arm as you would a basket. Imagine if someone pulled me aside, I genuinely would have had no idea and they would have been thinking 'heard that one before Darlin'.

There's another one too can you tell I'm ridiculously 'Miranda' in my general uselessness!

On my lunchbreak a few years back, popped into a clothes shop, when I got back to work, a size 8 sequinned playsuit was attached to my bag by the hanger. The odd thing was, not only did no one stop me in the shop but I walked all along the high street and no one batted an eyelid. I took that one back but it was extremely embarrasing and the shop assistant was looking at me like I was a little bit loopy.

Please share, I feel like a total klutz!

I thieved a huge joint of beef by mistake after an altercation with the self-pay till in Tesco. I refuse to feel guilty.

More amazingly, I swanned out of Primark with practically the whole shop over one arm, even after having queued, paid for the stuff I wanted and exited via a parade of security guards. I had been holding spare sizes, tightly against gangs of teens in a packed area, for my mate on a spree. I must just never have put them down.

What was worst was having to stagger home with all the crap. There was so much that we were too ashamed to go back and convinced we would be sent to prison.

I gave it to charity, since you ask.

Oh - and I've just remembered another - making it 3 generations of us My mum did a big shop at makro with a friend (bearing mind - another assistant double checks all purchases) she too was going through her receipts and she found out she hadn't paid for her tefal saucier (I expect she would have paid on her next visit) 30 years on - the saucier is still going strong - sadly DM anf her DF are no longer with us

PILs got a 3 seater sofa bed from habitat some years ago. It didnt arrive when it should have. They phoned, they chased (i think they even got a gift voucher as an apology), it arrived. And the following day so did an identical one! FIL is one of these bus pass bandit sort, said nothing, managed not to sign a delivery note & kept the spare sofa bed.
In his working days he was fairly senior banker.
My SIL still has it in her flat.

Not quite shoplifting, but my mum and I went to return some leftover wine from my wedding and I began puzzling over the very low figure on the original receipt. Turns out the person on the till had only charged them for 1 bottle of white wine - and they had bought 45! (Luckily it was red we were returning - would have been difficult to return bottles they had never paid for in the first place.)

Hm, I've done the reverse of the 'leaving things on the handle of the trolley and not paying for them'. I once put all my shopping through the till, paid for it, hung the loo rolls back on the handle of the trolley. When I got home I realised I'd left them there - sort of anti-shoplifting if you will!

Re; the poster up the thread whose toddler had pinched some slippers and left his new shoes in the shop, I once saw a woman in M&S trying on shoes. Once she'd found a pair she liked, she walked out of the shop wearing them, leaving her grotty old ones on the floor in the shoe department! Pretty crafty that!

I've done this before on the self service checkouts in Morrisons - had my own bag in the trolley and a chocolate bar must have got shifted under it - didn't find it until I put the trolley away at the other side of the car park didn't go back and pay for it either

I've accidentally left a bar without paying, too. It was during the day in the summer and DH and I were sat outside on the pavement tables with some friends, feeling lovely and continental , forgot that it was one of those bars where you run up a tab and pay before you go... I explained and paid next time I was there!

Yes, I've done this!

At Christmas I was in a Debenhams and saw a lovely cocktail glass set that would be perfect for a friend. It had a ribbon handle on the box to carry it. I'd walked through 3 floors of the store, then walked out into the shopping mall and into another shop before I realised.

I sloped back and paid for it and the cashier seemed very surprised that I'd been so honest

I had to run back to a shoe shop with a trainer ds must have picked up off the shelves at pushchair height - as he was in the push facing forwards I didn't see it until I stopped to check he was ok and whether he needed a drink and there it was - the person I handed it to also had the confused look as I tried to explain it and then dash out.

This happens to pretty much everyone at some point, I reckon. Either by accident or through forgetfulness/being rushed/stress etc.

Mortifyingly, the one time it happened to me it was a pack of thongs that had got stuck to my coat by the hooky thing. God knows how. I was wandering around the shops not knowing they were there until they fell off in the middle of the street and an old lady picked them up going "you dropped these, dear"

I don't even wear thongs!

Myself and my friend once went for a stroll around the shops with her young daughter in the buggy. After a while we realised she was holding a rather nice shoe that she'd pinched from a display we were admiring. (Great taste she had, too )

When shopping in a large department store for DS1 who grows like a weed I hooked a pair of jeans on the pack of DS2's pushchair. We wondered round the shop then left. By this point (mainly thanks to DS2, he was going through a very diifficult phase at that time) I'd totally forgotten about the jeans. I only discovered them after we sat down for a large gin coffee. We were in a large shopping centre so I was terrified that I was under surveillance and a whole SWAT team would descend on us in the car park. In a panic, I rang a friend who's the security manager for one of the stores branches who just laughed and said it showed just how crap the security was! In the end I snuck back into the shop and shoved them on the nearest display! . Interestingly, despite having a security tag the alarms never went off

I have some lovely free victorian style taps!!

I bought a bath from homebase I was looking at some posh taps and put them on the sales desk in front of the chap I was buying the bath from, so the next thing I know I've paid for the bath, the bloke get's it on a trolly from out the back, I walk to the car watch him load it in, smile nod and go home.

Then DH unloads and a few weeks later he's fitting the bath and says what's with the taps, these are a bit expensive - I look down and there in the bath is the box of taps I didn't pay for... Technically I didn't take them as the man took them out of the store. but they still bother me but not enough to confess.

I nearly had to name change for this.

I accidentally shoplifted a whole fresh goose from Waitrose. With a self-scanner, it didn't scan, and when I got the self-scan checkout I was yakking on the phone so I didn't pay attention, just paid with the credit card and left. When I got home I suddenly thought that £50 was quite good value for a whole goose + several bottles of wine + sprouts.

DS1 used to shoplift when I had him in the sling on my back. I was constantly taking stuff back. He had a particular thing for embroidery threads for some reason.

DS2 has now started - I had the get the bloke in Timpsons to fish around in the sling for a handful of coloured keyrings he'd half-inched and dropped down my neck.

On a slightly larger scale, DP once stole a yacht trip. He used to work for a big city firm that was one of the few that still kept a corporate yacht and skipper. When it wasn't being used the employees were allowed to book it for just the cost of the skipper's time and the fuel. So one summer about ten of us booked it. We had a whole day sailing, swimming, lovely lunch in a harbourside pub for about £50 a head. DP then moved companies and it was months later that he realised they'd never deducted payment for it. He tried to pay but no-one at the company was talking to him because he'd left, so they never called him back about it. So he refunded everyone else and we had a free day on a yacht. He did call the skipper to check that he'd still been paid and he was on a retainer, so he didn't lose anything.

Has happened to me a couple of times, normally veg hung around my wrist.

Once though I walked out of Internationale (classy) with two t-shirts on hangers and a pair of earrings. I was in a really bad state of mind, was visiting a relative in hospital and was half way down the street when I realised I was carrying these things down the street and hadn't paid for them. I was too mortified to go back and I didn't have a bag, so was just left with these t-shirts on hangers.

Really need to engage brain better.

small trolley of shopping, half way round tesco my shoulder handbag started o get heavy soooo i set it in the trolley - on top of some antibacterial wipes.

went through the checkout, paid for shopping, unloading into car, lifted handbag to go and put the trolley back - saw the wipes, checked the receipt, nope not paid for.

went back into tesco utterly panicking - told the customer service staff who said 'oh, you're very honest - i wouldn't have bothered bringing them back' with lots of giggling

i was like 'yes, but i would like to be able to show my face in here again!'

our local iceland has a life size poster of a wanted shoplifter from the area - tis a man though....

I walked out of a Chinese restaurant without paying once, was with a large group of people and one of those occasions where you all put your share in the middle and then leave, I was deeply engrossed in conversation with someone I fancied! Was mortified when I realised what I'd done and had planned to go back to the restaurant to admit my mistake, but the next day I was at my badminton club and spotted the owner of the restaurant going into the gym, so I practically ran after him (racket in hand) and shoved the money in his face trying to explain. He looked a little confused and probably didn't even remember me!

DH has hung flowers on the hook under the trolley handle, gone through the till, paid and only realised when he got to the car. I am sorry to say that he gave me the flowers and only confessed later!

My sister, on the other hand, went back into Jenners in Edinburgh after realising that the assistant had only charged her £13 instead of £130 for a pair of KG boots. The assistant was very glad to see her back - think she thought she was going to be sacked.

Was shopping in Boots a few weeks ago, loaded the buggy hood up with some bits and bobs. Asked an assistant if they had any (something or another) and she said no, and came to the door to hold it open for me.

I got out the door before I realised I still had all the stuff in the hood! The SA hadn't noticed either - although it was my second trip so I already had a Boots bag hanging from the pram.

I did go back in and pay for them. I have also had some free wellies from TJ Hughes - they just didn't get put through the till. I didn't notice till I checked my receipt at home and didn't go back. I lost my woolly hat while I was there so consider it a fair trade!

I had a splurge in a clothes shop a few years ago, picked up tops, jeans, skirts and a leather jacket.

At the till I went through all of the "do you want an account card, get 10% discount" nonsense, as well as talking to the chatty sales assistant about how nice it was to treat yourself, isn't that top a nice colour etc.

I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable it all was, realised when I looked at the receipt that she hadn't scanned the jacket through the till!

UseHerName I'm surprised Iceland is allowed to do that! Home Bargains used to, but I'm sure they were told they weren't allowed to. All the local ones took the photos down anyway.

DD1 once stole a pair of pyjamas from Adams. She was about 2, in her buggy and I'd been in and bought a few bits and bobs, got half way down the street and noticed this white thing flapping around out of the corner of my eye, when I checked she'd got a pair of age 8 pyjamas.

Another time, in a local craft shop, I parked her out of the way is it was a really small, cramped shop. Bought some bits and left. Got home and picked DD up out of the buggy and this avalanche of packets of stickers slid to the floor.

And I've done it in Morrisons. I picked up a pack of paper plates, went through the self-scan till, got the 'unexpected item' message, cashier came over, checked my bags, all was ok. Got home, unpacked shopping and realised that I'd actually got 2 packs of paper plates stuck together.

I returned all apart from the Morrisons paper plates

Nobody move!

You're all under arrest

I did exactly the same as the sequinned playsuit, but with a boy's swim trunks.
I paid for the ones I was buying, and 10 m away I notice the trunks hanging from another bag. I returned immediately to the shop.
The funny thing is that the alarm beeped on the way in, but not when we went out! Doh!

DS has once "stolen" some sweets. He noticed himself they were in his trousers' pocket and went back to the supermarket till to pay for them, while I was waiting. He was 7, then, and was very upset when he noticed he had "stolen" them.
Not sure what the cashier thought. :D