Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Have I just witnessed a crime?

72 replies

Thumbtack · 01/07/2013 14:24

And a heinous one at that!

In a supermarket, commited by a little old lady, complete with blue rinse and a tartan trolley thing. She had opened a punnet of strawberries and was replacing the smaller mankier ones for bigger, nice juicy ones from other punnets ! Shock She was definitely doing this as both me and my mum saw her and laughed

Now firstly is this actually illegal? Or just a moral crime? Also AIBU to think if it had been a young man in a hoodie doing this would probably be less Grin and more Angry?

Are sweet little old ladies able to get away with more?

OP posts:
Original poster
Thumbtack · 01/07/2013 14:26

This is meant to be a lighthearted post before anyone flames me for stereotyping 'hoodies'. Smile

OP posts:
ISeeSmallPeople · 01/07/2013 14:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hardbeingme · 01/07/2013 14:29

arrested for strawberry tampering? Grin

onetiredmummy · 01/07/2013 14:29

What if she had just picked her nose before touching all those strawberries.

Hang her this instant, from the roof above the produce aisle.

Original poster
Thumbtack · 01/07/2013 14:29

Definitely guilty of strawberry tampering. How can she even sleep at night?

OP posts:
Hashtagwhatever · 01/07/2013 14:30

What a cheek.

adeucalione · 01/07/2013 14:33

My gran used to do this - she was surprised I was shocked, and said that she was used to going to a green grocers and filling a bag with the ones she wanted (so choosing nice ones). I'm sure she last did that in 1940 but old habits die hard. She did it with eggs too - opened several boxes, selected six nice big ones and made up her own box, ignoring the fact that supermarkets now price eggs according to size.

Original poster
Thumbtack · 01/07/2013 14:34

adeucalione that's pretty much what my mum said.

OP posts:
hardbeingme · 01/07/2013 14:37

i remember reading a story years ago about a little old lady collapsing in a supermarket, loads of staff rushed over to help etc and it turned out she'd nicked a frozen chicken, hidden it in her clothes/under her hat and was giving herself hypothermia or similar.

be very suspicious of little old ladies...

shewhowines · 01/07/2013 14:40

I did this when I was about 13. I swapped all the robin/candles/street scenes, in a mixed box of christmas cards, for nice ones. Blush

adeucalione · 01/07/2013 14:56

ThumbtackGrin

I like the Christmas card idea. In fact the more I think about it, the more I want to choose my own stuff instead of putting up with prepackaged bundles. I reckon the old folk have got this right.

lurkedtoolong · 01/07/2013 14:59

shewhowines How can you live with that secret shame?

sureitis · 01/07/2013 15:05

hardbeingme hmmm I think that may be an urban myth as I've heard that exact same story however it was in relation to my local supermarket and the security guards catching her! Unless you live near me and it is about the same supermarket?? Smile

With regards to the strawberry swopping oap I would be a bit Shock, judgey pants and tsk tsking (very passive aggressive, I agree) and then would prob come on MN and share Grin

wickeddevil · 01/07/2013 15:06

Umm... I once bought s duck with pancakes, only to discover once I got it home to cook that the pancakes were missing.
I rang the supermarket to rant, as I was pretty annoyed, and the lady I spoke to explained that sadly it wasn't a rare occurrence. Seems people dont think one lot of pancakes is enough, so they help them selves from another box.
Anyway I'm in the hang em from high camp. Tis theft and its very annoying...

timidviper · 01/07/2013 15:20

Strictly speaking it probably is a crime as most supermarkets sell punnets of berries at a fixed price per punnet rather than variable by weight.

I saw an older couple doing this once with fruit in Asda, they had opened several packs and taken a bit out of each of the others to make them slightly underweight and their own crammed full. I did give them my Hmm face and asked them if they ought to be doing it but got told to mind my own business. I did tell tales mention it to an assistant who said a sizeable number of people, usually older, do it all the time and seem to regard it as harmless even when it is pointed out to them that they are as good as stealing from the customers paying full price for the other packs.

beachyhead · 01/07/2013 15:22

I saw an older man breaking the green bits off the leeks about a month ago!

AllSWornOut · 01/07/2013 15:25

My DH's old boss used to boast that she would swap the rounds of camembert-style cheese you get in wooden boxes from the more expensive boxes to the cheaper own brand boxes to save a few pence. She was a grasping, unpleasant woman all round but I do check the right brand cheese is in the box before buying now.

And she never even had a headscarf to excuse her behaviour Grin

LadyKatherine · 01/07/2013 16:01

My SIL used to (don't know if she still does) swap the bottoms from two piece outfits for her DD. She did this so both bits would fit. I can see the logic in it but still felt sorry for the people who buy the other altered outfit and then find half doesn't fit as it is the wrong size.

Startail · 01/07/2013 16:10

I've been known to snap off broccoli stalk as I don't like it, but only when they are taking the piss with what they have put out, and I move baking potato and mushroom boxes to find ones fit to buy underneath.

HoneyDragon · 01/07/2013 16:18

I was lauded a HERO, in Sainsburys for liberating the nice fresh large jacket potatoes from entombment under their shrunken shrivelly brothers. A HERO.

So ner.

Longdistance · 01/07/2013 16:26

I always take fresher vegetables from underneath.

It is the law, that if you've worked in a supermarket you're allowed to do this Grin

I also do this with meat, and yogurts.

HoobleDooble · 01/07/2013 16:33

I snap the florets off broccoli because I don't want to pay for the heaviest bit, the stalk, which I won't be eating.

quoteunquote · 01/07/2013 16:37

broccoli stakes are lovely, you are missing out.

Maybe she was french, they don't stupidly accept substandard fruit and veg.

SummerMyArse · 01/07/2013 16:38

I don't think it's illegal to buy the fresher fruit and veg/meat/dairy! Grin

I always check the dates and buy something that corresponds more to the date I'm planning on using the food (I meal plan and sometimes write the BB date for meat etc. on my shopping list to make sure I don't forget!)

But am very Hmm at opening pre-weighed packets of stuff and changing contents/adding extra.

Having said that, I do object to buying leeks and paying for all the green stuff. I occasionally break off a leaf or too (too Blush to be more obvious) but ever since I was pregnant and a lovely shop assistant broke the lot off for me when he passed it to me, I figure it's ok to do...

diddl · 01/07/2013 16:40

How many punnets had she opened to do this, then??

If they were preweighed & sealed, obviously wrong to do.