AIBU To think this GAP employee had no fucking right

[floppyfanjo]

Just back from town where I'd purchased a few bits and bobs and thought I'd pop into gap and see what was new.

On entering the store,the security alarm went off and I was stopped by an assistant on the threshold who said "excuse me" I think that was you and as I was carrying 4 small bags I said it could have been,she asked me to hand over my bags one at a time in order to eliminate which one had set of the alarm.

I was quite happy to do this and willingly handed her a small superdrug bag that contained some hair dye and a moisturiser and a couple of other small bits.

On waving the bag it in front of the alarm it started to bleep. As this is a common occurrence I expected her to simply had me the bag back and say something along the line of "thats the culprit"

The employee preceded to open the bag without asking my permission and asked if I had the receipt,before I could answer she started riffling though my superdrug purchases found the receipt and preceded to read it,I assume to check I'd paid for everything, at this point I said "excuse me,what on earth are you doing" she said you "handed me the bag and I'm trying to help you" I told her that I'd handed her the bag for the sole purpose of eliminating which one had set of the alarm and not to look through my personal property At this point she handed me the bag back.

Now I know she's got a job to do and I know shoplifting is a major problem,BUT she a) knew I had only just entered the shop b) even If I was in the possession of stolen goods it was obvious they weren't from GAP (very small flimsy bag so you could hardly of fitted in a pair of jeans!).

I would like to say that had I of actually been leaving the store or was carrying a large bag big enough to conceal stolen gap stock I would have been quite happy (if she had of asked first) for her to look through my stuff.

I have always found the staff in GAP great and although this particular person was "more mature" than the average GAP employee I would have expected her to have had adequate training on her power to "stop and search" customers who are entering the store.

My shopping trolley sets off the alarm in some shops

I once walked out of gap in the bullring with two pairs of jeans hung over my arm, I could have easily kept going no alarm went off but as they didn't fit anyway I went straight back.

I tried to hand them to the security guard I had just walked past but he was having none of it, could not for the life of him work out what was happening. I just dumped them on the stand next to him and he tried to give them back as I walked out. At which point I assume his brain caught up and he went back into the shop.

Maybe this is the new not so improved security regime

I'm a mn.. always get dodgy looks though!

Last time I was in Superdrug I bought some king size condoms :/ would have been pretty embarrassed if someone had searched that bag!

A few years ago for about 6 months I would randomly set off security alarms, not every time......then when summer arrived and I went to pack away my winter coat I saw a massive security tag on it that I had been obliviously walking around wearing and causing chaos wherever I went.

What a knob.

I always thought that to make a citizens arrest you had to have good reason to suspect a crime had actually been committed ?

I'm also pretty sure that even if they did do a citizens arrest they had no power to search you or your belongings without your permission.

I'm actually just gob smacked that the assistant thought it was ok to look through my bag without asking.

In my experience store alarms going off is a very common occurrence so I wouldn't have thought that alone would be have been enough to think I was a potential suspect.

GRUNT - Thanks for the link. I think I'll drop a line to customer services.

rubbish attempt at stealth boast miniepie!

I always thought that to make a citizens arrest you had to have good reason to suspect a crime had actually been committed ?

Well yes hence why they risk getting sued if it turns out you've done nothing wrong. Essentially though this is all the security guards can really do since they have no special legal powers, they are normal citizens not police. They could obviously ask you to leave if you won't co-operate with them since you were on the way in, but even if you were on the way out and set the alarm off, they have no power to stop and search you.

She was just looking for a security tag right? Am I missing something?

She would have found it, taken it off, and helped you not set anything else off.

I don't think what she did was wrong.

She was checking the contents of the OP's bag against the receipt.

If she was looking for a tag to remove to be helpful why not just look at the items? Why look at the receipt too?

To check they were not stolen? Still don't see a problem.

In fact I quite like the idea that shops are looking out for one another, and just because you have successfully shoplifted one store, another can still get you in trouble.

I would mind very much if a shop security guard took it upon themselves to check the contents of my shopping bags against the receipts.

Very much indeed.

Actually it wouldn't have worried me much. If you go to a museum for example, they look through your bags in a similar way, and that's without any previous bleeping.

*She was just looking for a security tag right? Am I missing something?

She would have found it, taken it off, and helped you not set anything else off.

I don't think what she did was wrong*

She actually asked if I had a receipt and before I could answer fished it out of the bag and started reading it.

To be fair I don't think looking in someones bag without asking is trying to be helpful.

I don't think I would have such an issue with it If I thought the assistants intentions were to be helpful and to be fair I would expect a more mature assistant to know that this was bang out of order and may have been more forgiving if they were young and over enthusiastic.

Businesses do now interact far more than ever before, and IF you had set the alarm off because an item in the bag had not been paid for (which I am sure she was checking for) then I am willing to bet someone from Superdrug security would have been waiting for you the minute you stepped back outside the store.

That wasn't the case, and I am sure you were right to feel offended, but the problem is that shoplifters don't wear stripey uniforms and carry bags marked "swag". It could be you, or me, or anyone walking through the door.
Checking is unpleasant, and some people handle the job better than others - some are also more committed to the policing aspect than others - but its the price we all pay for the levels of shoplifting.

In our local shopping centre if the alarm sounds in any shop you are stopped,problem sorted by removing tag on sight of receipt. Sounds like this is what she was doing.

In our local shopping centre if the alarm sounds in any shop you are stopped,problem sorted by removing tag on sight of receipt. Sounds like this is what she was doing

As it was a superdrug bag the security tag would have only been a small magnetic strip stuck to the cellophane of the moisturiser, which I would have been quite capable of removing myself if I so wished, and in any case I would expect to be asked first.

On this occasion I was intending to go straight home anyway so wouldn't have bothered unwrapping stuff in order to discard it.

There may have been all manor of personal stuff in that superdrug bag most of which I wouldn't want on full public display.

Even If she had any genuine reason to believe I was a shoplifter she should have acted in a professional manor and not started rummaging through my bags and checking my receipt at the entrance of a shop in full view of other shoppers.

The more I think about it the more I'm convinced she was on some sort of power trip.

I am middle-class, 49, carry a naice handbag and shoplift at least one item a week. It is too easy but will avoid GAP in future.