13 year old wrongly accused of shoplifting Weetabix

[nojellybabies]

He went to Tesos to buy Weetabix and butter. This is what he said:

As he put the Weetabix in his bag a female employee came up to him and challenged him saying “what are you doing with that Weetabix?” She called the manager over who said “what’sgoing On?” My son (who hates having to explain himself to strangers and struggles with this sort of thing) said “did you think I was stealing it?” . She replied “yes, you have to use a basket” then moved away.

He paid at self service. As he walked out of the shop the manger called him back and there, in the lobby, in front of a crowd of bystanders took his bag and searched it then demanded the receipt for the Weetabix. Which my son produced. The manager said “sorry you can go”. Interested bystanders told him to go home and tell his family to complain.

He was seriously distraught. Several episodes of Father Ted later he is still feeling humiliated and as if everyone in town now thinks he is a criminal. Even the “my lovely horse” episode only helped a bit.:(

I’ve spoken to the general complaints line and asked the man there (who started apologising when I said the word “Weetabix”-I mean who the hell shoplifts Weetabix?) to get the shop to write to my son to apologise.

I haven’t marched down there because I don’t want to embarrass him further. I am trying to stress all the things he did right to him.

Something is surely wrong with the training here? AIBU?
And Weetabix?!? admittedly he bought some butter too but all the same...

I'm in Ireland so that might make a difference but we all put our shopping into bags while we shop, every shop, every supermarket, all the time, it's definitely a done thing. Big shop = trolley, small shop = basket /your own shopping bag. It's been this way since 2002 when the plastic bag levy came in

Im in Ireland and i have never done this,nor do i know anybody that does.Also,also a lot of places have signs telling you to use a basket and not your shopping bag.

I often use my bag when there isn't a basket but so long as they allowed him to leave after he showed the receipt then I don't think you can complain

Have I read it wrong? Did you ds put stuff in his bag before paying for it or carrying it in his hands then put in his own bag after paying?

Jackyjill6 Well I had started refusing receipts, but I may rethink this. (although I am clearly not a teenager so this may be unnecessary)

I walked past a man in Sainsburys recently who'd set the alarms off. He was explaining that he'd declined the receipt from self-service so the security guard just let him go.

(Doubt he'd have let a teenage boy go so easily)

I've read the entire thread and not once can I see confirmation that a Father Ted episode to be selected was the holiday hell in the caravan one.

That'll do the trick, if My Lovely Horse failed...

And I can't see why the Tesco security people didn't just watch to see your ds played fair and offered coin of the realm for the Weetabix and butter. So weird of them. Maybe they were bored?

Another mind blown here! Why are some people saying they can't carry a bag AND a basket? Bags for life just fold flat in the bottom of the basket or if your bag is the size of a suitcase then use a small trolley. Odd

Dare I say, you have only heard your son's version of events. You should go to the shop and calmly ask what happened. Then make judgments. Yes, children do lie, even your son might do so if he has done something wrong and doesn't want to admit it. I'm not saying he has, but in court both sides get the chance to say their bit before the judgment is made. Go and find out their side of the story. Personally, I can't understand why he put it in his bag to take it to the till - surely he could have carried it and the butter? Maybe he was planning to spend the money elsewhere. How old is he anyway? Old enough to have the sense not to put it in his bag???

To those saying it's common in Ireland to put goods straight into a carrier bag before paying, I have never done this nor even seen it that I can recall (have lived all my life in Dublin). If I saw someone doing this my first thought would probably be that they were stealing

Fully agree. Never seen this done, ever.

Interesting that PPs are saying this is 'profiling' teenagers. DD worked in Waitrose for a while and said that the worst (in terms of frequency and value) shoplifters were 'naice' middle aged men and women. The makeup and non basic toiletries were particularly vulnerable. This is why you will so often see staff in this area rumbling the shelves.

DH works for another supermarket chain and says that staff are often asked to walk through the makeup aisle as a general deterrant. He has never been asked to walk through the cereal aisle!

I never realised people disapproved of own bags.

Thinking about it, when ds does a fuller shop he takes a backpack and two bags.
He has to fill them up as he goes round. If he took a trolley he would risk having more shopping than he could carry home.

I think I will go to the shop with a photograph of him and insist it is placed in the staff room with his name. He cannot use a trolley or basket because of the need to take exactly as much as he can carry and I don’t want him t9 be harassed like this again.

“Dare I say, you have only heard your son's version of events. “

Well, yes, but if he’d nicked something I’d be told surely?

It can be impossible to shop with a handbag, bag for shopping (non foldable) a basket and have a free hand to pu items into basket.

There do not have a right ro search. All they had to say is don't forget to pay as some people do and get stopped by security on the way out.

If supermarkets do not want customers to shop with their bags as they go round then they should say so.

I can almost, ALMOST, get my head round the idea of using my own bag if there were no baskets available, but in this situation I cannot fathom why there was any need to put them anywhere. Surely you would just go in pick up the two items and carry them to the till. I mean, maybe if he was planning on browsing the shop for ages, and needed his hands free for that, or if there were too many items to physically hold, it would make sense to transfer them to a basket/bag. But surely he has not only created suspicion by appearing to pocket the items, but he’s also created an unnecessary faff for himself putting them in a bag when almost immediately, like, in less than a minutes time, he will need to take them out again. What was the point? Seems very odd to me.

I live in an area with lots of apartments and supermarkets, Lots of people walk rather than drive so would have trolleys, or bags for life they're big and bulky and take up space in the trolley, so it is easier to stand the bags and shop into them, it probably depends on where you live, if you want to see it, visit an city Aldi

Yes, I’m definitely going to have to go down there and figure out a solution. We have a weekly delivery and ds2 buys extras o stuff for weekend meals at least weekly. He does this as a chore in return for his allowance and liked doing it until today. He needs to load up the exact bags he’ll be carrying home upthe hill.

I’ll go speak with them at the weekend with a picture. That’s better than complaining as such.

Nojelly I think you’re underestimating him, I bet given half a chance he can work out how to use a basket without putting so much in that he can’t carry it home. It’s a skill that is probably not beyond him.

Yes I agree Jenny.

But deffo circulate his photo 😄 I bet he’ll love that!

My bags for life are French supermarket ones. Which are massive and thick and not really foldable.

If I used a basket I would have the bag banging about as well as the basket while trying to use the self scanner thing. So just put stuff in the bag.

Though to be honest even I have a trolley everything goes in my bags in the trolley. Tesco even sell trolley bags fgs designed to put stuff directly in your own bags in the trolley. So they can't have a problem with it.

if you decline the recipt they can actually look through the self checkout machine so as long as you remember the machine you used your fine.

No happy you’re missing the point of my last post.

I have done the same shop for years. I’m just thinking of the future now as I need him to keep doing his chores.

Taking a photo in isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference.

I always put stuff in my own bag rather a basket, I’m usually pushing a double buggy at the same time and it’s much easier to sling a bag over my shoulder or hook it on the buggy.

He won’t like it happily but having the photo in Tescos isn’t really circulating it. I do need to get to a position where my teenage son can continue doing his chore and ideally not do it in fear.It’s 1/4 mile straight uphill from the Tesco to ours. You need to know exactly how much you’ll be carrying. There’s also quite an art to selecting the items best carried on the back.

I’ll go talk to them. They will be relieved I’m not yelling.