To ask if you’ve ever accidentally stolen something

[Sevendaysaweek]

Did you return it?

Yes, lovely coasters from Tesco. Put them in the top of the trolley where your toddler sits. Paid for my shopping, got to the car and realised I forgot to scan them. I didn’t go back. That was about 10 years ago and still got them.

My mate used to let her kid shoplift a toy from the £1 shop nearly everytime they went in. She said it was tat and she wasn't paying for tat.

Walked to my car with the scanner in Tesco, the one you do scan as you shop with. I ran back and handed it to the security guard, he just laughed lol

When I was a teen I went to H&M, bought around £200 worth and paid as normal. I noticed that a pair of shoes I bought, were left behind the cashier on her counter and pointed out that she forgot them. She said sorry and immediately popped them in my shopping bag with everything else.

A few days later when I grabbed my receipt to return something, I noticed that she never scanned the shoes! But she did remove the security tag and process them at the same time as everything else, so we both thought she did scan them!

Not exactly stolen. Bought 3 items in Pets At Home & thought afterwards that the total rung up seemed a bit low. I worked out that the guy had only charged me for 2 items. I should have gone back but figured I’d spent a lot of money there over the years.

@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer I used to organise a large Christmas gift Fayre. Even with a list of vendors, unless you knew exactly what booth number the vendor was located at during the event or they had no other vendor offering baubles and wine glasses, no way the organiser would know. Additionally, do know these events are not usually organised by the actual stately home itself but rather an outside party rents the venue and organises/manages/runs the event.

My dh bought quite a lot of stuff at B & Q. He had 10 bags of gravel on a large pallet push thing they only rang up 1 bag. He paid and hot home and did membrane and put gravel down. There was not quite enough gravel so we looked on receipt to see price to go back and get 2 more. Then noticed he had only paid for 1. He went back and told them mistake and manager came and said he could have extra 2 bags free for returning to pay for 9 bags.

I walked out of marks and Spencer’s once with a bottle of Diet Coke up under my arm. I had paid for everything else. Realised when I got back to work and had to go all the way back to pay for it.

When I was about eight a joke toy (a plastic spider in fake ice cube) fells into my bag. I realised half way home and was so horrified/afraid I threw it into the hedge.

Early in the first lockdown I realised I'd only been charged for two packs of biscuits I'd bought three of. Again, realised halfway home, but this time went back to pay. (But jumped the queue because I wasn't waiting half an hour a second time.)

Also once when I was on holiday I stole a drink I asked the staff member to add it onto my family’s bill (which was standard practice), but he kept staring at me and gave me a strange look. Later found out he didn’t add it to the bill, so he was giving me those dirty looks for stealing! Weird as I did ask him to add it to the tab.

@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer: it shows you have a good conscience that this still bothers you! I don’t think you need to do anything as it was the sellers mistake and not yours

If you’d like to track down: maybe look on Etsy to see if you can find the item/seller - it might be a bit of detective work but that is where I would start.

Walked out of m and s without paying for two bags of shopping - around £60. There’s been some mess up at the self service till - had to get guy to come clear something. The previous person had left their receipt hanging - I literally lost track, thkight id paid picked up his receipt walked out.
Got home and was uneasy couldn’t find a receipt but had this odd one.
Phoned immediately and walked back to pay. No
Question of doing different - lawyer - no question. Manager was gobsmacked and gave me
Bottle of wine as thank you !!??

I had a bottle of champagne amongst my shopping, the cashier removed the security tag and appeared to ring it though. However it must not have registered so it didn’t scan through. It was just before a Bbq we had so it was a big shopping bill and never noticed until I got home. I had worked in that store as a teenager and thought I earned it after all the unpaid overtime I’d been promised that never materialised so no, I never went back.

can i ask, what are the reasons for doing it to big businesses and not small? ( those who said that obv)
why?
surely woolworths, mothercare, toys r us were all big businesses and look what happened to them. sainsburys, john lewis and others could all go the same way but they're big businesses too
why are these ok to unintentionally steal from but not a local shop?

Yep, a shower gel. I usually use the smaller, shallow trolley at the supermarket but there were none left so I took one of the deep ones. The shower gel was clear and in a clear bottle - I just didn't see it in the bottom of the trolley!

A top from Primark. Forgot I'd hung it on the pram. Went back to pay.

[quote ILoveYoga]@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer I used to organise a large Christmas gift Fayre. Even with a list of vendors, unless you knew exactly what booth number the vendor was located at during the event or they had no other vendor offering baubles and wine glasses, no way the organiser would know. Additionally, do know these events are not usually organised by the actual stately home itself but rather an outside party rents the venue and organises/manages/runs the event.[/quote]
Thanks for explaining. I hadn't thought of that, although I should have.

I used to go to the ones at the NEC every year as well.

Accidentally stole a cookbook from Foyles because my 3 year old put it in the bottom of the buggy (he wanted to get it as a present for his dad, which was quite sweet). I rang them when I found it at home and took it back. They were quite surprised.

@Sevendaysaweek

Did you return it?

My DS did, age 13. I sent him round the corner to Tesco to buy a bag of salad and a tin of beans. He picked up the salad, but couldn't find the beans, so he went further up the road to Sainsbury's. It was only when he got to the Sainsbury's till that he realised he was still holding the Tesco's salad ... so he went back to Tesco's to pay for them. We had a laugh about it, but if he'd been caught leaving Tesco's with the salad I imagine the security guard wouldn't have seen the funny side - his best defense would have been that it was salad and not chocolate, so perhaps not an obvious thing for a 13yo to take deliberately.

I bought a load of work wear a few years ago. Skirts, trousers, jackets etc etc...(about 15 items) I had no intention of keeping it all. I took it all home to try and on, selected the things I wanted to keep, and returned everything else the next day. The cashier asked me for my credit card for the refund and then said, I’ll have to give you vouchers for this jacket. I didn’t really think that much of it until I got home and realised that the jacket wasn’t actually on the original receipt. The original cashier must have missed it. I didn’t return the vouchers but felt so guilty I donated the same amount to charity.

Stole a newspaper once. I moved from an area where the local paper ( the RandomPlace Freepress paper) was free of charge to a place where the similar paper ( The Newplace Freepress) was 30p. I didn't realise and just picked one up as I was leaving the shop. Why call a newspaper "Freepress" when it's not free!!!

I remember as a child going to WH Smiths with my mum to buy some gel pens with my pocket money. I absent mindedly put them in the bag my DM was carrying rather than the basket. A couple minutes later I realised, took them out, really embarrassed.

When we got home we found there was one that I had forgot to transfer from the bag into the basket. For years I avoided that WH Smiths as I was convinced they would recognise me and I'd be put in prison.

Why I didn't just own up and take it back I'll never know!

Very many years ago, our government building was having a refurb and some corrugated roofing panels were being replaced. A memo went around asking if anyone wanted any of the 30 or so old ones. There was only me and an older guy interested in them. I was worried this guy would try to take them all [he was a bit like that!] - I only wanted 6.
So I loaded 6 into the back of my car after work, one at a time as they were heavy, in the underground car park. I was quite blatant about it as I had no reason not to be.

About 3 days later there was an announcement at work asking if anyone knew where 6 NEW roofing panels had gone!!!

No I didn't ever confess or give them back. It makes my blood run cold when I think about it now and how lucky I was that no-one ever saw me to report my 'theft'. Luckily it was way before CCTV.
I still have 4 of them too!!! LOL

I once popped into Iceland just before closing for bread and put a bag of satsumas over my wrist. They were rushing me so much I paid for the bread - with the hand with the satsumas over it.
Realised 5 minutes later. They were closed. I didn’t go back. (But I did get called a thief on here though).

I accidentally stole a copy of the Sunday Times from a supermarket. I tucked the paper under my arm while I walked round with my basket, paid at the self-checkout machine & walked out with the paper still under my arm. When I checked my receipt later, I realised I hadn’t scanned the paper.