Page 8 | To ask if you’ve ever accidentally stolen something

Snorkelface · 10/11/2020 08:39

A croissant and a door. I take full responsibility for the croissant.

Glitterblue · 10/11/2020 08:45

We accidentally stole a bag of cat litter once, DH had hung it on the hook on the trolley just under the handle and we realised when we got to the car that we hadn't put it on the conveyor belt. We did take it back in, apparently it happens quite a lot!

Hazelnutlatteplease · 10/11/2020 08:57

If it's happening to you regularly its not an accident.

I thought I was just being really scatterbrain just after DC were born. I now know ExH was deliberately shoplifting using the kids and the pram to get stuff out the shop.

Seriously shoplifting accidentally or otherwise is not a nice thing

afaloren · 10/11/2020 09:15

Small, decorative door knobs. I’d put them in my coat pocket to free my hands up for the much larger, more expensive things I was buying. I did ring up once I discovered them at home but they told me not to worry about it!

afaloren · 10/11/2020 09:16

P.S. My favourites from this thread are the sheep and the frisbee hat.

theruffles · 10/11/2020 09:20

A toy from Cath Kidston (not one they were selling - one that had been put out on a table with colouring sheets to keep kids entertained) and a Duplo horse from a garden centre (on a toy display so not in packaging). Both times my DD took them as we went past with the pram and I didn't realise until we were gone from the shops.

Spidey66 · 10/11/2020 09:35

I picked up a brolly from the seat of the tube this am. I meant to hand it in. It's still in my bag. It's a bog standard brolly, I don't think I'll bother.

Obviously, if it was a mobile phone/wallet/oystercard/piece of jewellery, I'd make more of an effort.

Spidey66 · 10/11/2020 09:37

@Snorkelface

A croissant and a door. I take full responsibility for the croissant.

How the hell do you accidentally steal a door?

timetest · 10/11/2020 10:43

Once when I had just got back home from a long haul flight with an eight month old. It was in Marks and I was holding a cushion when I remembered I had to get home for a phone call. I left still holding the cushion when I got to the car. I went straight back in and paid. I put it down to jet lag and sleep deprivation.

BlueJava · 10/11/2020 10:59

I walked out of a coffee shop without paying whilst in Beijing. I realised later that day and went back the next day and paid them. They were shocked I had returned and disnt seem entirely convinced it was a mistake but thought I had returned as I was worried about the security cameras!

maureenfrombarnsley · 10/11/2020 11:04

I bought a coffee table on impulse and when I got back discovered a small fabric doorstop inside?! Didn't return it as had paid a lot of money for the table, and didn't fancy a trek back into town to give back the doorstop.

Once loading my shopping into the boot and realized my daughter had taken a toy. I took it back into the shop.

Once a cashier accidentally gave me £50 cash back instead of the £10 I'd asked for (and had been charged on the receipt!). I took that back obviously!

Ariela · 10/11/2020 11:14

I was queuing in Boots to pay for various things and a few putty rubbers, and must have accidentally dropped one, couldn't find it anywhere so assumed it had fallen under a counter and took another from the shelf.

About a year later I went to wash my school bag (it was 1970s, so we had cloth bags with handles back then) , and found this putty rubber still in the box but squished, it had fallen inside the lining underneath my books.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 10/11/2020 12:58

Mine was a purple lipstick from Boots (for a Hallowe'en costume) when I was a student.

I'd bought quite a few bits there, and thought the total seemed cheap, so I queried it. The cashier said it was because there were offers on some on the things I'd bought, so I didn't think too much about it, went off to other shops etc., sorted the rest of my outfit.

It wasn't I finally got around to going through my receipts about six months later () that I realised the lipstick wasn't on there. By that point the branch of Boots had actually closed and moved so I didn't do anything about it. It has stuck in my head though!

Jasmin82 · 10/11/2020 13:30

Once when I was about 10/11. My auntie sent me to the little shop across the street to get loo roll. How I managed to walk out without paying, I'll never know. Realised as soon as I got back to aunties and ran back across the street to pay!

BippityBoppity87 · 10/11/2020 13:45

Not quite the same thing, but when I was in a shop with my toddler, I had a basket and was also carrying a bag with other shopping from a previous place I went in. Just brazenly started putting stuff in the bag instead of the basket without thinking. No one said anything even thought there were a few people around me. Thankfully I realised a few minutes in what I was doing and took it all out and put in the basket

LadyCatStark · 10/11/2020 14:01

DS (11) accidentally stole a Christmas bauble from Homebase on Saturday. We were looking to buy a load of decorations but couldn’t find the ones we wanted and as we got in the car, DS realised he still had the one bauble he’d chosen for himself in his hand. Fair play to him, he did insist on going back in to pay, but that was even worse in these current times as there was a massive queue so we had to sneak in the exit as there’s no way I was queuing again!

FangsForTheMemory · 10/11/2020 14:02

An all metal tin opener. I didn’t notice it in the bottom of the trolley. No, I didn’t bother. I’m clearly An Evil Person.

Snorkelface · 10/11/2020 14:14

@Spidey66 - there was a complicated trolley moment in very crowded B&Q, then a traffic jam and the clock ticking on a hire van when it came to light as in 'B&Q's an absolute steal these days isn't it.........oh shit'. The same B&Q managed to sell me an empty box instead of a solar powered lamp in a box a few years later.

QuestionableMouse · 10/11/2020 14:43

@Ariela

I was queuing in Boots to pay for various things and a few putty rubbers, and must have accidentally dropped one, couldn't find it anywhere so assumed it had fallen under a counter and took another from the shelf. About a year later I went to wash my school bag (it was 1970s, so we had cloth bags with handles back then) , and found this putty rubber still in the box but squished, it had fallen inside the lining underneath my books.

Oh that reminds me of how I stole a steak knife from a carvery once. Had my 1yo nephew on my knee and he knocked it off the table. Searched for it as best I could on the floor and couldn't find it so assumed it had gone under the bench.

Got home and it had fallen into my bag. Was going to take it back but the thought of walking into a public building carrying a knife made me feel a bit weird. I sill have it now and use it fairly often!

MintGreen · 10/11/2020 14:50

I accidentally stole a wardrobe door. The checkout assistant at IKEA didn't scan it, at the time I thought the total was less than I expected but it wasn't until I checked the receipt when I got home that I realised why.
I drove an hour back to IKEA again to pay for it and they looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently customers who are accidentally gifted free furniture don't usually rectify the mistake

SoupForLunch · 10/11/2020 15:25

An (overpriced) chunky necklace from White Stuff. I gave it to my toddler in his buggy to play with then wandered out of the shop. Didn't realise until we got home. It wasn't my sort of thing. I gave it to my highly moralistic friend. She loved it. I didn't tell her it was 'stolen.'

Anon778833 · 10/11/2020 15:31

Yes, when dd3 was a toddler I took one of my older dds to Claire's Accessories to buy something. We were halfway up the street when little dd's voice piped up 'I've got this for me' she'd picked up a contact lens set. I did take it back.

Champagneforeveryone · 10/11/2020 15:39

A pack of two pairs of PJ bottoms from Sainsbury's. I use the scan and shop app and was popped them in my bag before I'd fired the app up.

I only noticed in the car park, at which point I smartly returned and set the security alarms off entering the store. If I had been seen and reported it could have ended up rather embarrassing at work

When I explained the situation to the woman behind the till, she just grunted.

I also stole some mince off of Prince Charles, but that was also a genuine mistake and some years ago.

speakout · 10/11/2020 16:05

A large blanket from tk max.

I took it off the shelf and paid for it, but when I arrived home there were two blankets folded together.
I hadn't noticed and neither did the sales assistantant.

StillCoughingandLaughing · 10/11/2020 16:09

My mother bought me a swimming bag once and when she gave it to me I said ‘Oh, you got me a cap as well, thanks’. She looked at me blankly, so I said ‘The swimming cap in the bag’. She’d had no idea it was there and thought she’d look mad/suspicious if she tried to return it.

My sister almost ‘stole’ a scarf - it had got caught on the zip of her handbag and she was unknowingly dragging it out of the shop when the security tag went off Luckily she was so obviously oblivious to it, the staff knew it wasn’t some bizarre shoplifting attempt!