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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think security should have let thief stole?

284 replies

User271947 · 28/12/2020 17:31

Was doing my food shop earlier and happened to see the scene of a man getting caught stealing milk. Just a bottle of milk.

My heart broke for this thief, if he wasn't desperate he wouldn't have stolen... it wasn't anything he could gain money from.

I thought if security just turned a blind eye and let him walk home with it he might have fed himself or someone, or at least took away that bit of hunger. Yes it's their job but I think sometimes humanity should be above.

Would you have compassion for this or am I being naive?

OP posts:
KarmaStar · 29/12/2020 01:34

Nobody gets caught stealing the first time.
Being caught may help if he is desperate as be referred for help..
Best not to assume though,you don't know his circumstances.

GreenlandTheMovie · 29/12/2020 01:53

formerbabe No because there are mitigating circumstances.

Mitigating circumstances apply to sentencing, not guilt.

Anyway, there are none here. Young healthy male of working age - the courts here excuses from them all the time. It is truly amazing how many of them are on their way to visit their dying mother/grandmother in hospital. Theres still not an excuse for theft.

LoveMyKidsAndCats · 29/12/2020 01:59

Can we all steal milk now then?

BashfulClam · 29/12/2020 02:06

You are being naive . My dad was a store manager fit a n my adduce supermarket group. They were told to always apprehend and prosecute, what if the wee sad old lady was stealing because she wasn’t gerry the correct pension/benefits? Intervention may be what was needed to help the person and find out what was going on.

BashfulClam · 29/12/2020 02:08

@infinitediamonds

Did he want to get caught? It's fairly common in winter for homeless people to steal cheap things to get put in prison for 24 hours. I once watched magistrates sentence a homeless man for stealing a pair of socks.
True, a homeless guy in the local town used to commit a petty crime to get a bed and hot meal at Christmas every year. Thing like smashing a shop window etc.
SchrodingersImmigrant · 29/12/2020 08:57

Thing like smashing a shop window etc.

... Maybe should do something what doesn't cause thousands in fucking damage to someone else...Hmm

vanillandhoney · 29/12/2020 09:18

True, a homeless guy in the local town used to commit a petty crime to get a bed and hot meal at Christmas every year. Thing like smashing a shop window etc.

I'm really sorry - but how the fuck is smashing a shop window "petty crime"?

Would you be okay if it was your front window or car windscreen that got smashed? Hmm

00100001 · 29/12/2020 09:21

@whoamongstus

I'm with wildthings on this. I'd turn a blind eye to anyone taking essentials, to be honest.

If they were trying to shove a £90 coffee maker under their coat, I'd think that was sus. But milk, bread, tampons? There but for the grace of God and all that.

The social security in this country is appalling. I couldn't bring myself to judge someone for taking essentials.

So. I can walk into Tesco, help myself to 4 pints of milk, a loaf of bread, some eggs, a pack of butter, and maybe some cheese, and a tin of beans.

I mean, they're essentials,after all?

SchrodingersImmigrant · 29/12/2020 09:23

@00100001 but don't forget to look like you need it! That's the important part

00100001 · 29/12/2020 09:25

@KicksLikeASIeepTwitch

another passer by was trying to catch the security's attention in offer to pay but he was having none of it

That's a shame, sounds like he needs the quota to show he's doing his job properly/power trip jobsworth. It's why I couldn't do that job - I would be 3 strikes on small things then the police, which wouldn't go down well with corporate.

Wow...big leap.

Maybe the security guard was just making sure the guy didn't leg it, whilst he was distracted by a passer by?

No. Sorry. Obviously he has as quota 🙄

Hailtomyteeth · 29/12/2020 09:34

Knew a man who regularly stole from supermarkets, by choosing grapes or whatever and eating them as he shopped, but not paying for them. He was a bank manager.

GreenlandTheMovie · 29/12/2020 09:48

You know when you read about these improbable von artists, invariably men, who have preposterously managed to persuade their victims to give them their life savings, despite never having actually met them?

And you wonder how on earth anyone could be so gullible? The answer is provided several times on this thread.

GreenlandTheMovie · 29/12/2020 09:48

#con artists

BashfulClam · 29/12/2020 09:54

@vanillandhoney

True, a homeless guy in the local town used to commit a petty crime to get a bed and hot meal at Christmas every year. Thing like smashing a shop window etc.

I'm really sorry - but how the fuck is smashing a shop window "petty crime"?

Would you be okay if it was your front window or car windscreen that got smashed? Hmm

Where did I say it was okay? I was just stating what he did ffs! It was always seen as a petty crime and he was out within a few weeks.
ClutchingMyPearlsAppropriately · 29/12/2020 10:01

Long time ago where I worked, a woman did similar. She would go to the supermarket for lunch, she would say. She said she just walked around the store, browsed and ate (fruits, bread, nuts, etc). Then bought something like a magazine or something else she needs plus snacks for the rest of the day, which she sometimes didn't pay for.

ClutchingMyPearlsAppropriately · 29/12/2020 10:02

Was responding to Hailtomyteeth's post.

BashfulClam · 29/12/2020 10:03

@SchrodingersImmigrant I will ask the homeless stranger to run his plans past me next time shall I? I am stating factually what he did I didn’t say I agreed with it, thought it was ok etc ffs but he had to so something that would see him actually detained in his eyes. It was my mum who found out what he did as she worked in a cafe he went to each day for coffee and he disappeared for a few weeks. When he came in she mentioned she hadn’t see him and he said he was in jail as on Christmas he couldn’t get a meal even if he had money from begging-nothing was open!

mam0918 · 29/12/2020 10:06

A 'petty crime' is like a teenager loitering not major vandalism.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 29/12/2020 10:07

@BashfulClam my problem.was calling it a petty crime. It's not petty crime.

Burnthurst187 · 29/12/2020 10:08

What a ridiculous post

Vitaminsss · 29/12/2020 10:08

@BabblativeBean

Many years ago I saw a very elderly woman being held by a security guard outside a big food shop in the city centre. Two policemen arrived as I walked past. All she had in her hand was a tiny pork pie. She was as thin as a rake, she looked terrified and was crying.

Decades on it still makes me cry when I think about it.

You are making yourself emotional for no reason by creating a sob story. Apparently this was so distressing for you, yet you walked past and didn’t offer to pay for her shopping? Hmm

In reality you don’t know if she had been caught previously and let off before. You don’t know if the pie was something she paid for, whilst there was a further bag of unpaid stuff retrieved from her beforehand.

“Very elderly” people tend to be thin, that doesn’t mean she can’t afford food and was dying of starvation. How do you know she wasn’t compulsively stealing or was being held for another reason? The police don’t attend incidents as minor as you suggest, and realistically they’re the best people to help her access other services if she was struggling.

mam0918 · 29/12/2020 10:10

[quote BashfulClam]@SchrodingersImmigrant I will ask the homeless stranger to run his plans past me next time shall I? I am stating factually what he did I didn’t say I agreed with it, thought it was ok etc ffs but he had to so something that would see him actually detained in his eyes. It was my mum who found out what he did as she worked in a cafe he went to each day for coffee and he disappeared for a few weeks. When he came in she mentioned she hadn’t see him and he said he was in jail as on Christmas he couldn’t get a meal even if he had money from begging-nothing was open![/quote]
there loads of free food places open for the homeless, vunerable and lonely at xmas so thats rubbish too, its actually the EASIEST day of year to get assistance as theres litrally hundreds of businesses and charities up and down the country running these and people fight to volunteer for the feel good of helping on xmas.

BashfulClam · 29/12/2020 10:21

@mam0918 not in the small town we live near. He’d have to travel to the nearest big town with no public transport etc. The homeless people live underneath a shopping centre here, a small group of them.

LibrariesGiveUsPower45321 · 29/12/2020 10:25

YABU. Theft is theft.

One would hope charged would be dropped for someone in dire need. But there are people who shoplift just for the thrills even though they don’t financially need to. You can’t judge which one is which without a wider pattern of behaviour.

x2boys · 29/12/2020 10:27

Some of the excuses on here to ashamed to go to a food Bank but not ashamed enough to shoplift and risk a criminal record yeah right🙄
And Doggy Dog🤣🤣

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