Aibu to think I aided/abetted a theft

[MangosteenSoda]

Just that really. In the supermarket today the theft alarm sounded as I pushed my shopping trolley through the door. I had bought an iron and assumed that was the culprit so I turned back, spoke to the security guy who checked my receipt then I left the store.

The aibu part is that the alarm didn’t sound as I left for the second time. The security guy had said to not mind the alarm again as I left. When it didn’t sound, it sort of came to me immediately what had happened…

On my first exit attempt a couple with a child were standing right by the doorway, almost blocking it. I vaguely thought it was a bit odd to block the doors like that and I suppose there was something about them/the scene that seemed off, but I was just in my own world doing my shopping. The woman was wearing a really large hoody with a massive hood totally flopping over the sides of her face and was the one pushing the trolley. Child in shopping trolley sitting on the items inside.

The whole receipt check took seconds, but they had disappeared when I left and weren’t visible in the smallish car park. For people who were massively lingering, they ended up disappearing very quickly.

Any supermarket workers familiar with this kind of con? I thought it was interesting in that I reacted exactly as they anticipated and their timing must be spot on. I also thought it interesting that my mind suddenly knew exactly what had happened even though I wasn’t paying attention. Those peripheral things had subconsciously niggled and as soon as I walked back through the doors I could see it all.

Has anyone else inadvertently abetted a con?

@Itsmeandhim why would you offer a shop lifter a carrier bag? That’s just perverse 😂

@DoctorTwo

I'm like you OP, whenever the alarm goes off I turn back towards security, probably out of some misplaced guilt or something daft. It happens to me at least once a week. I did buy a printer a few weeks ago, only a cheap one, from the Tescos, it went through the till, the security tag was taken off and off I went on my merry way. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I checked the receipt and it wasn't on there, so I got a £40 printer for nowt. I'm not bragging, I'm fucking mortified. What happens when I go back? It feels like I'm going to be looking over my shoulder the whole time, it's quite unsettling.

i can feel my cheeks burning as I type this.

Nothing for you to be embarrassed about. You didn’t do anything wrong!

I accidentally gave a shoplifter his phone back 😂 left Tesco, was walking home, saw a boy sprinting across the car park, he jumped the wall and landed on the street just in front of me. As he jumped, his phone fell out his pocket in the car park. I shouted after him and he just kept running, so I shouted it was his phone. He came back, lifted the phone, shouted thanks and ran away again.
Passed him on the park further down the road taking clothes off hangers and stuffing the hangers down the back of a bin 😂😂😂

@DoctorTwo

I'm like you OP, whenever the alarm goes off I turn back towards security, probably out of some misplaced guilt or something daft. It happens to me at least once a week. I did buy a printer a few weeks ago, only a cheap one, from the Tescos, it went through the till, the security tag was taken off and off I went on my merry way. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I checked the receipt and it wasn't on there, so I got a £40 printer for nowt. I'm not bragging, I'm fucking mortified. What happens when I go back? It feels like I'm going to be looking over my shoulder the whole time, it's quite unsettling.

i can feel my cheeks burning as I type this.

It’s fine, just call and tell them. I did the same once when I bought some gift vouchers from a toy shop (they were put straight into an envelope by the shop assistant who had miscounted, and it’s just chance that I even opened it as it was a gift). I just phoned them, told them what they had actually given me and paid for the extra ones over the phone.

I don’t know why people are so surprised staff don’t confront them. The general rule is don’t, you are more valuable than the goods they are stealing. Should all us shop peasants but ourselves at risk for the corporation’s profit?

There are different things needed to make shoplifting stick. Sometimes people are stopped in the car park, so that there's clear evidence that they had no intention to pay.

I've watched someone take away a full display of batteries, carefully they packed it all into one of those Wheely box things. I was working on a till, more than one of us saw the guy and just thought he was supposed to be there. He politely said 'see you later then' to us and apparently walked calmly out of the store, even buying chewing gum at the kiosk on his way out. High Vis vest. Didn't someone once say if you wear a high Vis vest and carry a clipboard you can get in anywhere and do anything.

The alarm goes off in our local supermarket regularly. Nobody checks them.

@FelicityBeedle

I don’t know why people are so surprised staff don’t confront them. The general rule is don’t, you are more valuable than the goods they are stealing. Should all us shop peasants but ourselves at risk for the corporation’s profit?

I get why supermarket staff don't confront, it's not their job but surely the security should. They certainly do in our local supermarkets

Id notice a deficit of £40 when paying for shopping.
You knew.

Really common for a thief to go through the same time as someone honest-looking, so if the alarm goes off the innocent party will be the one to go back to the security booth and they get to wander on. Don’t feel bad, it’s not you.

I don't think there's any such thing as someone "honest looking". Security guards are trained to treat everyone as a potential thief

I was in Tesco Express once, years ago, and there was a man at the tills creating a lot of attention to himself. Another man left the shop with bottles of alcohol hidden in his jacket, I heard the bottles clinking. The man at the tills then left straightaway. I said to the shop assistant “I think those 2 men have stolen some bottles of alcohol”. She just shrugged and said “not an awful lot I can do about that.”

There are different things needed to make shoplifting stick. Sometimes people are stopped in the car park, so that there's clear evidence that they had no intention to pay.

Used to work in a shop which, due to the way the display cabinets were laid out, had a tiny corridor to the door. Our security cameras covered only up to the entrance to the corridor, and didn't actually show the door. We got told when we reported a shop lifter that as we couldn't actually show they'd taken the goods out of the door that we couldn't prove they'd stolen them.

Showing my age now and in the age when companies still had typing pools... I once worked at a firm which had moved premises shortly before I joined. On moving day, with the whole place a shambles and removals people walking hither and thither, the receptionist cheerfully answered a query from a couple of blokes who asked where all the typewriters were (about 50 of them). In that room there, she said. Off they went, into a van, and they and the men were never seen again.

Yes. I used to work in a supermarket.

You can go back to the store tomorrow (or call them now), and ask to speak to the manager; describe them and the time you left. They will be able to rewind CCTV to see them going around the store.

They won't be able to get the goods back but they can be forewarned for next time these delightful customers 'pop in'.