Saw someone stealing from a Foodbank point in Tesco

[Monty27]

Rant
I couldn't believe my eyes I seriously couldn't. His appearance looked clean and smart I just saw him from behind and I thought he was putting in a donation and if my eyes didn't deceive me he actually walked off with an item and put it in his shopping bag. I didn't report or challenge him it was so shocking.
Ill email Tesco and the Foodbank about it.
But just how low can society get?

Reported a theft to a well known supermarket a few years ago.
People blatantly stealing joints of meat.

No doubt to sell on. Coffee is another one to sell on.
Wonder how these people would like it done to them if they owned a business?

I used to make myself look particularly smart because I didn't want people to think I didn't have any money. I stole from a shop when I waiting for my disability benefits to kick in and it was a very hard time.
You don't know what people are going through, may have a genuine need or maybe not. I'd just mind my own business because you'd probably never find out.

Absolutely this. Try reframing it. What drives a person to do this - the people in power. There will be more of this. YABVU.

Saw a youngish couple , with a huge trolley full of , mainly alcohol but also loads of frozen food, walk ahed of us to the self scan area where you ping your remote thingy at the screen.
They walked into the area , we walked to the next available screen and this couple just walked through the area and straight back out!

I called a member of staff over, told her what they'd done, and she said 'yeah, it happens all the time!' The couple were still in the shop. Staff member made no attempt to stop them or alert security.

It's made me think of all the times we'd gone to the area and just paid.

The alarms go off frequently but no one pays any attention.

A bit of a free for all , methinks!

I donate to our local supermarket's foodbank every time I'm in there.
I don't think I'd be bothered if I saw someone take out some custard creams or tin of soup or whatever, I'd maybe be surprised yes but I'd assume they were desperate.
I mean thinking about it...
It's food that's already been paid for
It's been donated by people like myself who just want to help people who are struggling - also don't think how you're dressed is any indicator to how "needy" you are either, unless you think all people who are struggling financially live in rags! Doesn't always work like that

I have to agree with others; this isn’t a crime I’d be reporting.

I can't get worked up about people stealing food.

My local food bank collection points always seem to have a few packets of Penguins or something floating around near the top. I assume people give them in the hope it'll give a stressed mum something to look forward to with her midmorning cup of tea with UHT milk, or make a kid feel normal at breaktime, or something.
Yes, that'll be me 😁 In the past few weeks I've donated some Jammy Dodgers and Oreos 😁
For the reasons you're said. I know how crap it feels to have no spare money and sometimes you just want a treat, like biscuits to go with your cup of tea, but don't have any and no money to buy any either.

Point is, it's not just beans and pasta, there's usually at least something in there that a passerby might fancy picking up on impulse as it's "free", if they were that way inclined, so I wouldn't assume someone taking from a food collection point was necessarily desperate. Though of course they may be
I'd rather not run the risk of a person going without

Thanks for your post @User1754983
I knew I'd get lambasted. No I didn't report and no I didn't judge. I edited my post but kept the clean and smart bit.
My point is that this is how bad things have got.
Oh and the donation point is for collection by a Foodbank run by The Trussel Trust I believe. It's not there for passersby to help themselves.
I hope whoever it was needed it. That's all.

I don't really have a strong feeling on the whole scenario that OP outlined, I just wanted to challenge an idea that a couple of posters mentioned early on, the idea that it's only ever grim basics in the collection point, things nobody would ever be tempted to pocket unless they really needed basic sustenance. (I suspect the kinds of things people give depend a bit on which shop it's in, the area, and the food bank's posted preferences.)

Completely agree that food serves a psychological function as well as basic survival needs, and it's nice to feel you can give someone a little lift in their day (as long as the food bank does actually provide the basics side of things as well ).

How do you know he didn’t need it or was desperate just because of the way he was dressed? This post is so judgemental and highlights why so many people feel ashamed to ask for help because maybe they don’t fit the ‘brief’

As a general rule of thumb I think it's best to not get involved when people steal food whatever their reason for doing so. We're talking penguin bars here not gold bars.

I’m another who thinks he may have needed it. Maybe too ashamed to go to food banks.

My post saying that food bank collection points near me nearly always contain at least some nice snacky treat food was because of posts like these:

He must have been desperate to steal from a foodbank point. They are slim pickings of shop brand beans and pasta.

Have you actually seen what is in the Foodbank Donation points?
It is shop brand tinned goods and pasta.
If someone is nicking stuff like that, they are bloody desperate for a meal that night.

If you see someone stealing basic necessities, you didn't.

If you start with at least one false premise (e.g. "everything in a food bank donation point is basic boring essentials") then some of the discussion about potential motives, what people feel about people taking stuff from them, what people should do when they see it, and so forth, is being skewed by that shared false premise.

I'm not in the mood for all the other parts of the discussion and I'm not posting to give my opinion on people taking food from food bank collection points, I only posted to say that where I am, food bank collection points are not just pasta and beans. They're also UHT milk, cereal, tinned meat and fish, and, often sitting on top so they don't get crushed by tins, a couple of tempting treats like a pack of Rocky bars or some bourbon biscuits or a multipack of 2-finger KitKats, given by people who want to make life a bit nicer for someone who's having a hard time.

It's still only a few quids' worth though isn't it, regardless. I mean it's not like he's decorating his living room with gold leaf wallpaper or building moats for his ducks on his country estate.

And really if you put something into a discussion you can't really expect people not to discuss it.

Oh to see life through the mn rose ti ted specs .

Some people steal because they want to, or it gives them a thrill, most of the time the shoplifters I deal with are heroin addicts Nicki g the coffee , cheese , meat or washing g powder .

Someone stealing from a food bank probably isn't t in dire need . Theyve done that because they can. I mean who's gonna stop them with the six pack of Heinz beans ? Seriously.

I see see seriously cheeky mother f*ckers out there as a police officer and no - not everyone steals because they have to .

Hell probably be back in Tomorrow for 2 pints of milk and whip the cornflakes.

People who genuinely need to do this do it to feed a habit they can't help - most people who are simply skint make use of the food bank proper not whip one freebie out of it .

Yeah I get that but is it worth being exercised about? Obviously someone stealing a joint of meat is likely going to sell it but they're hardly winning at life overall. No one buys a house or goes on holiday even with the money from such. It's only a matter of time till they're nicked for the millionth time and what they're up to affects me in such a miniscule way that I wouldn't trouble my own path by making theirs more difficult.

I haven't said not to discuss it, it's just that I don't want to discuss all the other aspects. You can discuss it all you like And it's irrelevant for the purposes of my post whether he stole 20p or £200 of stuff. My point is simply and solely that the statement that food bank collections only contain basic necessities is wrong. Therefore, "he must have been desperate because food banks only have essentials" is also wrong. The conversation gets skewed if you start out with false premises, so I corrected the false premise. Sure, in some places the collection points must be like that, and people can only know what they've seen, so those posters believed the premise was correct. My part of the country is different, though, showing that that's not always the case and the premise is wrong. That's all I'm saying.

Although I do get that you coppers live by different moral codes to me. A quick look at any headline will tell me that.

Just how is that boy's family in London doing now? You know, the one the police killed the other week for driving his car and being black?

You mean the one who failed to stop in a car with firearms markers that had been involved I. A firearms incident in the previous 2 days ? Is that the one ?

You do realise if you fail to stop and then ram a police car in a car that's associated to gun crime it's probably not gonna go so well no matter what colour you are ?

Personally if I'd given to a good bank (which I do ) I'd like it go to go the designated food bank . Not be the help yourself to a freebie bin . But that's just me .

Yeah . I don't kill black kids either funnily enough. I wouldn't carry a gun in London if they paid me 6 x my salary.

Let's see what happens when they all give their gun tickets in and there's another londone bridge attack or another 7/11 shall we ? I wouldn't carry a gun for all the tea in China . If you ram police cars in a car that's been used in gun crime what exactly do people expect ? For the cop to ask nicely if he's intending to shoot him first so he can prepare?

His colour has fuck all to do with it . He failed to stop , rammed a police car - why would you that if you're innocent? If he's got out and shot a few passers by I'm sure the story would be different. The met cops I know who are armed are giving their guns back . No one wants that job for just over 20 k a year .

I'm sure you know best.