Followed round Wilko by shop security team.

[ThreeWarriors]

I was shopping in Wilko today when towards the end I realised I was being very closely monitored by a very unsubtle security team. I went to the till and paid for my shopping and told the lady at the till how obvious they’d been and how uncomfortable they’d made me feel. She did apologise. The whole thing was very unnerving.

I have never stolen a thing in my life and have no reason to.

I am a DV victim and probably come across as less confident. I also struggle to make decisions in shops so like to take my time. I think there were at least two men, definitely one. There was a lady there too but she was much less obvious.

I was mainly buying stuff to send to my DD at uni and am now thinking of returning it all and buying it elsewhere.

I don’t want to be followed around anywhere by unknown men.

I don't see the problem, the OP didn't steal anything and was conscious of the security staff keeping an eye on her so she wouldn't have felt able to steal anything if that had been her intention. It shows the system works.

If I get followed by security I try to make a game of it, trying to lose them in the store and so on. It's good fun, the best "move" is to take a high value item, then when out of their line of sight discard it on a shelf somewhere. When they catch up with you they notice it's no longer in your basket so makes them even more suspicious.

It wastes their time, and we collectively waste enough time shops will realise that their security staff should concentrate on actual thieves rather than someone just doing their shopping.

Unfortunately it did feel this way 😒

I was mainly buying stuff to send to my DD at uni and am now thinking of returning it all and buying it elsewhere.

I get why you're angry, but that would just be cutting off your nose to spite your face, and they don't have to give you a refund anyway. It would be better to write to the manager about what happened, copying your letter to their head office.

@KassandraOfSparta' 'There was clearly something in your behaviour which raised suspicion OP, even if you were not stealing. The lingering and slow decision making may well have looked as if you were waiting for a opportunity to steal.''

Nonsense.

There is nothing suspicious about taking your time to choose what you want to buy.

With that logic you would also automatically make anyone who might have a disability, health condition or be elderly ''suspicious'' because they might require more time to make their purchase.

I really think all the "write to the manager", "play games with them", "engage them in conversation" people have no clue how much stealing goes on.

I volunteer in a charity shop and people steal from us ALL OF THE TIME. Not you desperate druggie types, normal, everyday people who just take what they fancy rather than pay for it. We don't have security, no cameras and usually a teenager or pensioner on the till. Easy pickings. There is no "type" of shoplifter, middle aged women are as likely to steal as teenage boys. And yes, someone spending an unusual amount of time browsing would definitely raise suspicion. Because we have no security staff or cameras or anything, the only tool we have when we suspect we have someone dodgy in the shop is for all the volunteers who are in, plus the manager to go out onto the shop floor and make their presence very visible. If that makes our potential shoplifter uncomfortable, tough. We'd rather lose a £5 sale than £100 in stock.

Asian lawyer friend of mine was followed around a shop by a store detective. He was concentrating so hard on her that he missed a shoplifter. She took pleasure in pointing the shoplifter out to him just as he was going through the doors.

@Redqueenheart but taking an unusual amount of time - more than the time most other people take - is a red flag. Is this person really deliberating long and hard over a bedding set, or are they sneakily working out where security cameras are and plotting their route to the exit? Doing circuits of the store and coming back time and time again? This is not the way most people shop and will ring alarm bells.

This ⬆️

My initial thought was that one of them in particular, the least subtle one, was a random creep. He was an older man and lately, as I’ve got older myself, I seem to have been attracting more attention from these types. It’s really not nice.

This is why I was so horrified when I realised he was in fact shop security.

The two men in particular were fairly smartly dressed but with no jumpers, coats, bags or baskets. But the really unsubtle one wasn’t even pretending to be browsing, just standing at the end of the aisles staring at me. I wouldn’t have had so much of a problem had he been in uniform as I’d have known he was in fact security and not a random creep.

Would they really have 3 security follow someone in Wilko??? It’s hardly Selfridges with high value items!

Shame on everyone on this thread who thinks that it’s ok for security men to intimidate a shopper who has done nothing wrong!

Maybe they would catch the real criminals if they didn’t pick on someone who had no intention of stealing, there’s a thought!!

I actually had this sort of thing happen to me in Boots, 20 years ago. It was one security man and he followed me around the shop and even came outside, breathing down my neck as I was trying to tuck my baby into her pram. I was only 21 at the time and I think he was judging me because I was young. I complained to the store manager. She was really shocked that this had happened. I received an apology from the security man and a gift voucher as way of apology.

Personally, I would take it back and tell them why you are taking it back!

Well judging but their incompetence, they were most likely inexperienced and in training.

How are they supposed to know how who has intentions of stealing @MondaysChild7 ? Ask them? Because of course shoplifters are going to admit they’re dodgy aren’t they?

Hate this! YANBU, it's off-putting and insulting. I won't visit my local second hand/antiques shop now after the same thing happened twice. I was closely followed around by a shop assistant who was obviously deeply suspicious of me (absolutely no reason to be). I took a short cut down a few aisles to shake her off and she actually came running around the corner to keep me in sight. Had to laugh. Never stolen anything in my life. Their loss.

People are saying that shoplifters dress smartly, I believe it but in practice if you are dress very casually you are much more likely to be singled out, in my experience.

I used to have a security guard that would follow me round Sainsbury's, it only stopped when it was the pandemic and I started ordering online. When I went back in person he had moved on, thank God. I have no idea why I was selected for monitoring.

Recently in Aldi I was asked to open my bag, too, in a very rude manner. I think it's because I don't have a car so sometimes I'm forced to bring a bag into the shop from another shop. I stopped going there, too. I did complain but they didn't apologise. For all the talk of the environment these days, if you don't have a care you are discriminated against in society.

Agreed. They obviously don’t know what real suspicious behaviour looks like. Also why would they need all of them to follow one woman?? They must be trying to justify their existence.

As a teenager I worked in HMV. The security staff in there would sit in the room where the cameras were, watching and run after people who they saw stealing. They caught them too.

Also, if the OP has been misidentified as a shoplifter, I suggest shopping elsewhere because it's impossible to shake and will only upset you every time you go in, in my experience.

Nobody has the right to do anything and certainly not to intimidate people on a whim, until they have seen someone take something and it looks like they’ve hidden it.

The point where you’ve committed a crime is when you leave the shop premises without paying.

Nobody has the right to do anything and certainly not to intimidate people on a whim, until they have seen someone take something and it looks like they’ve hidden it.

It's much more productive to stop the crime happening before any item is lifted. Security guards have very limited ways of stopping or containing a shoplifter so it's best to just stop them trying to steal in the first place.

That’s such rubbish.

I actually had this sort of thing happen to me in Boots, 20 years ago. It was one security man and he followed me around the shop and even came outside, breathing down my neck as I was trying to tuck my baby into her pram. I was only 21 at the time and I think he was judging me because I was young.

No it's because it's really common for shoplifters to use pushchairs and blankets to steal and hide what they've stolen.

A lot more shops are going to shut for good if they decide to treat law abiding citizens as criminals.

What's rubbish, @MondaysChild7?

Except I hadn’t actually done that and there are tonnes of people who also had pushchairs who weren’t being followed around by this dickhead! And the store manager agreed that he was in the wrong.

Because the store manager isn't a security guard 🙄

That’s just deliberately obtuse. Buck stops with the manager.