I accidentally stole an entire big shop

[Rayoffingsunshine]

I spent about £95 on a big shop 3 weeks ago. I went through the scan and go. I had my two boys with me (2 and 3 months) and I paid using contactless. I didn't grab the receipt which I didn't notice until I got home and was annoyed because the supermarket had an offer for money off voucher if you spend so much that I had intended to grab but only realised I didn't have it when I got home.
I budget everything and wrote the shop on my budget app straight away so I noticed the discrepancy on my account within a few days. I thought it was just taking a little longer than normal to process but 3 weeks later there's still no record of it. I've checked every account I have including my husband's just in case I had his card though I'm certain it was just my day to day debit card. The only thing I can think is that the payment didn't process and I just didn't notice and walked straight out. But surely someone would have stopped me! I remember a friend telling me once, with a tiny shop, just a quick lunch on the go kind of shop, this happened to her once and she was stopped in the car park by security. I don't understand how this has happened. I wouldn't have been quick to leave because my 2 year old moves at a snails pace.

If I go and talk to customer service in the shop will they believe that is was a genuine mistake and just let me pay for it or will I get in trouble?

Yes this.. it doesn't just dissappear. And whoever was supposed to be working on self checkouts will likely get a bollocking.

I don't understand this idea posters have that it is better to pay it forward that give the money back to its actual legal owner. If someone accidentally forgot to pay me for my services I would hope they would come back and pay me. Not give the money to someone else and then feel that they were morally in the right, while I am still out of pocket.

Similar thing happened to me. I used contactless, didn't notice the payment didn't go through, ended up with a shop assistant running after me across the carpark. I went back and paid without question. All was well.

I think OP is acting really responsibly in checking their bank statements, which most people do not, but now they know they haven't paid, it's time to make amends.

You’re in a difficult predicament here

No... if she's challenged, she says she hadn't realised, and offers to pay. It'll happen a lot, one partner using the card but the other looks after the bank account, or someone with several bank accounts and/or a bit of a lax attitude about money. OP is unlikely to be treated as a hardened shoplifter for one misdemeanour, especially when she took the time to scan everything and put her card to the machine. It's an easy mistake to make.

'Exactly. You have to think about whether it's worth their while to track OP down, put her through court, the prison fees, the execution fees...'

I don't think they have Sainsbury's in Bahrain so they can probably dodge the execution fees

This happened to me, I got distracted and walked out without paying. I just went back and paid, not an issue. I would have felt terrible not to have paid. It's a shop I go to often and it's a nice, nice staff, helpful people, I wanted to be respectful to them.

Similar thing happened to me. I used contactless, didn't notice the payment didn't go through, ended up with a shop assistant running after me across the carpark. I went back and paid without question. All was well

Exactly. It doesn't come with a prison sentence. It's an oversight on the supermarket's behalf as much as it is on OP's.

See it as the universe giving you a present. You can pay it forward one day when you're feeling rich

They’ve got you on camera

You don’t need a ban from the shop with your photo stuck up in the security guard’s office or whatever

Just contact the shop’s customer service and tell them what you told us and ask what they want to do.

You don’t need a ban from the shop with your photo stuck up in the security guard’s office or whatever

I'd be willing to bet that OP doesn't go into the security guard's office, and never will, and will never be banned from the shop, even if they know who she is and what happened. It will have looked like a mistake, because it was one. Lots of people innocently make the same mistake, because it's not well flagged enough by the supermarket's own systems. They don't garrotte people for making one understandable mistake.

Because it’s like someone accidentally acquiring a thousandth of a penny from a trillionaire, money that is £90 to us, and going out of your way three weeks later to return it

But it isn't up to you to decide whether something is valuable to the person you're taking it from. I don't imagine the local supermarket is that far out of OP's way to pop in.

You and the person you quoted sound completely tone deaf, in contrary. Retail staff are aware of how difficult it is to serve justice to shoplifters.

Someone walking out with a £95 purchase won’t be ignored. It is completely realistic to review footage at the time to create their own record of incident - when I worked in retail security used to run to the back and do this daily. Retail staff are aware of their limitations eg police may not attend, prosecution isn’t guaranteed. They won’t think “let’s drop it to keep her custom”. They’ll think she’s thieving scum and will want to do what they can in-house to prevent this from occurring again which may mean saving footage and noting the incident. I worked in retail in 2017 and there was a book in store with photos and details of suspected shoplifters. It’s likely the same now, just digitally archived.

You don’t think people pretending to pay via contactless is a new or rare concept? Stores will have dealt with this before and considered how to react. CCTV has evolved to capture the screen of self service tills, so it won’t show a successful transaction on the till screen, plus the transaction record can be retained. There’s likely other visual indicators eg red light, blinking for store assistance. This isn’t the shop going out of their way to do anything either.

The till only prints out a receipt when successful payment has been made.

Stores will have dealt with this before and considered how to react

Yes, @kissnm and I'm sure they've concluded that a life sentence should be slapped on all hardened criminals like OP.

They’ll think she’s thieving scum and will want to do what they can in-house to prevent this from occurring again

Or they might be a bit more professional about it, think that she was distracted, and ask her to pay.

It's not in the store's best interest to come down hard on people who make a single, understandable error, and attempt to correct it when it's pointed out to them. I can see the headlines in the local rag 'PERSECUTED FOR ONE MISTAKE AT SAFEWAY - HONEST LOCAL WOMAN HANDCUFFED AND GAGGED IN SUPERMARKET SECURITY OFFICE'!

I got called back to pay recently, arguing kids, walked off without scanning my card. They didn't ban me from the shop. I've also gone back in to a couple of shops over the years to pay when I found an item in the bottom of my trolley I missed. They were all surprised and happy I came back in. Haven't been banned from any of those either. It's the right thing to do, doesn't matter if they're a big business which won't miss the money, it's still the right thing. I have ADHD and can be very scatty so yes have missed scanning things a few times. When it happens I get really focused on making sure I've got everything scanned, but after a while I'll be distracted again and miss something.

Yes but the transaction will have been recorded whether paid for or not, and OP may well be identifiable from the camera.

It's not 1980.

Posted too soon.

I think the till alerts the assistant if it's left waiting for payment and it wouldn't have been able to process another customer until the staff either cancelled the transaction or alerted the supervisor that goods had been taken without payment. Not sure where this leaves op though.

I agree with you - I was responding to this:

"I really don't think the supermarket will have any record of it as like you say it never produced a receipt."

I meant to say that just because a receipt wasn't printed doesn't mean the computer didn't have a record of the transaction.

If you've walked out of a shop without paying for something and the security can prove it and engage the police, they can and will prosecute for shoplifting. Unfortunately leaving without paying even unwittingly is shoplifting.

The police love to prosecute soft targets - one of the biggest percentages of convictions in the country is of over 50 yrs women for either not paying TV Licence or shoplifting low value items. Some go to prison for minor and tiny petty crimes - this is documented by organisations such as 'Women In Prison'.

Some stores have 100% prosecutions policy and use their legal team to enforce the police to press for prosecution no matter what the circumstances as long as the person in question was outside the store in possession of an item from inside the shop. It's brutal.

@Watchkeys are you feeling okay sweetheart? You constantly misrepresent others posts in a reductive way to make it seem their view is not credible. You consistently exaggerate other posters positions - refuting things not even stated. Your argument is clearly flawed if that’s what you need to rely on to push your agenda.

I haven’t insinuated a life sentence is realistic. It’s not unprofessional to retain CCTV, it’s encouraged to gather evidence. This is a business as usual task for staff and a realistic course of action under circumstances.

It is not in the store’s interests to ignore this. Shops have dealt with increases in theft since the pandemic and cost of living crisis. They don’t care if someone is “distracted”, as this is a common enough occurrence. Feigning distraction is a common shoplifting tactic.

Go back. I did similar a few months ago, when I went back security showed me the picture they'd taken of me with the CCTV to put on the local watch list!

@kissnm

You win, sweety pie. You're so invested, bless your pants! I couldn't be bothered to read it all!

@Rayoffingsunshine I think you'll be fine not to say anything, if you don't want to. If they approach you, tell them you hadn't checked your bank statement and were sure you'd paid. Take it from there with an offer to rectify any error. There's a lot of dramatic responses on the thread, but you'll be dealing with professionals at the shop, not rabid late night forum-posters!

Because she's a person of integrity who doesn't steal??

Exactly. If you have date & time they can locate your order.

Thank you so much. I hope you get the support you need for whatever has triggered your continuous dramatic outbursts tonight 🙏