AIBU to Never Let Staff Walk Away With My ID?

[TheRealGossipGirl]

Had some family and friends over for Christmas yesterday. In the evening we sat down with tea, biscuits, and ended up chatting for hours.

One friend told us a story that honestly made my skin crawl. She went into Currys to collect a click & collect order. The man at the till asked for her ID, then walked off with it, got the parcel, handed it to her - and when she asked for her driving licence back, he said “oh sorry,” went back, came out again, and said he couldn’t find it. He took her details and said he’d call her. That was a week ago, and she’s still heard nothing.

She’s worried, but she’s the type who won’t make a fuss, won’t complain, and will just sit there forever waiting for this random man to get back to her.

I’ve worked in a big UK department store where click & collect was a huge part of the business. Yes, we asked for ID - but there is never a reason to take it and walk away with it. Ever. As a customer, I’ll happily show my ID, but I absolutely refuse to let anyone walk off with it. And if they do, I follow them and tell them not to. It’s my ID - I don’t want it out of my sight.

Two of my friends thought I was being a bit OTT, but honestly? I don’t think I am at all. Your ID is sensitive, important, and not something a stranger should be casually misplacing.

AIBU for thinking this is completely unacceptable?

I'd have refused to leave the shop until he returned it! Couldn't find it. Yeah right.

No way I'd have left that shop. I'd have insisted he searched until he found it and asked for the manager to get involved

Nope, they look at it with me there or I follow them. Same as in places where they want to take a payment card away to run it - no, either bring the card machine to me or I come with you.

good grief, I think a manager needs to be involved here.

thank you for posting to remind people, even when busy and Christmas shopping be aware not to let your ID leave your sight.

What was the outcome @TheRealGossipGirl

It’s not unreasonable at this point for your friend to report it to the police as stolen through the usual non-emergency contact numbers.

It’s moved on from misplaced to taken by somebody.

Well yanbu but ‘I would never have done that, how could you?’ is not going to be in the least helpful in this situation. She needs practical advice, support and empathy. She needs to go physically into the store and refuse to leave until the situation is resolved and you should bug her until she does it.

Any update @TheRealGossipGirl?

Sorry everyone - things got really busy in the run-up to Christmas and New Year.

We went into Currys and when we approached the staff member, he looked a bit annoyed to see her. She explained she hadn’t heard anything and just wanted to check in person, as she had no way of contacting him - he had her number.

He replied in quite a curt way, basically saying, “I said I’d call if I found it.” That immediately rang alarm bells. He seemed irritated, even though it was her ID that had gone missing.

At that point, there wasn’t much we could do other than try to get some answers. My friend was getting upset and, honestly, it already felt like there was no chance she’d be getting the ID back. I asked to speak to the manager and he said there wasn’t one working, but another staff member nearby jumped in and said, “Kim is in today.” He replied, “Is she?” and the other staff member said she was in the office.

That obviously felt a bit suspicious, so we asked them to get the manager. When she came out, we took her aside and my friend explained everything. The manager took some details and went off to check CCTV. She was gone for about 30 minutes.

When she came back, she said they could see on CCTV that he walked off with the ID, but because there’s a blind spot in the parcel room, they couldn’t see what happened to it after that.

She said she wanted to look into it further, which was reassuring, and she did seem a bit suspicious herself. A few days later, she called my friend and said they were doing an internal investigation but couldn’t share any more details. They did, however, offer to cover the cost of a replacement driving licence and gave her a £100 Currys voucher as an apology.

We don’t know if that was because they saw something on the CCTV or just a way to wrap things up, but either way my friend has sworn she’ll never hand her ID over like that again.

Well the lesson is learnt, and at least they are paying to replace it.
As a matter of fact, packing areas are exactly where they make sure there are no blind spots on the security cameras. There's more going on but you'll probably never know what exactly.

Thank you for updating. Like you said, SO much of his behaviour is suspicious - looking annoyed to see her, claiming there was no manager, and taking the ID into a CCTV blind spot (almost certainly knowingly).

Who knows how many other times he's done this. Hopefully if there is something nefarious going on (and honestly, how could it not be?), the right actions will be pursued by Currys, even though you won't hear about it.

Thanks for the update. Interesting response but I’m not sure how helpful the voucher will be. Money back from her initial purchase probably would have been better. I wonder if said employee still works there and what he’s playing at.

The thing is, an employee stealing something like that is so rare, that most of us simply wouldn’t expect it. The store manager was probably amazed. This incident was extremely unfortunate, and it sounds like the employee stole it, but who would be expecting such a thing to happen, especially in a large chain store? It used to be (and maybe still is) that if you brought something back for a refund, the shop would ask for your address. Should we refuse, in case an employee stalks us? When we buy anything online, how do we know the shop won’t sell our card details?

Why should any of us be expecting an employee to steal a valuable document? When we hand over a document, we usually do it in good faith, expecting it back. Before contactless and chip and pin, you used to hand your card to the cashier, for them to swipe. Should we have refused to do this, in case they didn’t hand it back? When presenting a passport for inspection, do we keep hold of it, in case the employee steals it? Not so long ago, you had to send in birth certificates and passports when applying for certain things; and originals, not photocopies. Should we have refused to do so?

When dealing with callers at your door, the advice used to be “ask to see their ID, and take it off them”. Should they be worried about a householder stealing it?