Stopped from taking my child into a changing room.

[LemingsLemon]

went to my local John Lewis today- more to buy some things for DD, but found a blouse that was on sale so decided to try it on

Went to the changing rooms- I had 3 items for DD (2 dresses and a pair of trousers) and the blouse. Went over to the changing rooms, pleasantries exchanged and attendant handed me a card with my number of items. DD was fast asleep in her small, umbrella fold buggy. Changing rooms are quite large- could have fit me and DD in th buggy in there with room for me to try items on.

Assistant stopped me as I was pushing her into a cubicle and explained it wasn’t allowed. Apparently in case I stole something and stashed it in the pram?!!? Assistant offered to keep an eye on DD for a few minutes while I tried my blouse on. I said I don’t know you, why would I trust a stranger with my daughter unsupervised. Assistant called a manager over who asked me to leave.

Safe to say I won’t be going back

AIBU to think this is batshit?

So has no loos or baby changing area.

But that will set the alarm off and then she can be stopped and searched.

Yes, they do.

It has nothing to do with the number of items they have in. It has to do with other items which are in the pram.

Because if there was already stuff hidden, they wouldn’t know.

If you wanted to nick something but wanted to try it on first, you could hide one in the pram, take another the same size into the changing room, leave the pram with the attendant and then give back the item you’d tried on saying you don’t want it, leave with the unsearched pram. I’d guess most people who steal stuff using a pram are doing it to sell, and wouldn’t bother with the changing room anyway.

"Then it wouldn’t matter if she took the pushchair in or not. Unless the woman was planning on inspecting the pram whilst she tried on her item?"

Yet another poster who hasn't read the thread so doesn't understand why shoplifters take prams into changing rooms so posts nonsense instead...

Exactly, I suspect this was why she was asked to leave, she was allowed to take the pushchair into the changing room, but was stopped from taking it into the cubicle with her, and she started to be argumentative when she was asked not to.

In a private changing room with multiple cubicles (and an attendant at the entrance), there is absolutely no need to take the pushchair completely inside the cubicle with you, when it can just sit outside the curtain, or you can leave the curtain half open and be right next to your child the whole time

Using pushchairs/prams to better hide clothes that you have quickly stashed from the shop floor has been going on for years, no one is going to lift a sleeping child out of a pram/pushchair to check underneath it, which is exactly why people do it!

I’ve shopped online for so many years I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in one for about 2 decades but they used to check how many items you had and give you a number didn’t they? So like a number 4 for 4 items, then they’d count how many you had when you returned to make sure you hadn’t stolen any. Surely she could have just done that and made sure you left with them all. Items could be stashed just as easily in someone’s bag.

She literally did try to separate the baby from her mother. Her reasons don't matter, you don't do that.

The Op has said her child was sleeping and why should she? Usually they count how many items you are taking into the changing room

I think the shop was in the right. Pushchairs are a bit of a nuisance in shops anyway. Never mind maneovering them in and out of the limited space in changing rooms.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Whats the real story?

Either there are lots of professional shoplifters on here saying it really doesn’t help them to shoplift successfully to be allowed to take a baby in a pushchair into a changing room with them, or a lot of ignorant people getting offended and encouraging a complaint because they think, in their extreme obtuseness, that there was no good reason whatsoever for the shop assistant to make her own life more difficult.

I can’t agree that she ‘literally did try to separate the baby from her mother’. She gave her the option that she would watch the baby. She said no and I would have said no too. I still feel like the middle part of this tale is missing.

Once I was travelling through Dubai from Australia to the UK with my two daughters who were probably three and five at the time and we were waiting in the line for passport control and a man came over and told me to go in a different line that was parallel so I started to usher my dc over there and he wouldn’t let them go with me. So they had to wait in one line and I was in another just on the whim of those man. My oldest was crying and I just had to give her a ‘pull yourself together or this could get worse’ look. That was being separated from your children.

Because if there was already stuff hidden, they wouldn’t know.
If you wanted to nick something but wanted to try it on first, you could hide one in the pram, take another the same size into the changing room, leave the pram with the attendant and then give back the item you’d tried on saying you don’t want it, leave with the unsearched pram. I’d guess most people who steal stuff using a pram are doing it to sell, and wouldn’t bother with the changing room anyway.
**
People take items in prams into the changing rooms so they can take the tags off, not so they can try it on.

Sadly its becasue of the shoplifters, if you managed to sort them out (i.e. none of this 20 counts at court and still given a slap on the hand) then this sort of thing wouldn't happen.

The shop worker could see how many items IP was taking in, so it would have been perfectly possible to simply check she returned from the changing room with the same number of items.

It all depends on how you spoke to the employee really, I agree crazy policy but for them to ask you to leave I suppose it depends on what happened next

Yes she could have seen how many items the OP was taking in…if she didn’t have a pram.

But she did have a pram.

The op was not allowed to take the pram in. This is because shoplifters use prams as an aid to stealing things.

They shove items in the pram. Then they go to the changing rooms and take the tags off.

That’s why some shops don’t allow prams in because they know that some people use them to hide things they intend to steal.

They can’t just decide if people look like they are going to steal so some shops don’t not allow any prams in to changing rooms, regardless of what the owner of the pram looks like.

It’s got nothing to with the items a person takes in legitimately. It’s about the pram.

"The shop worker could see how many items IP was taking in, so it would have been perfectly possible to simply check she returned from the changing room with the same number of items."

But that is not how shoplifters use prams to steal goods - rtft.

No, you absolutely can, because reality is a thing. The girl wanted to remove a child from its mother's care. That's what happened. So that's that, really.

The “girl” clearly did not want to remove a child from its mother’s care, she wanted to facilitate the mother trying on a blouse without breaching the store’s policy not to allow pushchairs or prams into the changing rooms. At no point was the child removed from its mother’s care - the decision on whether to leave her child in the pushchair directly outside the changing cubicle was clearly left for the mother to make. That the mother decided not just to politely decline the offer but to aggressively suggest the shop assistant was a stranger and therefore untrustworthy indicates to me that with a mind so suspicious, she should not find it at all surprising that shops are no more trusting of the strangers who aggressively argue about their right to take shoplifting facilitators into changing cubicles with them than she is of strangers who offer to keep an eye on a sleeping child in a pushchair.

What an absolutely stupid thing to say!

OP has gone into a private changing room with multiple cubicles, the attendant who stands at the entrance, welcomed her in but when she realised she was trying to take the pushchair inside a cubicle said she wasn't allowed to for security reasons.

The attendant said she could 'keep an eye on her', in the changing rooms, while the pushchair was one side of a curtain while OP was on the other side of a curtain.. What part of that means she was "removing her child" or "taking her away" her child, what a load of made up nonsense by some hysterics on here.

There was absolutely no need for OP to insist on having the pushchair INSIDE a cubicle, while INSIDE a private changing room with someone standing guard at the entrance.. it's a case of being offended for the sake of being offended IMO.

Shoplifting is a massive problem and that is exactly how people do it, and exactly how people respond to be challenged.

I would put in an official complaint. I’m sure this is not a rule and why on earth would you trust someone with your baby. What if she got called away and walked off, who is watching your baby then? Make a complaint.

"I’m sure this is not a rule"

I'm sure you have no idea what you are talking about despite multiple posters explaining exactly why prams are often not allowed in changing rooms.

To cap it all you would then, in your entitlement or ignorance, make a complaint..

Another batshit JL story.

They're going to lose their faithful customer base with things like this and my frustration that they insist women have bra fittings in changing rooms where men can be, with only a thin curtain to change behind.

Outrageous!!! Could understand if it was a shopping bag but expecting you to leave your child with them is crazy!