to have kept an item I inadvertently 'stole' today?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

I was doing supermarket sweep at Tesco's today, huge amount of food in trolley so I hung a maxi pack of Huggies nappies off the hook under the kids seat at the front of the trolley. I paid for all my shopping, then realised when I got to my car that I had walked out with the Huggies still hanging on the hook.

...and then drove off.

AIBU to have kept them?

QuintessentialShadows has already said it - the supermarkets already add on extra to the price of their products to cover their losses from "shrinkage", whether that's customers or staff shoplifting. So I reckon everyone who isn't a regular, deliberate thief, is entitled to the odd accidental theft like the OP's.

(Yes, I did it once too, at an Asda, but didn't realise till we got home. No, I didn't pay for them the next time I visited. Since I regularly spend £150 a week on groceries, I reckon I've paid for them by now.)

but why should people pay the additional amount if we're not shop lifting?
If people didn't steal or accidently take stuff, then the shops wouldn't need to factor in any additional cost.

Entitled?[hmmm]

And unless you paid specifically for that item then you certainly haven't paid for it.

"By ElfOnTheTopShelf on Tue 11-Nov-08 19:48:35
but why should people pay the additional amount if we're not shop lifting?
If people didn't steal or accidently take stuff, then the shops wouldn't need to factor in any additional cost."

You have no choice about paying the additional cost - it's included regardless of whether you're honest or not, and it's charming but rather naive to say "if people didn't", because they do. So, if say 1% or even 0.1% of my shopping bill is to cover shrinkage, then yes, morally I do feel I'm entitled to the one mistake I made, twenty years ago, and yes, I most certainly have paid for it, probably many times over.

But there'd be no need to add on a percentage to cover shrinkage if people didn't steal and took back items they'd accidentally taken.

But people do deliberately steal, and people do accidentally take stuff and then not take it back. It's human nature. The supermarkets take this into account when they make their pricing decisions, so, since we're all already paying for it...

"But people do deliberately steal, and people do accidentally take stuff and then not take it back. It's human nature."

So as stealing isn't in my nature, and keeping things I accidentally didn't pay for isn't in my nature, am I not human, then?

Superhuman, Dottoressa, superhuman.

Where is the OP? How is the den of thieves today? Exchanging conviction stories? Swapping ASBOs?

Or are we still at the stage of believing in accidental crime being okay? Won't work with a judge you know ...

well people should stop stealing and stop taking stuff accidently, then the supermarkets wouldn't add on the % and it would be cheaper!

[hmmm]You must go back and pay, my darling, if only to prove to yourself you are a lovely, lovely, honest person really (which we all know you are really), and to Tesco that they can trust customers and not always treat then like potential criminals. You will feel good afterwards, I promise.

Even better, you might go back and try to do this at Customer Services and be let off. Best of both worlds.

Dying to know what you decide to do.

Oh dear. Looks like I have inadvertedly giving green light for "accidental theft"

given greenlight.

green light in two words.

I need sleep.

OldLady - tee hee. I shall tell my DCs that one!

im with oldladyknowsnothing (in this case however, you do..)

the shops do cover themselves for this, so whether you agree or not we all pay, its just the way it is.
oh and it is also human nature, big creatures steal from little creatures, and all that.
yes they steal for survival, and not to make a profit, however the same principle applies.

and as for returning something, well check this.... my dd took some little dolls from a display in elc last christmas. i didnt realize for about an hour later, when we were at the other side of town, but i trudged back with her, whilst telling her, "that it was wrong to take stuff, and you have to pay" only to return them to two members of staff, who after dd said sorry, and handed them back, looked at each other and laughed and said "you should have kept them"... they said this to her!!!!
i walked out of there, astonished. and pretty pissed off, as i had tried to do the right thing, and teach my dd a small lesson in right from wrong.
wish i hadn't bloody bothered.
most shop assistants couldn't give a toss. sad but true.

so op, yanbu. no way. (and if you do feel really bad about them, and dont want them, please send them to me!!

"By QuintessentialShadow on Tue 11-Nov-08 20:09:31
Oh dear. sad Looks like I have inadvertedly given the green light for "accidental theft" "

It's OK, I already thought that way.

[slightly twisted]

I'm sure it's true that most shop assistants (in big chain shops as opposed to their own small businesses I mean), not to mention the poor other customers queueing to pay, would far rather you didn't inconvenience them by hurrying back in wailing "I forgot to pay for this small item that I inadvertently stole".

So what would have happened if you got to your car, looked at your receipt, and realised that Tesco had mistakenly overcharged you by £6.99? I bet you would have been back in there like a flash claiming it back.

Theft. Pure and simple.

OMG now I realise what one of the first replies meant 'you don't know what you've done here do you?'!!! I was out all day yesterday and working today (I do an honest days work, I don't shoplift!) so have only just been able to read all the replies. I am in no way trying to justify what I did but I was in a rush that morning and TBH didn't think it through re consequences etc. I have realised my morals need a review and I certainly would never condone my DS doing anything like that- he is only 1 so didn't realise what his mummy did the other day. I think karma has already come and bitten me on the bum too with the flaming I promptly received on here! I do feel bad and have decided to give the money to the next charity tin I see. Yes I could return the nappies to Tesco but I think they would just think I was plain weird and IMO I would feel better with a charity benefitting. BTW I don't make a habit of stealing stuff either!

its OK ILYS - I think the thread has moved way past what you did and has perfeormed a very valid fubnction. To open my eyes to the numebr of people who would keep something becuase it was slightly inconvenient to them or becuase they wouldn't beenfit by taking it back.

No wonder my mum struggled for so many years to make her small business profitable. Always said I would never go into business myself after growing up in one - just reinforced to me why.

Ilikeyoursleeves, You know how you feel about this. I'm sure they will just write it off and somewhere down the line someone else will end up paying for it.
What would your parents have said?
Just recently there was an old man (right before the big stock fall..several weeks ago) seventy something that withdrew his cash from his savings account. The wind caught him just right and blew all the bills (dinominations from 20 dollars to several hundred dollar bills) into the air and away from him. All but 20 dollars was snatched up by people in the immediate vacinty...and returned.
I've always told my children...you know what is yours and what is not and there is very little in this world that if you know it doesn't belong to you that surely belongs to someone else.

wehaveallbeenthere - I hope that 20 dollars that is missing is stuck in a tree somewhere and nobody saw it to return it

There was a pensioner who used to shop weekly in Asda where my mum used to work, she used to withdraw her pension from the post office across the road, then shop. One week she was given some forgeries, and the post shop wouldn't change them once Asda said they couldn't take the money as she couldnt prove they were from the post office iyswim.
Staff had a whip around and managed to get enough to cover the forgeries for the pensioner.
I like stories like that

I do too ElfOnTHeTopShelf. It renews my faith in the goodness people are supposed to feel toward each other.
I grew up in the Midwest where neighbors used to come to each others rescue when needed. I feel the same responsibility to my neighbors.
I felt a lot of pride when my son (this was last year) was off to a gaming store to return a game and found a diamond ring in the parking lot. He took it into the lost and found.
I know (and he does too) that perhaps whoever lost it wouldn't return but he also knows that it wasn't his and someone had probably lost something substantial to them.
My middle child feels the same way when she finds something at school...whether it be a pen or a backpack. "If you find something and you know it isn't yours then turn it in because it is someone elses".
I would bet that $20 that wasn't returned is stuck in a tree or went in a grate somewhere. Kindness is somewhat contagious.

somebody forgot to take their cash out the cash machine once and left it, I followed them in the shop and handed back.

my dd is 3 (just) and knows the importance of sharing / charity, will be teaching her about giving things back if found as well!