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?

And, er I'm not a buttoned up old spinster that tuts at the slightest misdemeanour. Not having broken the law is nothing to do with anything apart from, er, lack of opportunity I suppose.

Kewcumber.

Must emphasise am not mad speeding woman.

SoH really? Have you never gone 31 in a 30 zone or anything?

only one of those I've done is speeding - and I think thats wrong. Choosing to do it, doesn;t mean you think its right!

In fatc (as I said) I probably wouldn't have gone back and paid (unless I was desparate for nappies that day) for the sheer hassle factor but I certinaly wouldn't have chosen to put them in the car knowing I hadn't paid for them. I would have just left them.

I just wouldn't have taken them. I can't say I would just to make the OP feel better because I wouldn't.

If she only wanted to ask people who would have then she should should have sid so (not that it would have made any difference). Surely you understand that not everyone would do this?

STOP THIEF!!!!

YASNBU its a pack of huggies she didn't steal them on purpose yes OP could of gone back in the store and paid for them but seriously how many of you hand on heart would do that?.

I don't drive. See lack of opportunity.

"I don't drive" - but maybe you can run very very fast?

Last xmas I took some ham back to Morrisons that said on the shelf that it was £5.99 and we got charged £11.99. £6 is £6 afterall. I don't usually bother complaining about multisaves that haven't come off, which they quite often don't come off in Morrisons! I do if it's something I wouldn't normally buy though.

I've had old people bring back stuff they didn't pay for and had someone phone saying how sorry she was.

I've had someone come back and say that I gave them too much change and i've been given too much payment before, and had to chase people out of the shop!

Depends what I'm chasing or what's chasing me. Chocolate and gingerbread move slowly, little chasing involved. I am whiter than white.

God I'm dull. Maybe I should have a New Year's resolution to break a law. Please don't tell dh though. He's a copper.

Now I'm even duller.

I don't understand this "it's ok because it's tesco" attitude.

If people are so morally opposed to tesco then why are you all still shopping there?

If you discover when you get home that you've not been charged for something then that is inadvertantly stealing, but if you get to the car park and discover that you've not paid for something and put it in your car anyway it's deliberate theft. And it's not as if it was a 20p chocolate bar - we're talking a pack of nappies which probably cost upwards of £8. 8.

At the end of the day you either are happy with being a shoplifter or you're not and you'll go back and pay.

I would have gone back in to pay (I have waltzed out of shops with unpaid for goods absent-mindedly and crept back in to settle up as soon as I realised what I'd done) and so should you have done. I suspect you know that by now though .

Pingping - hand on heart, I'd either have taken them back there and then, or I'd have gone in and paid for them as soon as possible.

Like your stone SOH.

(Though I bet you have done something. Never copied music, really, never ever even made a mix tape when you were 17? You must be the only one...)

"It is OTT not because it's technically incorrect, but because it makes the OP sound like a scheming criminal. I think there's a huge difference between those things. And those who are getting morally hot under the collar about this - have you really never ever broken the law, not even slightly? Copied a CD perhaps? That's "theft" as well."

yes but i fuly accept my misgivings against the law, i don't try to pass them off as a mistake or attempt to justify them. oooh tesco are a big bad scary corporation so it's ok to steal from them, well then why the fuck do you shop there if it's so evil?stop giving them profits.
i know when i operate outside of the law (not some master criminal but petty crimes like the one in the op) and i accept that iabu to do so and am doing so due to my own moral laziness, i don't try to justify it and if i'm ever caught doing something illega i will fully deserve the consequences.

ach or you could just read my posts

Nope. But again it's through ignorance. I couldn't copy a CD if you gave me written instructions. I could draw one with dd's felt tips but that's not the same.

Actually copying a CD even for personal use (i.e. ripping a CD you own onto your computer or mp3 player) is technically illegal.

The powers that be are in the process of trying to update copyright law in this country to be more sensible, but currently you're a law-breaker if you do this.

If it were some small independant shop then i would probably say yabu. But i have to agree with the op that it is only Tesco, they will survive. I found a purse on the floor in Sainsburys a few weeks ago as i was at the checkout. It didn't even cross my mind to not hand it in. Taking someones purse you have found is going to effect someone and cause them misery, taking home some nappies you forgot to pay for from Tesco, a shit company who are sucking the life out of communities, isn't going to make a diffence.

I love the way people get on high moral grounds on threads like these. Truth is, i suspect most people would have done the same thing as the op!

I stole a couple of things when I was pregnant. It wasn't intent, it was sheer exhaustion, feeling utterly wretched and sick, having small shrieking, escaping, mad and cross 3yo with me, and putting things on top of buggy hood which got lost under flap.

The first time I realised when we got home - I went back and paid the next time - it's a small shop, I know them well. The second time (we are talking 59p packet of noodles) I realised when I'd just wrestled struggling ds out the door, was about to keel over with embarrassment and SPD and just stood there for a few seconds thinking 'they are going to think I have a problem, this is the second time in a week!!' and went home.

I think I paid a few weeks later or put it in a charity box or something, can't remember now. I felt awful about it.

oh and one day I went past a cash machine and there was a tenner sticking out. I took it directly into the bank who said they could trace the owner

There was no one around

I could have done with it that day but it was the right thing iyswim.

MsSparkle - no I can assure you that most decent people really wouldn't take goods that they hadn't paid for, however inconvenient it might be to have to unload the kids from the car to go back into the shop.

I'm really not getting on my moral high horse - maybe you are doing the morality limbo instead?

You did, Flight. I was on the other end of that situation once - as a student, I walked away from the cash machine without taking my tenner cash - the next person handed it in, and from the timings etc was able to tell it was my money - so they credited it back to my account.

A tenner doesn't sound like much now, but as a poor student, it was half my week's food budget!

sunnygirl.

i remember being mortified when i realised i had forgotten to put the little nobbly bit of ginger through the check out when i was unloading the trolley. however both the children where packed in the car and i didn't want to go back in for another massive queing up.

Can i just point out that the staff at Tesco steal too! More than the customers it seems. I know this because i know someone who works at Tesco and tells me.