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?

"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!"

err... I wouldn't.

If you think Tesco is shit then don't shop or inadvertantly steal there....Personally I don't think there any worse or any better than any of the other big retailers. And theft is theft no matter how much you try to justify it. And as others have said, it is not the big guns at Tesco who will suffer it's the customers and, more likely, the staff who work there who will. Store managers have targets to meet and if shrinkage goes up they will cut costs elsewhere in order to meet those targets.

Also Tesco have a system for recording items paid for and left behind by customers so they can come back and collect them. I left a whole bag of shopping during one hectic shopping trip. I didn't realise till I got home and I went back to find my goods had been recorded and stored in the fridge in case I came back. Lady at customer service said she was always surprised what got left and not claimed.

That's a huge generalisation MsSparkle. I too know people who work at Tesco and they don't steal. I find it very hard to believe that more of their losses can be accounted for by staff stealing than shoplifters and I don't think anecdotal evidence from one person you know who works there warrants such a generalisation about people who work at Tesco!!!

Sunnygirl I am really pleased you said that! Thankyou

I think I mentioned it once before on here and someone said' Oh the bank staff will have put that right in their pockets!' so I always felt a little bit stupid. I am really glad if the person got their money back.

"If you think Tesco is shit then don't shop or inadvertantly steal there....Personally I don't think there any worse or any better than any of the other big retailers."

I wouldn't step foot inside Tesco if you paid me a million pounds! They are by far the worst one of the lot. I believe they have around 2000 stores (including small local ones) and have closed down thousands of independant businesses. When you compare this to somewhere like Asda who i believe have around 300 stores, there is no comparison.

Tesco also buys up land and doesn't use it. They do this so no one else can buy that land and create potential competition for themselves. Dp is a small independant shop owner so places like Tesco are a real threat to his livelyhood.

So yes, Tesco are worse than any other big retailer.

ok then everyone, if your child walked out of a shop with an item unpaid for, how many of you would not ask them to return it?

kiddiz i am just going on what i have been told by people who work at Tesco. Theft goes on in loads of businesses, the managers are usually the worst from experience although when saying this, i don't meal ALL staff steal. I was just pointing out that some staff do.

I've heard of ipods being stolen from the stock room in this particular store because they are small and not traceable (where as a mobile phone would be.) It's not something i would do myself but it does go on.

I would take them straight back in - in fact I have done this, when they were younger and this happened to us.

My ds1 also got caught shoplifting once - he was following the example of a friend, and got caught the first time he tried it - and I'm glad he got caught - it was a horrible shock for him and taught him a real lesson - which we then rubbed in hard with a series of punishments - grounding, loss of pocket money, loss of privileges etc. He also got in trouble with his school as he was in uniform, and the shop owner reported him to the school first off - but was lucky that the school decided not to suspend him - because he'd already written a letter of apology and taken it back to the shop, and seemed really contrite and shocked by what he'd done.

sunnygirl.

Isn't Asda part of the Walmart group? I think they have a few more than 300 stores. Or do questionable practices not count if they are outside the UK?
I am aware that staff steal. A family member who owns a small shop had a problem with her staff stealing. I just don't agree that more of a large supermarkets losses can be accounted for by staff theft which is what you said earlier.

"More than customers it seems" i said in gest.

Had i said "staff steal more than customers" then that would have been a quote.

I don;t really object to the OP drawing her own line in the sand about what she thinks is reasonable where it doesn;t agree with mine.

Do object to your assertion MsSparkle that most of us would do the same.

Am slightly confused about why having some dishonest staff makes it better/worse. I think statistically theft by customers is a significanlty bigger problem than staff theft but still slightly confused about what your argument.

OK hold my hands up that I have ripped cD's I have bought and paid for onto my computer - My name is KEwcumber and I'm a lawbreaker.

You didn't inadvertently steal the nappies. You inadvertently left them on your trolley, and then when you realised, you deliberately stole them.

Semantics? I don't think so. So all of you that are saying it is ok to steal from Tesco are saying that it is ok because they are a nameless faceless store. So for those who know people in business, you are saying that all the time they are small scale, it is not ok to steal from them, but then the floodgates open if they get successful.

Great society, this. Don't need to look far to see where the next generation are getting it from

Do you know, I got a little job in Sainsbury's for Christmas, and it starts on Wednesday. I had to fill in a values questionnaire, and one of the statements was

"It is ok to steal from big companies"

I thought how stupid the question was.

I now realise that they are probably trying to flush out those with that attitude, who are also thick enough to say it on a questionnaire.

Having reflected on this, the reason I wouldn't have deliberately put them in the car is becasue I feel uncomfortable about what it says about me. Not about whether Tesco can afford it or not.

I have done things that are wrong, and I have done things that are illegal (it now seems) that I didn't realise were illegal. But I can't imagine taking something I hadn't paid for an then tring to justify that it was OK. I can imagine taking the easy route occasioanlly but I would be about it and would absolutely know I were wrong.

Plenty of people who stole from my mum no doubt felt absolutely fine about it despite her being a sole trader and not that well off, presumably because she had more than they did. I feel uncomfortable letting it be up each individual to decide an acceptable level of theivery mistakes based on their own ciorcumstances.

If that makes me prissy so be it.

YABU, it is one thing to get home and then find something but to purposely take something you know you haven't paid for, is still stealing.

Well I am pleased to see the amount of honest people on here

I have also handed money in at the bank before also wallets etc and I would always hand it in.

but a bag nappies I can't honestly say if I would bother or not I have never inadvertently stole something from the supermarket hmm But once I did get more change back but I handed that in as well

I've worked for Tesco for 16 years and IME more customers have been caught stealing than staff. That obviously leaves those that aren't caught, which could be higher.

On his way to Morrisons on saturday, DP saw 3 kids on bikes dump a load of DVDs in some bushes outside the store and reported them. I then saw them later that day terrorising people in town. In fact, i'm pretty sure they stole something from Woolies, but wasn't 100% sure to tell them in there. I have also noticed someone putting some washing powder in their coat in the Co-Op. I was so that I didn't say anything. I would have done if what I was buying wasn't ingredients for dinner that was actually cooking!

Re ipods, if you legally own the cd, it is legal to make a copy for your personal use?

It would be illegal for you to copy your cd then give it to a friend, but you could give the cd to you friend. If they then were to copy it, I believe you could be charged with a copyright offence.

In Australia it is illegal to make a copy of a cd that you legally own (so yes you are breaking the law when you use an ipod in Australia that way that is perfectly legal in Europe adn US).

So it's not really the same thing...

My friend said she often reduces clothes for her dd (she works on customer services) and i said to her "you can't do that" and she shrugged her shoulders and said loads of people do it Surely that is a form of stealing? How on earth would you get away with doing that?

Of course it is stealing.

I ordered a coffee to go the other day, they made up the coffee but didn't ask me for any cash so I left without paying. I know this is bad but they were so unorganised in there and customer service was appalling. Whilst in there, one of the staff plonked a glass of water onto a tray a customer was holding in her hand and the tray and water fell to the ground. The customer was covered in water and soaked but they left her to assemble herself and didn't even give her the coffee & biscuits for free, I think they should have done or at least something? I suggested this to the customer and she declined silently.

Tbh, I have a problem with bad customer service nowadays anyway, I feel like retailers don't care anymore and are too greedy.

My mum works on customer service and as far as I know, it's only the team leader/section manager of clothing who can reduce stuff. If you reduce things through the till, it gets logged on your number. Your friends mum is lucky shes not been caught. Unless it's just been returned at a cheaper price than the original tag? My mum is always buying returned stuff from bigger stores if the current price is cheaper than the tag price, iykwim. Maybe thats what your friends mum is doing?

Sorry, when i said my friend reduces stuff for her dd i meant my friend is the one who works on customer services and she reduces stuff to take home for her dd who is only 2. She said it's marked down as faulty or something even though it's not faulty. Sounds dodgy to me.

I did something similar myself a few years ago. Went to B&Q and used a shopping trolley and got loads of things and one of the first things in was a wire bath tray.
Paid for everything at the till and it was not until i got to the car that i realised that i had not paid for the tray!
It could hardly be seem as it was similar to the wire on the shopping trolley.
Could not face a walk back as it was tipping it down so went home with it.

Of course it is dodgy and I would be reporting her. She is a thief. And one with no shame since she is telling you about it.

Oh she definatly has no shame. Wouldn't report her though.