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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Not to have done anything more than look at this lady disapprovingly....?

32 replies

FrenchLimeBlossom · 06/07/2009 18:06

I was in Tesco on Saturday and as I walked past one of those wire baskets full of Tesco branded shopping bags (they have them at the end of the aisles) a woman walked past me going the other way. I was turning left into the aisle and she was coming out so we had to manoeuvre around each other IYKWIM.

She reached out across my trolley, i thought, to pick up a bag and instead she dropped a scrumpled plastic bag into the container - one of the ones they put your deli produce into. I looked at her and she was chewing some food (open-mouthed - nice) -which I strongly suspected she had eaten from the bag itself.

I almost could not believe it - she had an approx 13yo son with her and looked fairly smart - but concluded she must have ordered food from the deli counter, eaten it and chucked away the evidence. She saw me looking at her and blushed, which pretty much confirmed my suspicion that she had stolen and knew that I'd guessed it.

Ok, it's possible she'd picked up the bag from the floor, but who sees/picks up rubbish from Tesco's floor? And if she were so keen on picking up rubbish why would she have dumped it into a display container?

Is it just me who thinks that this is stealing? Isn't wandering round the supermarket eating (whether or not it's food you've not bought yet) a bit gross anyway, let alone if you're intending not to pay for what you consume?

I kept coming round corners and passing her and each time i gave her my 'disapproving look' but should I have spoken to someone about it? I guess if she had nicked the food presumably the CCTV would show her ordering from the deli counter and not producing any deli produce at the till, and dropping the rubbish?

I'm absolutely appalled particularly at the fact she had a child with her and apparently thinks it's ok to give an example at least of dropping litter wherever she feels like it and at most of stealing shamelessly.

Or AIBU? Is there another explanation?

OP posts:
SerendipitousHarlot · 06/07/2009 22:47

Did anyone see dh nick a Butlins drinks bottle last week? Now that really was stealing

HecatesTwopenceworth · 07/07/2009 09:09

steviesgirl - Tesco don't live with a tiny loss! They don't take the hit - WE do! We all pay more for our shopping because they factor stealing into their costs! (Every company does.) It doesn't cost Tesco anything! How is that fair - even if you thought it was ok to steal from a big company - how is it ok that everyone pays more for their shopping because some people steal?

maggymay · 07/07/2009 09:41

our local store has and will prosecute if your caught taking stuff and eating it then leaving without paying even if its just grapes as long as they have it on cctv

Momdeguerre · 07/07/2009 10:08

I don'think YABU to think it was wrong, IF, she had eaten the thing and concealed the wrapper then it is a very poor example to her DC. Tesco have store security - their responsibility to sort this out - not for you to challenge - if you felt strongly about it you could always tell them?

If she had eaten this item as you suspect - it is theft but I seriously doubt it would make the legal threshold to charge - same as grapes. Costs more to prosecute than to ignore and not in public interest - more of a moral dilemma.

sharedplanet · 07/07/2009 11:23

God wish I had your problems

HecatesTwopenceworth · 07/07/2009 11:27

starving HIV + child prostitute orphans in Africa probably wish they had yours. It's not a competition.

sharedplanet · 07/07/2009 11:54

Right...

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