I got caught shoplifting

[RoseBiscuitll]

I really didn't know what topic to choose for this

I'm mortified, I got caught shoplifting in boots today, I was stealing baby milk and a facial moisturiser. I'm so ashamed of myself. It was in the city center aswell. They didn't call police but they took my details, took a picture and told me I can't return to the store again

Will this picture and my details go around to the other shops near by or will it just go to the other boots shops.

I can't believe I was stupid enough to do this! I'm so embarrassed and also feel really guiltily!

So 1 tin a week will cost about £40 for a month. That's £6 more than she is receiving and her baby is on 2 tins a week.

OP

Please find help local to you.

Websites like Olio, too good to go, freecycle, nextdoor etc often have things available.

Check your local council website for food banks, community shops, community pantries etc.

Check how much you are paying for utilities.

If you need moisturiser, I buy aqueous cream from Amazon, cheap as chips £6 for a massive tub, you can buy tubes for about £2.50 from chemist's. Get a referral for a foodbank, make sure you are on the cheapest tariff for things like gas & electric, look at Martin Lewis's site Moneysavingexpert.com for lots of ways to make your money go further.

I've been on the basic rate of Universal Credit, and it isn't enough to live on. Maybe for a month or two living really cheaply, but there isn't enough to buy clothes and other essential things

When I was first a single parent & skint, I shopped at Farmfoods as it was the only way I could afford to feed me & ds, I could buy enough food to feed us both for half what it would cost in one of the big supermarkets, including things like washing powder & toilet rolls. Is your baby starting on solids? Hopefully, once you start, you won't need as much formula, if you can cook things from scratch it will be cheaper for you to manage.

What if everybody earned enough to be able to feed themselves and their children?

Why are you talking about shopping for baby clothes in a shop? eBay? Vinted? You don't need to go into one.

I agree with one poster though. You don't seem that contrite actually. I can't place my finger on it but you seem not to be now.

I have sent 2 links for op to claim discretionary housing benefit
. Which is different to uc or normal housing benefit. But it seems to have got missed. I'm not linking it again it should be easy to find.

Why is everyone so fixated on the idea that op HAS to feel extremely remorseful for what she did? It really wasn't a TERRIBLE thing. Rape and murder is terrible, not stealing some baby milk. Sorry , but it just isn't. I bet over half of you have spoken badly about somebody and or was perhaps rude to a waitress once... did you run back and apologize and beg for forgiveness?

You can, look up re-lactation. It takes a lot of determination to get it re-established but now you know how much the alternative costs...

im sorry op you’re getting such bad advice. Boots is using facial recognition. Factually and boots are open about this. And it’s not about sharing, they upload the image to the software and every company who uses that software gets notified if the person in the image enters their store, that’s how it is shared, they all use the same software system.

you will see the little security camera in store or just outside. I don’t know why people come on and post erroneous info. They post credentials and then nonsense so you beleive them, either I guess as they are simply mistaken or they want you to feel better.

you can google there are dozens of articles on it. Boots uses facial recognition and that’s why they took your photo, all stores who use this system will be notified if you enter, and all boots stores.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13208913/Boots-shoplifting-CCTV-security-monitoring-centre.html

https://www.facewatch.co.uk/2023/03/09/inside-boots-24-hour-shoplifting-cctv-hub-catching-thieves-in-the-act/

If your on universal credit the government pay 85% of childcare fees

She's getting £34 healthy start vouchers towards her milk the rest she will need to use her benefits for but as her baby is 6 months old and will be weaning she will be reducing formula

This is how I feel. Irrespective of this thread, I hate how as a society shoplifting has become so normalised. It's like we've just lost a sense of integrity. You often see threads where people are, for example, accidentally undercharged by a large amount and the majority are saying "good for you, treat yourself". It genuinely makes me so sad.

I was replying to someone who said it was only £10 a tin and that £34 covered that.

Stealing baby milk, once, is sad and excusable. Putting whatever you fancy in your baby's buggy whenever you fancy stealing stuff isn't- it is common theft and a criminal offence. I hope you get caught and prosecuted. Your values are skewed. Every item that is stolen adds up and retailers up their prices to cover petty shoplifting - it means the rest of us pay even more.

Sma little steps milk is only £7.95 in Tesco and if you use the follow on you can get points as it’s allowed for follow on formulas

I think she is bullshitting about that to be honest.

She's certainly full of it.

But not one you can’t afford.

Facebook is littered with cots AND single beds being given away for free or for £10/15. And lots of people offer to deliver it for an extra £5. You couldn’t afford a £120 bed so you shouldn’t have bought a £120. Or you should have been putting £20 aside every month in order to afford it.

You are on a very very low income (UC gives more than £700 a month and you’ve been asked over and over to explain why yours is so low but you won’t). It means you have to budget and plan ahead, really extremely. You need to learn money management like putting money aside or buying what you can actually afford which is second hand. You could have even bought a travel cot for for £35 and then had a few years to put money aside for a single bed.

The decision you made has led you to steal. And now you don’t have the money for milk powder and food. It means you made the wrong decision. Surely you can see there were other options than the £120 cot? You couldn’t afford it.

I hope some of this is getting through to you. Or you’re going to be in this situation again, you’ll get caught and end up much worse or with a criminal record. You’ll end up looking back and realising how badly you threw your life away.

Well said

@Wineandcupcakes You're referring to my advice which was correct. As mentioned this is relevant to an area of law I work on, sadly I know this area inside out. You're referring to retrospective facial recognition - this is where Boots can send a CCTV image of a serious unknown offender to police to search on existing police databases to see if they can identify them. This is for police investigations, NOT the private facial recognition technology that is used in real time on doorways by stores like Sports Direct (which is called live facial recognition, which is what OP was worried about, ie being stopped at the doorway of stores due to facial recognition alerts - Boots does not use live facial recognition).

Security guard already apprehended OP so she is not in the unknown category, he took her name and said he didn't want the address and that he wouldn't report her to the police (police tend not to investigate theft under £200 anyway).

Boots are not a client of Facewatch (which is the most popular live facial recognition supplier for retailers), Boots do not use live facial recognition. The story Facewatch posted about Boots is about their CCTV room.

Hope that clarifies.

Good God, there are some nasty people on here!!
I'd love to see all the middle class mummies sneering at OP survive on £450pm for bills, food, clothing etc
For those saying oh she had the money; money she hoped to spend on food ffs
Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before sneering and judging.

Op have you ever written down everything you have coming in and what you have going out and properly budgeted as its actually quite surprising and usually just a budgeting problem.

Where do you get £450 from ?

She says she gets a total of £700 a month and has to pay £250 in rent out of that. That leaves her with £450.

The problem there is that UC and child benefit is more than £700 a month but the OP won’t answer any questions about her finances or why she is getting such a low amount.