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Original poster

Please help - absolutely mortified re Tesco 'shop'

31 replies

newname333 · 03/07/2020 01:38

I couldn't find an appropriate forum for this but it's to do with money so...

Ok so I have been having some personal issues and am in a bit of a daze/absent minded headspace. I went to a local Tesco metro late this evening and went I got to the self-checkout to pay, I found that I had forgotten my purse so I told a member of staff and left.

However, when I got home I realised that I still had three of the items that I had picked up - and I haven't paid for them obviously. The total value of the items is less than £5 but I am feeling so embarrassed and ashamed.

I'm not sure what to do now - do I go back and explain what happened and try to give the items back/pay for them? I'm not sure I can show my face again there tbh. Maybe I could pay over bank transfer if I phone Head Office? What if they think I'm a shoplifter?

OP posts:

MushyPeasAreTheDevilsFood · 03/07/2020 01:46

Me, my dh, kids, my parents, my sister, once went out for lunch at a local cafe. When we had finished we all got up chatting away and it wasnt until later that evening we realised nobody paid.
My parents went back the next morning apologetically saying nobody realised and paid then, and the staff just thought it was funny. The bill was pinned on the notice board behind counter.

I was at the counter at asda two years ago and a man came back in from the car park because he realised when he git to the car the cashier had only put one melon through when he had two. She just scanned it and took the money no questions.

It happens. A lot. And i bet most wouldnt go back and pay. As it is your local one id most likely go tomorrow and say you forgot you had them in shereever they were and pay.

DustyMaiden · 03/07/2020 01:48

I would phone them and say you will pop in tomorrow. It will put your mind at rest.

birthdaybelle · 03/07/2020 01:59

Bless you. I have been in a similar head space and I can quite imagine how this could happen. I think go in tomorrow (if you can, don't overly stress about it) and explain what happened. If you can't do that (it would be quite scary) then yes, all head office and I'm sure they'll help you.

MamaLion1319 · 03/07/2020 02:07

I think you should call the police and hand yourself in tbh 😂

birthdaybelle · 03/07/2020 02:09

I mean... if you can't move past it. I personally think just forget it but I know thy are not always possible

Original poster

newname333 · 03/07/2020 02:30

Thank you so much everyone, your replies have really reassured me. Phew!

OP posts:

Monty27 · 03/07/2020 02:48

@MamaLion1319

MrsTerryPratchett · 03/07/2020 02:54

We went to a pub quiz once got absolutely hammered, embarrassed ourselves completely (my female mate snogged me for no apparent reason). Everyone forgot to pay. I went back the next day in the midst of terrible hangover terror/regret.

They wept laughing the bastards. Massive massive tip and all was fine (we didn't ever take the snogging friend out again there).

chancechancechance · 03/07/2020 03:01

I have done this myself and I just went back the next day.

Please don't give yourself a hard time.

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 03/07/2020 03:03

I got home once, lifted my toddler out of the pram and found a rather expensive bottle of vitamin tablets in the pram, my son (aged about 2) had swiped them! I took them back to the shop and explained what had happened, they thought it was hilarious.

FiveShelties · 03/07/2020 03:08

I walked out of a supermarket with a pack of 12 toilet rolls over my wrist. I had paid for the rest of my stuff and only when I opened my car did I realise I had the toilet rolls.

I went back into the store and they laughed and said what an excellent shoplifter I could be having walked out with such a large item. The manager gave me the pack as a 'reward' for being honest. I am paranoid now and check twice that everything is in the trolley/basket.

I could just imagine the headlines in the local press.

WineAndHobnobs · 03/07/2020 03:37

I think you should log a call with 101.

Seriously though, I accidentally 'stole' 3 bottles of water from a petrol station in a middle eastern country where you go to prison for such things. I realised when I got back to the car, then quickly ran back and paid.

The good thing is, you are unlikely to ever do this again.

Don't worry OP - we've all done it.

StoppinBy · 03/07/2020 03:46

I once hung a bag over my wrist (a new one that I wanted to buy) as I shopped then got to the counter and paid for all of my other stuff simply forgetting the bag was even there then walked out through all the security sensors without setting any off.

Once I realised I went back and paid but felt like I had to explain myself over and over lol, I bet the checkout person looked at people a bit more closely after that.

I would call first in your situation as it's not immediately after you walked out of the shop.

Monty27 · 03/07/2020 03:48

OP next time you leave a shop frisk yourself

Monty27 · 03/07/2020 03:55

I got on a train in Lisbon as a tourist many moons ago. I hadn't bought a ticket as at the time where I come from you could legally pay at the destination.
Luckily a lovely Portuguese young woman had started chatting to me because when a guard came through to the carriage she explained I needed to present my ticket.
Honestly, she almost fell off her seat when I said I didn't have one yet.
That beautiful young girl got me out of a shit load of trouble it would seem. Bless her cotton socks. ❤️
We all make mistakes.

MrsAvocet · 03/07/2020 04:18

I had the same experience alwayscrashing only worse. I'd been out with my 18 month old DD to a huge shopping centre and we'd been in loads of shops. When we got back to the car and I lifted her out of the pushchair I found several items in the seat with her. Nothing expensive fortunately, as I couldn't be sure where any of it had come from, so I confess I kept the items. One was a pair of socks that actually fitted me. I can't remember what else.
A few months later she swiped a cordless screwdriver from B&Q - the display one. It wasn't in a box or security tagged so we got as far as our car before we found it. We took that back of course. The guy we returned it to was very amused.
Fortunately she outgrew the shoplifting phase quite quickly, and has grown up into a very law abiding citizen but we do like to remind her of her criminal past periodically!

transformandriseup · 03/07/2020 05:47

I did this by the accident the first time I used self service

If it's a shop I used often I would go back in to apologise but if it wasn't I would forget about it.

thatone · 03/07/2020 06:09

Similar thing happened to me only I couldn't go back so I called Head Office. They said they had no mechanism for taking payment over the phone, so I donated the amount to charity instead.

MummyGoingItAlone · 03/07/2020 06:20

I’m pretty sure I’ve done the same but cannot think of an example. One thing I did do, in a brain fog like you say, is pay on self checkout for a bag of £20 worth of shopping then walk out without the bag. It was literally 2 hours later at home when I realised! I had to drive back and ask but thankfully somebody had handed it in and it has been put aside for me! So embarrassing

ThisIsNotARealAvo · 03/07/2020 06:22

I really wouldn't worry about it. The shop will not notice or care. If you go back you will be able to put it right but don't spend any time stressing about it.

JulieTheObscure · 03/07/2020 06:25

Oh yes, just call the store and tell them you'll come back in to pay!

If your worried about being seen as a shop lifter, I'd go through the store rather than head office as the shop themselves probably wouldn't get wind of the fact your paid that way.

I have to say, you don't sound like much of a hardened criminal to me if you alerted the staff before you left that you'd forgotten your purse so were leaving your items! I think they'll laugh.

Scarby9 · 03/07/2020 06:25

My DM and I wet to the garden centre for houseplants. She found a nice notebook as a present for someone in the gift section as we walked through. When we found the plants we wanted, she popped the notebook in her pocket so that we could easily carry the plants to the till.
From there we went to a new cafe for coffee. You went to the counter to order but when I tried to pay, they said they would bring the bill to the table to pay later. It came with the drinks and scones. We had a lovely chat,including with the servers behind the counter, and went home.
A couple of hours later my dad returned andover lunch we told him about our morning.
'Was it expensive?' he asked of the cafe. And we realised neither of us had paid.
I went to dash back to pay, grabbed a fleece, which turned out to be my DM's, and the notebook fell out of the pocket.
In my DM's defence, we did not know she was starting to show signs of dementia, but I had no excuse.
Cue an afternoon of returning to the scene of our two crimes and paying. They were all very nice about it.
Next time we went in the cafe, they had changed their system for paying, so maybe we weren't the only ones.

Millie2013 · 03/07/2020 06:27

My friend (in the early days of a significant bereavement) once drive off without paying for fuel. She had a visit from a policemen, who escorted her back to the garage to pay. Police and garage staff were lovely, friend was mortified

When my DD was a toddler, she must have grabbed an elephant from the Noah’s Arc on display in the White Company. I only noticed when we got home (she’d dropped it into the basket under her buggy. I went back there the next weekend to return it. Thankfully, DD is now 7 and has given up shoplifting 😂

Natsku · 03/07/2020 07:08

My mum once forgot to pay for petrol, she went in to get some drinks and snacks and paid for them but wasn't charged for the petrol but didn't notice. We then went to a picnic area right next to the petrol station for our picnic. A man came over to us, very angry and shouting, demanding to know why we stole petrol. My parents tried to explain that if we were going to steal petrol we'd hardly have a picnic afterwards right next to the petrol station.

Lauren83 · 03/07/2020 07:42

I did it last week in Morrison's, I had the babies car seat in the supermarket trolley and it was only when I got back to the car I lifted it out and realised something had been under it, I had already put my toddler in the car so next time I went in I just took one of the same items to the till and said can I pay you for this I took it by accident last time. They were fine just a bit bemused by the honestly I think

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