Shoplifter Does Not Like Being Watched

[TelephoneAngel]

This happened a long long time ago.

I used to work in a sweetshop which had the till in the middle of the counter and shelves of sweets either side.

We had a regular customer who would come in every night while i was cashing up (I was frequently on my own)and buy a newspaper and lean on the shelves for a while while making talk about absolutely nothing.I was always polite to him.

Then one night out of the corner of my eye i saw him grab some chocolate off the shelf he was leaning on and wrap it in his newspaper, this was why he always leant on the shelf with his newspaper across the choclate then.

I rang the silent under counter bell which summoned the owner to the shop and kept the customer there untill the owner arrived then told him what i had seen.

He asked the customer to unravel the newspaper and inside were about half a dozen chocloate bars he had not paid for! And he had been doing this every night for years!

The customer then said "I don't want telephoneangel to serve me in future, I don't like it that she observes what I'm doing like that"

The owner said "I was just about to say you were barred in future anyway so she won't look at you anymore".

[Mishi]

Good grief! I think his morals/manners are broken!

[LillFilly]

Ooh. Nice!

Reminds me of a story I read (on a men's forum; can't find it anymore but I think I read it on dontmakehermad.com) about how this guy in line watched the little girl of the customer in front of him squish dove chocolate bars one by one. He told the little girl to stop and informed the cashier what she was doing, which escalated from the mother being furious at him for talking to her child to the mother calling the manager and accusing him of 'touching' her child! The manager was all on the mother's side without even knowing the whole story and was preparing to detain the poor guy for police until the guy's friend who was standing behind him the whole time decided to step forward; and luckily was an off-duty police officer! The manager got in a whole lot of trouble and the mother ended-up paying some $30 for a box of destroyed chocolate.

I hate shoplifters and people who destroy product or let their kids do so!

[depechemodefan]

Until TelephoneAngel saw the candy being stolen, there was no way to pin it on the guy, but didn't the owner notice that a lot of candy was being stolen every night?

[Sandman]

Ooh. Nice!

Reminds me of a story I read (on a men's forum; can't find it anymore but I think I read it on dontmakehermad.com) about how this guy in line watched the little girl of the customer in front of him squish dove chocolate bars one by one. He told the little girl to stop and informed the cashier what she was doing, which escalated from the mother being furious at him for talking to her child to the mother calling the manager and accusing him of 'touching' her child! The manager was all on the mother's side without even knowing the whole story and was preparing to detain the poor guy for police until the guy's friend who was standing behind him the whole time decided to step forward; and luckily was an off-duty police officer! The manager got in a whole lot of trouble and the mother ended-up paying some $30 for a box of destroyed chocolate.

I hate shoplifters and people who destroy product or let their kids do so!

I would have immediately called corporate for the store and have the manager FIRED if someone did that to me.

[XCashier]

The customer then said "I don't want telephoneangel to serve me in future, I don't like it that she observes what I'm doing like that"

Aww, poooooor baby! Does poor baby not like being punished for stealing?!

The owner said "I was just about to say you were barred in future anyway so she won't look at you anymore".

PWND! Too bad he couldn't have been arrested.

Perhaps the owner should notify other nearby shops about this jerk, he's probably been stealing from them too.

[TelephoneAngel]

Until TelephoneAngel saw the candy being stolen, there was no way to pin it on the guy, but didn't the owner notice that a lot of candy was being stolen every night?

Probably not, the shelves would be filled up during the day at various times, but towards evening when there were other jobs to do, they would run down a bit, (and be filled up again first thing in the morning) and if he took one of each sort there would no great big gaps to see and wonder about.

[TelephoneAngel]

Aww, poooooor baby! Does poor baby not like being punished for stealing?!

PWND! Too bad he couldn't have been arrested.

Perhaps the owner should notify other nearby shops about this jerk, he's probably been stealing from them too.

As I say, it was a long time ago, I don't remember if the police were called, or if anyone nearby was notified, or if they were, I wasn't told.

[Andara Bledin]

Until TelephoneAngel saw the candy being stolen, there was no way to pin it on the guy, but didn't the owner notice that a lot of candy was being stolen every night?

Probably not, the shelves would be filled up during the day at various times, but towards evening when there were other jobs to do, they would run down a bit, (and be filled up again first thing in the morning) and if he took one of each sort there would no great big gaps to see and wonder about.

Also, I suspect that candy shops have a higher-than-average level of shrink, since their clientele has a much lower average age, and some kids just don't really get the whole "shoplifting is bad" thing.

And some do get it, but don't care because their parents are failures and they've learned that until their 18 (at least in the states), nothing they do will stick on their record.

^-.-^

[jjllbb]

I would have immediately called corporate for the store and have the manager FIRED if someone did that to me.

To be fair, the manager would have been in trouble anyway if she had let some child molester just walk out just because she hadn't seen it happening.

Either way both parties needed to stay so that authorities could sort things out.