Wrongly Accused Shoplifting In Tesco - Help

DCFC79

CHR15 wrote: »

It was hypothetical!!

The OP clearly feels nothing about wasting Police time and resources attending ridiculously trivial incidents.

sorry, i wasnt sure, i do understand what you mean

anguk

kittiej wrote: »

OMG this thread has scared me to death now.

What if you go shopping and don't bother taking/ forget to take your receipt and then get stopped?

It's a scary world out there.

Actually that happened to my son. He'd called into Tesco after work and picked up a pack of frying steak, as he only had the one item he just went through a self-service till and didn't bother with a carrier bag (after all we're constantly being told not to use carriers). When he was leaving the store a security guard stopped him and asked to see his receipt, of course son hadn't bothered to pick it up :rolleyes: so he was marched back to the till. Luckily the person who'd used the till after him had just dropped the receipt on the shelf so security were able to see that he'd pay for it.

My son did ask the security guard why he had been stopped and the answer was because he was just carrying the steak and it wasn't in a carrier bag! So the moral of the story is, if you're going to shoplift in Tesco put the stuff in one of their carrier bags! :rotfl:

oldone_2

anguk wrote: »

My son did ask the security guard why he had been stopped and the answer was because he was just carrying the steak and it wasn't in a carrier bag! So the moral of the story is, if you're going to shoplift in Tesco put the stuff in one of their carrier bags! :rotfl:

With free supermarket carrier bags being the next bad thing to destroy the planet after global warming, this is going to happen more and more.

Crazy_Jamie

oldone wrote: »

With free supermarket carrier bags being the next bad thing to destroy the planet after global warming, this is going to happen more and more.

It's not difficult to avoid though. Whenever I go into a supermarket (or anywhere for that matter) and don't need a carrier bag, I won't take one. I'll then just walk out of the store with the item and the receipt in plain sight. I've actually never been stopped at all when doing that.

cymrubaby

I'd have just shown them my receipt even if you thought you had rights. They do have the right to stop you as you go to leave the store but only if they have a reasonable belief that you took something or if they'd actually witnessed it.

I know you think you've been mistreated, and perhaps the situation you were in did seem a bit extreme, but they were within their rights to protect their stock if they thought it had been stolen.

I don't like to say it but it seems you just made the situation worse by refusing any attempts to rectify the situation. The police officer's time was rather wasted by you refusing to show a slip of paper that would have proven your innocence BEFORE he had to be called.

Also, the person who 'saw' you put your magazines in your bag - if they were inside a Tesco carrier bag why would they have thought they were stolen? I'm certainly not accusing you of stealing anything but perhaps if you'd taken the magazines out of the carrier (as opposed to keeping them in the tesco bag and then putting them into your own bag) and then put them in your bag it's easy to see why someone might jump the gun?

I don't think you have much cause for complaint and I'm fairly certain that if you fired off a letter all you'd get is a standard letter back outlining any policies on stop and search and a basic apology without admitting any liability e.g We're sorry your experience that day did not live up to your expectations blah blah blah.

Perhaps just double bag your mags next time so that the 'flimsy' bag doesn't break - how many mags did you buy??

cymrubaby

sinw wrote: »

What's annoying is the guys who stopped me would not tell why they did, only the fact that they told me a customer had seen me putting something into my bag in the store. I asked numerous times if they were accusing me of shoplifting and clearly they said no, so why would they want to look in ma private bag or have my reciept if not done anthing?? I am here to question such treatment and dont just go through life as a docile robot; if i did what would be next?

Further, i dont mind people having there opinion but when they get insultive and personal thats differant and very rude; i believe this is not in the spirit of mse.

You clearly knew what they meant when they stopped you so why repeatedly question it? They told you the facts - that someone had reported you and they simply wanted to see proof of purchase. If producing said document makes you a 'docile robot' and refusing to give up your receipt makes you some sort of martyr of the cause then we'd have a lot of wasted police and security time wouldn't we?

The security were doing the job they were paid to do. I'm sure no security guard would want to risk their job by just giving you the benefit of the doubt and thinking 'well, he's so insistent he MUST be telling the truth'.

I also agree with their view of protecting the staff member who served you. Whilst in college I worked in a well-known hardware store and a customer went absolutely beserk at me when the thought I'd short-changed her. The supervisor took my till float offline and security escorted me to the staff room until my till money could be counted and the situation could be rectified (turned out I didn't short-change her, she thought she'd had just a £20 note left in her purse when she'd actually spent some of it and had a £10 note left and she apologised to my supervisor for scaring me). But luckily for me I didn't have to come down until she'd left the store - these things can and do turn nasty at times and the Tesco staff were simply protecting their own.

You could clearly see that you were under suspicion but perhaps the way you were freaking out meant they didn't want to antagonise you by using words such as 'shoplifting'. They were trying to keep the situation calm - unlike you.

Stephb1986_2

If I seen you putting stuff in your bag in the store I would of told security you was shoplifting why didn't you put them in your bag at the checkout that would of saved alot of hassel!! And then for you to insist they call the police just because they wanted to prove you had bought them is stupid! It's your own fault. I'm sure many people on this forum has been stopped and asked for a reciept many of times. Imagine if all of them made the fuss you did! I'd rather the police was out dealing with real crimes instead of wasting time on stupid people like you! I hope Tesco tell you to sod off!

sporedude

If I was that security guard I'd have done the same thing. You brought it upon yourself by not showing them the receipt. You werent wrongly accused atall...........

so2006

I think this thread is gettting way tooo out of hand now lol

The op now knows:

* to show the receipt _ There is no rights lol
* Dont waist police time, they could of stopped some chavs hanging around a cornor shop!
* Dont Get scared of tesco.

jancee_2

sinw wrote: »

Yes they could esaily check that i bought the mags cctv and customer service.

Or you could just have shown them your flipping receipt and avoided all this unnecessary drama! They were reasonable. You were unnecessarily obstructive and took police away from a possibly more important job.

If any of this is true...