somerfield's 'scan your own shopping' checkouts

maloogalooga

last week i shopped at somerfield and used the scan it yourself machine,i scanned my shopping,put my card in,took the option of £20 cashback,got distracted by the assistant telling me to bring my bottles over to get the security caps taken off- took my card out and walked away without my money!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i called the shop and they checked the security camera and said that 2 women came straight over to the machine after me-took my cash and pocketed it,then used a somerfield saver card when they paid for thier shopping!! so i suggested that they should get the persons address/id from the card and we should do something about it-because thats theft-right?
anyway ,they said leave it with them,but they called my hubby 2 days ago and told him to forget it-any advice b4 i call them again?????????

cheekymole

difficult one malooga, it's basically theft and I think they should do something about it as you say you were distracted by the assistant.
Sorry can't really help but I certainly wouldn't let it drop

maloogalooga

thanks, i'm considering calling them and telling them that i will go to the police and see what they can do,its only £20 but still-AN INJUSTICE IS AN INJUSTICE-HA!!HA!!

Hintza

But you left the money; it really is no one elses fault!!

robt_2

Whilst I do symapthise with you I think the only possible way you would get it back is out of goodwill from Somerfield. I would imagine there would be too much 'red tape' for Somerfield to provide the details of the saver card holder?

J_P_S

data protection act wouldnt stop them giving the details if its to solve or prevent a crime, i am sure thats how it works.

somerfield may give it you as a gesture of goodwill, clearly it is partly your fault but they still stole what wasnt theirs.

if they took £20 out of the till somerfield would call the police, i dont see how this is any different.

Alfie_E

J_P_S wrote:

if they took £20 out of the till somerfield would call the police, i dont see how this is any different.

It’s not their money?

Malooga, I don’t see what Somerfield can do. To take it further, you’d really need to go to the police. The police can get the details that Somerfield have, and go ask the people who took your money why they pocketed it. That assumes they did pocket it. It’s conceivable that they went and handed it over to the police, which would have been the correct thing to do. If the police do catch up with them, they’ll probably just ask them to do the handing-over-to-the-police thing, there and then.

rwilts

If you want the hassel then go to Police , its theft it wasnt their money. Its on cctv and this will be excellent evidence and as previously stated under data protection Police can apply for information to assist in detection of crime. However its statements and poss court case (criminal) may result ! is twenty quid worth it? Just use MSE to recoup another £20.

Edit further to the last post, Police will not be interested in recovering the money for you , its dodgy ground and could result in complaints, if you go to the police it will be a criminal complaint, or go see a solicitor

Manchester_Lucy

It's easy to see £20 and think, 'ooohhh look, some dozy sod has dropped/left £20, oh well, finders keepers' etc, but it might surprise everyone to hear that there's an actual offence called 'Theft by Finding'. Personally I think the police would pursue it and I'd let them do their job. The 'finder' has treated you as if you're a faceless sucker so why not swing a bit of bad luck their way? I'm not a great believer in allowing bad deeds to go unpunished.

Hence why another poster has said that such things are meant to be handed into the police. Although ideally, the 'finder' should have put it into an envelope and given it to the store manager, since your main port of call is the store.

Go see the Citizens Advice Bureau - cheaper than a solicitor. They'll steer you right for your intial advice.

Also. never allow anyone to distract you when you handling money, that's how pickpockets, petty thieves and con artists work. Focus on what you're doing as you would when for example driving, ignoring anything that's not immediately important. A friend of mine recently had his wallet stolen by a girl in a library while her accomplice distracted my mate by asking, touch of irony to this bit, where the law books were!

I've left the money at a cashpoint before now but luckily the machine has sucked it back in and registered it as still in my account!

J_P_S

sorry my last post was probably a bit misleading, i know its not somerfields money but theft is theft.

i probwouldnt go to the police though, not worth it for £20, if somerfielf offer it to you ( i doubt it) then cool but not worth the hassle for £20 imo.

put it down to experience, i bet you wont be distracted again!!

maloogalooga

Thanks Everyone For Posting-like The 'revenge On The Person That Treated You Like A Faceless Sucker' Bit-ha!!ha!!.
Will Try To Call Them And Appeal To Thier Generous Nature!!-they Also Had A £300 Till Snatch The Same Day-surely They Can Write £20 Off!!