Tesco Shoplifting - need help.

Nick_C

whiteswan wrote: »

If YOU were accused of being a THIEF and you knew that what you did was NOT intentional - then surely you would feel a little annoyed ?

Now that annoyed feeling would surely grow if the person who called you a thief then continued to lie and lie to you.......

If I was accused of being a thief in your situation I would be shaken and upset. But Tesco had grounds for suspecting you of theft and for arresting you. You did after all leave the store with £14 worth of goods that you had not paid for.

You expect Tesco to believe your innocence - that you had no intention of not paying for the goods. That you made a mistake. But you aren't prepared to reciprocate that understanding.

You accuse the security guard of lying - of deliberately making a false statement with the intention of putting you at a disadvantage. Perhaps he was mistaken, and when he said you rolled up the magazines and tried to conceal them in your coat, perhaps he genuinely believed that that is what he saw.

Is it not also possible that the security guard is telling the truth? You were unwell and in your confused state is it not possible that you rolled up the magazines and put them in your pocket at some point? And this may have been at a point when you were out of sight of the CCTV? You may not have realised that you did this? Or you may have forgotten that you did it, just as you forgot to pay for the magazines? You have after all told us that the side effects of your medication can include problems with memory or concentration. Perhaps you put the magazines in your pocket so you could make that phone call to your manager?

I genuinely think that by prolonging this argument with Tesco, the only person you are hurting is yourself. I think for your own good you should consider yourself lucky that you were not taken unto custody by the Police - that would have been a much worse experience for you. And I do mean lucky - people have been prosecuted in circumstances similar to yours.

I don't expect you to take my advice of course.

If you are going to continue this battle with Tesco, I think their refusal to give you a copy of the CCTV footage is interesting, and gives you a way of pursuing your vendetta. You could make a formal data access request. They will then be forced to either give you the copy or explain their reasons for not doing so. If you think their reasons are invalid (and you will), you could then make a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

The link from Sherambler is interesting. This appears to suggest that Tesco have a blanket policy of refusing to show their CCTV footage, which could be unlawful. They should judge each case on its merits.

As far as I can see, Tesco could have two grounds for refusing to give you a copy of the footage. (1) They are still considering prosecuting you. (2) They could argue that providing you with a copy would involve disproportionate effort, as they would have to use video editing software to obscure the images of all other individuals captured by the camera in order to protect their privacy. If they use the disproportionate effort argument, they should invite you back to the store to view the footage.

whiteswan

Nick_C wrote: »

If I was accused of being a thief in your situation I would be shaken and upset. But Tesco had grounds for suspecting you of theft and for arresting you. You did after all leave the store with £14 worth of goods that you had not paid for.

You expect Tesco to believe your innocence - that you had no intention of not paying for the goods. That you made a mistake. But you aren't prepared to reciprocate that understanding.

You accuse the security guard of lying - of deliberately making a false statement with the intention of putting you at a disadvantage. Perhaps he was mistaken, and when he said you rolled up the magazines and tried to conceal them in your coat, perhaps he genuinely believed that that is what he saw.

Is it not also possible that the security guard is telling the truth? You were unwell and in your confused state is it not possible that you rolled up the magazines and put them in your pocket at some point? And this may have been at a point when you were out of sight of the CCTV? You may not have realised that you did this? Or you may have forgotten that you did it, just as you forgot to pay for the magazines? You have after all told us that the side effects of your medication can include problems with memory or concentration. Perhaps you put the magazines in your pocket so you could make that phone call to your manager?

I genuinely think that by prolonging this argument with Tesco, the only person you are hurting is yourself. I think for your own good you should consider yourself lucky that you were not taken unto custody by the Police - that would have been a much worse experience for you. And I do mean lucky - people have been prosecuted in circumstances similar to yours.

I don't expect you to take my advice of course.

If you are going to continue this battle with Tesco, I think their refusal to give you a copy of the CCTV footage is interesting, and gives you a way of pursuing your vendetta. You could make a formal data access request. They will then be forced to either give you the copy or explain their reasons for not doing so. If you think their reasons are invalid (and you will), you could then make a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

The link from Sherambler is interesting. This appears to suggest that Tesco have a blanket policy of refusing to show their CCTV footage, which could be unlawful. They should judge each case on its merits.

As far as I can see, Tesco could have two grounds for refusing to give you a copy of the footage. (1) They are still considering prosecuting you. (2) They could argue that providing you with a copy would involve disproportionate effort, as they would have to use video editing software to obscure the images of all other individuals captured by the camera in order to protect their privacy. If they use the disproportionate effort argument, they should invite you back to the store to view the footage.

Thank You for this...........

Dave

LadyDee

I think by this time it's quite obvious that the OP is wanting compensation, and thought by coming on here dripping on about something he brought on himself, he'd get people backing him up in his quest. Very few appear to be supportive.

For the first couple of pages I was interested to see what the outcome would be, but really, droning on and on about hurt feelings etc., etc. gets rather boring.

Many years ago my very elderly father walked into a Co-Op with a bottle of milk he'd bought at another shop, and because he had difficulty carrying more than one thing at a time he put the bottle of milk in the very capacious pocket of his raincoat. He was stopped on the way out, challenged about the bottle of milk which an assistant had seen him slip into his pocket and quite rightly taken into the back room to be questioned. He couldn't find the receipt (probably didnt have one) and the manager of the Co-op rang the other shop to check on his story. The assistant there remembered my Dad and was able to confirm the milk had been bought from her store a little while before.

My Dad - having a sense of humour, thought it was a great lark and took great delight in telling everyone about his experience.

Slightly different to the OP who hadn't paid for his goods I know but for goodness sake, does one little hiccup in life deserve all this drama and attention?

Gavin83

whiteswan wrote: »

I will politely disagree in your comment that there is "little point in continuing"

I didn't say that. I said there was little point in continuing if you didn't know what you wanted from all this. If you don't have some sort of direction then you'll just end up going around in circles.

You'll also likely confuse the store. You said originally you wanted an apology and you've now stated you've got this. However you are still continuing to pursue this. The store manager is likely left wondering what else you want now. I always find being clear gets the best results ie: 'this happened and in order to make it better I want this solution'.

You freely admit (or are unwilling to say) what you want from the situation so maybe have a think about it.

JReacher1

Gavin83 wrote: »

I didn't say that. I said there was little point in continuing if you didn't know what you wanted from all this. If you don't have some sort of direction then you'll just end up going around in circles.

You'll also likely confuse the store. You said originally you wanted an apology and you've now stated you've got this. However you are still continuing to pursue this. The store manager is likely left wondering what else you want now. I always find being clear gets the best results ie: 'this happened and in order to make it better I want this solution'.

You freely admit (or are unwilling to say) what you want from the situation so maybe have a think about it.

He wants

An apology - got
his ban withdrawn - got
his clubcard back - got
the staff to be retrained - got

Now he wants the CCTV footage. Once he has got that he will want something else. Some people just never know when to let something rest!

mai_taylor

prowla wrote: »

Many years ago I walked out of a shopping centre and realised I still had a magazine under my arm.

I went back to the shop and paid for it!

I've done this too with a pint of milk in my hand, I had so much on my mind at the time I didn't even notice it. Managed to get back in the shop and pay for it without them knowing though.

People need to have a bit of common sense with things like this, people generally make mistakes and the police officer could obviously tell the security guard was over reacting. I'd imagine the clothes you were wearing contributed to that considerably.

marliepanda

If you really want cctv of you walking out of a store without paying, then keep going.

The security guard was doing his job. Imagine if all a genuine thief had to do was say 'woops' and they'd be let off.

I imagine many thieves go for a loo break, a quick drink, change their mind at the till to go get something else, all to try and distract a security guard into thinking they're a genuine customer.

Luckily this one could do his job properly and got Tesco their property back.

foxtrotoscar_2

Did the OP actually eventually pay for the magazines in the end?

JReacher1

foxtrotoscar wrote: »

Did the OP actually eventually pay for the magazines in the end?

He probably read them while he was waiting for the police to turn up so in the end returned them :-)

engineer_amy

This reminds me of an acquaintance a few years ago. I dont know the person well enough to know if it was a genuine mistake or if there was intent to steal, but she was shopping and placed her handbag into the shopping basket. She picked up a nail polish and placed it in the basket where it apparently managed to roll and ended up inside her handbag. She continued to shop and checked out the rest of the items, forgetting about the nail polish now inside her handbag. As she stepped out of the shop she got a tap on the shoulder and her bag was searched. Nail polish discovered, police called. The police and managers didnt believe the story or accept her offers to pay the couple of pounds for the nail polish and the manager wanted to press charges. Next thing she has to appear in front on the magistrate and gets fined £100 or so for theft. she was most embarrassed that it appeared in the local papers.