Accused of Theft In A Shop

boliston

Mr.Generous wrote: »

I would say put your shopping in a bag before going into another shop that sells the same thing. If you can't do that show a member of staff your goods and receipt when you enter. Don't put yourself in this position. ......

This would make shopping take a lot longer than it needs to - I quite often go into shops already holding an item that I have brought in another shop that they also sell, especially as there is no point in bagging a couple of items you can easily hold without having to buy a bag.

Also I don't like the idea of having to prove innocence when it is up to them to prove guilt as the law says they actually have to SEE you steal, not just THINK you have stolen.

hollydays

You haven't overdone it deanna , you've just come on here and explained.🙂

Rosemary7391

Yep, talking about these things is good. I can be a bit disorganised at checkouts, so what I frequently do is just chuck all my stuff in the trolley any which way as it's scanned, pay, and then scoot off to the side to sort myself out at my leisure. Much less stressful that way! It's even the expected way to do things at Aldi/Lidl, but works fine in other shops too.

Pollycat

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Yep, talking about these things is good. I can be a bit disorganised at checkouts, so what I frequently do is just chuck all my stuff in the trolley any which way as it's scanned, pay, and then scoot off to the side to sort myself out at my leisure. Much less stressful that way! It's even the expected way to do things at Aldi/Lidl, but works fine in other shops too.

It is usually much less stressful that way but I was in B&M last week and wanted to repack my trolley so I went to one of the empty checkouts, unloaded my trolley - I had 6 tins of soup, 12 tins of tomatoes and 8 tins of tuna plus other stuff - and as soon as I'd done that, an assistant came along to open that particular checkout - even though there were another 4 unused checkouts.

She kept handing me stuff to try to hurry me up but I just kept putting them back down again and carried on packing at my own pace.

iammumtoone

I understand why you felt stressed and annoyed I would too and extremely embarrassed in front of the rest of the queue.

Its a very difficult situation as those who are innocent being accused, get annoyed at being questioned. Yet us same people who are honest also get annoyed at those who steel and why they get away. Looked at like that the shops can't do right!

I don't think a member of staff has to see you put the items in your trolley otherwise no one would get caught. I did read somewhere that to be accused of steeling you have to actually leave the shop, if the till assistant had let you do this I am sure it would have been more embarrassing to have the security guard chase you and ask you to return to store :eek:

Therefore try to look at it as the till assistant being helpful in that they gave you the chance to pay (it could have been a genuine mistake on your part) before you could be charged with theft.

I blame the introduction of the bag charge for this situation :rotfl: previously the OP would have been given a bag (if they wanted one or not) then the other till assistant would not have seen the items in the trolley.

McKneff

It boils down to this.
It's up to you to protect yourself from any accusations. It's likely you will in future

It's not anyone else's fault.

hollydays

iammumtoone wrote: »

I understand why you felt stressed and annoyed I would too and extremely embarrassed in front of the rest of the queue.

Its a very difficult situation as those who are innocent being accused, get annoyed at being questioned. Yet us same people who are honest also get annoyed at those who steel and why they get away. Looked at like that the shops can't do right!

I don't think a member of staff has to see you put the items in your trolley otherwise no one would get caught. I did read somewhere that to be accused of steeling you have to actually leave the shop, if the till assistant had let you do this I am sure it would have been more embarrassing to have the security guard chase you and ask you to return to store :eek:

Therefore try to look at it as the till assistant being helpful in that they gave you the chance to pay (it could have been a genuine mistake on your part) before you could be charged with theft.

I blame the introduction of the bag charge for this situation :rotfl: previously the OP would have been given a bag (if they wanted one or not) then the other till assistant would not have seen the items in the trolley.

I'm sure others can come forward and explain this way n more detail, I'm going out now But the law in this area talks about " "appropriating property belonging to another " and clearly if the customer hasn't been seen picking up the item, the staff can not be sure that the items in question belong to ' their' shop and vigilant action is not recommended.
Deanna you are absolutely correct that they should not have done what they did.

This is very basic law.

dekaspace

McKneff wrote: »

It boils down to this.
It's up to you to protect yourself from any accusations. It's likely you will in future

It's not anyone else's fault.

That reminds me of the idea that victims of bullies only have themselves to blame so should keep quiet and hide away and not be noticed!

A few years ago in Lidl my mother was accused by an employee, except in this case it was they tried physically going through her handbag and shopping bag without permission and threatening security on her if she didn't, this was at the till, took about a year to sort as Lidl denied the thing had happened and refused to look at their CCTV, in the end we pushed hard enough that they checked and then admitted we were correct and gave parents compensation (and fired the staff member)

What exactly happened was an accusation was made at which point staff member began without permission to search my mothers bag, (and her handbag which was in trolley too)

I myself 2 years ago had an occasion where I had a bag of chips in a carrier bag in my trolley and staff member asked me what was in it, when I said a bag of chips I was told "are you sure?" as she put her hand in the bag, even then I got a suspicious stare.

I wonder of autism plays a part due to mannerisms, they assume certain body language is suspicious if so its bad training.

Zandoni

Personally I would of protected myself from this sort of accusation but this is the problem with the carrier bag law. It's easy to argue that the op should put things in bags but they brought a trolley instead so it's a tricky one.

iammumtoone

hollydays wrote: »

I'm sure others can come forward and explain this way n more detail, I'm going out now But the law in this area talks about " "appropriating property belonging to another " and clearly if the customer hasn't been seen picking up the item, the staff can not be sure that the items in question belong to ' their' shop and vigilant action is not recommended.
Deanna you are absolutely correct that they should not have done what they did.

This is very basic law.

I can understand that point, however that makes it very easy for shoplifters to operate

I do feel fordeannatrois I would be mortified if that happened to me but at the same time I can't stand thieves (they put the price up of the shopping for the rest of us).

We don't know what would have happened if deannatrios didn't have a receipt, maybe she would have been asked to wait whilst they checked the CCTV to see if she had been close to the area the product was in the store and to look for proof if she took the items. Of course they wouldn't have found any so she would have been 'released' at that point.

Very embarrassing for the innocent person involved, but necessary to stop the shoplifters that do steal.