Falsely Accused of Theft

owen_money wrote: »

I favour a steak and kidney individual pie personally, puff pasty ideally

You're getting your pies and pasties mixed up there....

owen_money wrote: »

In what way? Oh I see 'puff pasty' sorry I cant apologies enough for my abysmal spelling

You're not going to shout at me and call me a thief? I dont think I could face the forum again, everyone would look at me.

Hang around until the forum closes and I'll reduce the accusation.:D

I get accused of theft regularly and I have no idea why! Not full blown accusations, just asking to see my receipt or asking whether I've paid before the security guard allows me to leave. Mostly in a nearby branch of Tesco where I spend hundreds every month which is annoying.

I try not to let it get to me and just think I'm probably an easy target for security guards to seem like they're doing something. I use a powered chair and sometimes need help to put shopping bags on the back of my chair, or to hold open the self closing door in the accessible bathroom which is right near the customer service bit (where the manager is). I also mostly do my shops at night after work when there is agency security staff on and they only ever ask to see my receipt when there is a more senior looking member of staff around.

I use the scan and go things because I struggle to pack the shopping when it's on the checkout and the self service checkouts are difficult to use with my chair as I have to keep moving the chair from basket to bag area and it flags up I've not bagged things if I'm too slow. They dont put checkout staff on in evenings so I just scan as I go and occasionally I get a security check and they've always been fine.

I don't feel I look particularly scruffy either, I come straight from work in a professional environment and most of the actual staff have seen me at some point and have helped me with mart karts etc when my powerchair was broken and I couldn't self propel through the whole store with a basket.

I got fed up of being asked once and asked why the security guards always check I've paid for my shopping and the security guard said he never sees me leaving carrying bags (dur) and I could conceal things underneath myself in my chair. I was quite shocked at that response and when I complained he was sent home... and then I just felt bad that he had been let go from the agency and might have been relying on the income... but the manager told me it's their policy not to accuse people unless you actually suspect they are stealing. I've never stolen anything in my life!

To be fair he seemed a bit thick considering my partner was in the games aisle once and got patted down on the way out because he didn't buy anything but had been seen looking at game cases. I pointed out that all of the game cases are empty anyway XD

It's really embarrassing to be accused like that because people do give me accusatory looks and I live in a large village which makes it worse because there aren't many visibly disabled people so I'm just the crippled shoplifter in their eyes. It happens in my sainsburys local as well. There's a security guard who stands by the door all the time. I get the bus to work every day opposite this shop and he is stood in the same place picking his nose or whatever and then whenever I go in he actually follows me around the aisles. It must all those potentially stolen noodle pots I've shoved into my battery compartment because it's certainly not to help me open the fridge doors or reach things.

I digress - I completely agree it is horrible to be accused if theft when you haven't done anything wrong. I don't know why people do this to me but there is literally nothing I can do about it except get bored of it and complain to the manager like I did before.

In short - you've been treated badly. You can't do much about it. Let it go