Disturbing Situtation I've Witnessed Lately

[IDoDis]

I now use a cross body bag and make it a habit to never put my purse in a shopping cart. I know purse straps can be cut, etc, but I figure it is not as easy for someone to get as a purse left in a cart. I see way too many purses in carts with the owners back to the cart while shopping. I use to a be guilty of doing that too.

My purse was stolen from a grocery cart 12 years ago when I had my back turned from the cart. I was looking for something in the frozen food area where the tall freezers are. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man walk swiftly past me, but I was not focusing on him. Then he walked by very quickly again. Again, I remember it, but was only thinking about it mildly like, "That guy must be in a hurry." The first walk-by was to see if I was paying attention. The 2nd time, he grabbed my purse. I didn't see it but I'm pretty certain that's what happened. I didn't notice my purse was missing until I got to the check-out counter and had loaded all of my groceries onto the counter. Then I went to grab my purse to pay, but it was gone.

A store employee said the thieves usually take the cash and throw the purse in a trash can or dumpster so they are not caught with any evidence.

A store employee helped me search the trash cans and dumpsters behind the store but we didn't find my purse. I went home and canceled all of cards and found out the thief had used my debit card at a gas station approximately 10 minutes after the time I estimated the purse was stolen. That's how fast they are

A couple of days later I got a call from a post office about 5 miles away that said they had my purse as it had been dropped in a mailbox and ended up at the post office. So I got everything back, at least.

Now whenever I see a woman not paying attention to her purse at the grocery store, I either keep an eye on it while I'm in the aisle or I go up and tell her nicely to keep her purse on her shoulder or in her hands and that I learned that lesson the hard way. I usually just take my debit card now and leave my purse at home when I go grocery shopping.

 

[Ms.Grumpy]

My neighborhood CVS had a very nasty incident when one of its employees ran after a man who had shoplifted in the store. The employee ended up suffocating and killing the thief. I believe this happened a month or two ago and it was all over the news.

 

[pandora174]

Feel horrible for that little boy. We saw something similar last year at Wal Mart a young couple just walked out with a loaded cart, groceries basically & not bagged so it was obvious they had not paid.

The security was walking quickly after them. Don't know what happened after that.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I feel for people who steal to eat but these stories are nothing like that. In my world theft is pretty low on the totem pole as far as crimes are concerned, not that I steal it's just that it's no-where near the magnitude of crimes that ruin lives IMHO. Still, it's unbelievable that a woman would drag along a child to steal or that a grown man would steal because he wants a TV. Makes me feel less safe to know people would stoop so low for nothing

 

[Belle Ella]

I've been in retail for going on 6 years now and some of the things you see people try and do and steal is just ridiculous! And it is definitely policy that outside of our 'security' team we are not to interfere with someone shoplifting or if someone wants into our registers and threatens us, we're not to put up any resistence because it's not worth us getting injured in the process. Especially when they're all just getting caught on camera in the first place. Geniuses. But you'd be surprised how much you can cut back on when employees are actually active in asking people shopping there if they need help with anything. That's usually what happens when we think someone is suspicious.

What really annoys me are the people at our store who steal from each other. It happens more often than we'd like, movies go missing from our break room, things taken from lockers, even food from our food bank collection bins magically disappeared.