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The Budding Shoplifter

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  • The Budding Shoplifter

    I thought this was funny.

    Several weeks ago a guy came up to the service desk with his son (4 years old, maybe 5) to check out. Now our service desk stops short of the glassed in entranceway, so there's a space a few feet square between the desk and the foyer. Right now there's a rack of street maps in there. At the time it was empty.

    So while the father was checking out, the son stood in the empty space with his back in the corner between the desk and the front wall. After the father paid, he said to the son "Would you get the door for me?"

    So the kid starts sidestepping his way to the door, careful to keep his back against the wall, away from us (myslef and the father). I found his behavior more than a little unusual. So when he rounds the corner to the door (still keeping his back against the wall - now at the glassed in area) both the father and I saw why he was doing that.

    He was holding a StressBall and was trying to "sneak" it out of the store.

    Well I didn't even have a chance to say anything before the father reacted and yelled at the kid "HEY! You bring that back right now!!!!!!!"

    The kid bolted. He ran right out the door and into the parking lot, oblivious to the danger, with the father hot on his heels. He actually made it past the first row of parking spaces and almost to the berm when his father grabbed him by his jacket, hauled him off his feet and carried him back in to the store, whereupon he pulled the StessBall out of his hands, gave it to me, and apologized profusely for his son's behavior.

    I thanked him for his honesty and told him not to worry about it. As they were leaving, I could see the guy yelling very forcefully at the kid. I'd imagine he got his seat warmed when they got home.

    Right afterward one of the ASMs came over, pointed at them and gave me a WTF? look. I laughed and explained what happened. ASM just rolled his eyes and went into the front office.

    Hopefully this kid had his shoplifting tendancies nipped in the bud. At the very least, the father's reaction was a refreshing change of pace from the horror stories I've read on this site where the parents defend/excuse their children's thieving ways.
    "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

    RIP Plaidman.

  • #2
    That reminded me of when I was about 5 or 6.

    I shoved a bunch of candy in my pockets at the drugstore, and when we got home I snuck under my bed to eat my loot.

    Of course, this meant I was being quiet...way too quiet...I remember my mom yanking me out from under the bed by my feet and hauling me back to the drug store. (Which meant bundeling up all of my other siblings (4) and packing us back into the car), marching me up to the store manager where I had to pay for the candy and hand him back what was left, and apologize. While I was threatened with "Just wait till you Father gets home!" I'm pretty sure she never mentioned the situation to him...(as I am still alive).

    If I recall, the manager was quite kind about the whole thing, but I'm pretty sure he was almost just as afraid of my mother I was.

    Never shoplifted again.
    Last edited by Maevis; 12-05-2006, 05:35 PM.

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    • #3
      Great dad !

      When I was about three, I shoplifted a book from the bookshop. I really, really, REALLY wanted this book (no idea what it was!) and my mum wouldn't buy it for me. So i took it. When we got home and my mum found the book, she knew immediately what I'd done of course, and marched me straight back to the bookshop to return it.

      Unfortunately, the bookshop lady was not the brightest spark on the flint, and said, "Oh, its all right, she can have it !"

      "Er, no. " says mum, "She can't have it, because she stole it and she needs to learn not to steal"

      Cue argument between mum and the dimbulb in the shop who can't see that my mum is trying to do the right thing !
      A person who is nice to you, but not nice to the waiter is not a nice person
      - Dave Barry

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      • #4
        I think that would be one of the very few times that you could use the "the customer is always right!" line, and it wouldn't be so bad.

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        • #5
          Whilst I was working customer service the other day, we got a phone call and fellow worker answered the phone. It was a quick call, everything seemed normal...until she called the manager over as soon as she hung up the phone.

          Turns out a mom caught her wee brat shoplifting, was taking the kid back to the store with the item, and wanted management to be there when she got up there to put a good scare into the kid...threaten him with jail and all that. HAHAHA! Awesome, I love good parents.

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          • #6
            My six-year-old took some little bunny figure from Michael's last year. We discovered it while we were driving home. She not only had to walk back in with me to return it and apologize, she was not allowed to go to see Cars with the family that night. She and I spent the evening doing laundry. She sobbed no end. I am hoping she learned her lesson.
            "Ignorance is no excuse for a law."
            .................................................. ..................- Alfred E. Newman

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            • #7
              That's a great dad!

              I had a woman come into my store with her son in tow and return something. Not sure if her son had stolen it or what, she just mentioned that she was certain they hadn't paid for the item, and she would like to give it back to us. I gave them a hearty smile, thanked her for her honesty, and they went along on their merry way.

              It makes me feel good inside to know there are some honest people out there.
              I will not shove “it” up my backside. I do not know what “it” is, but in my many years on this earth I have figured out that that particular port hole is best reserved for emergency exit only. -GK

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              • #8
                Aw, if only every parent with a sticky fingered kid would do that! It would save them growing up to be like the little toads that try to steal the charity box from our shop. We had to chain it to the counter to stop them from just lifting it and running.

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