My i-pod! Mine!

[customersruinmylife]

Sorry, this happened to me not ten minutes ago, and I am still seething. Why do the derranged always come to me? So, I am shopping, buying some food in the supermarket, I have my i-pod headphones in. I'm not listening to music, but they are still in. The wire from the headphones goes down to my right hand ZIPPED UP pocket.

I am loading something into my trolley, when I feel something at my pocket. I look down and theres a kid, unzipping my pocket and taking out my i-pod!

Me: Hey! What do you think you're doing?
Kid: I was just looking!

I grab it off him. The little mutants mother appears.

Mother: Whats going on?
Me: He just took my i-pod out my pocket!
Kid: I was just looking! I wanted to see what they look like!
Mother: He was just looking for goodness sake! He wants Santa to bring him one!

They walk away.

It is very disturbing to see a mother encouraging her child to be a pickpocket.

[Giggle Goose]

OK, I'm sorry, but it's hysterical how bratty some kids can be. I don't think it's funny that it happened to YOU, of course.

But very sad at the same time. I mean, in your POCKET? C'mon.

[IT Grunt]

I'm sorry, but if I caught someone reaching into my pocket to steal something, that hand would cease functioning and require a cast, I'm so paranoid I wouldn't even think. There's no such thing as 'just looking' when it's in someone else's pocket! I bet you'll be seeing that mother on the news in a few more years, wailing as her son is led off in cuffs to spend quality time in the gray bar hotel.

EDIT: And who /doesn't/ know what an i-Pod looks like at this point? Sheesh...

[Gabrielle Proctor]

What the hell? Sounds like his mom is lacking in the knowledge of common courtesy and wasn't able to pass it on to her brat.

[protege]

Mother: Whats going on?
Me: He just took my i-pod out my pocket!
Kid: I was just looking! I wanted to see what they look like!
Mother: He was just looking for goodness sake! He wants Santa to bring him one!

Is it just me, or do any of you think she's one of those people who would bitch if someone did that to *her*

[Emrld]

hmm and then there is me who would be requesting a manager and threatening charges of attempted theft . . .don't care if it ticks Mom off cause apparently she is leaving the raising of her child to others.

[marty]

That's why I grow my fingernails out fairly long--that little bastard would have lost a finger.

[jb17kx]

I would have grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm around behind his back before propelling him vigoriusly back to his parents. What nerve!

[drunkenwildmage]

Chances are, he would end up in a heap on the floor.. and that would be my reflex reaction.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I would have making a HUGE ass scene. Security and the cops would have been called.

[Broomjockey]

I would just like to remind people that this is not only a child people are talking about assaulting, but we do not condone violence on this board. So if we could curb the bloodlust a bit, that would be good.

[CaroPhoenix]

I wouldn't be violent, but I would take his arm and take his butt to the customer service desk, asking for a manager, asking for his parents (or in this case his mother) to be called up to the front, and to have the cops called 'cos I'd be wanting to press charges against him. It's in a zipped up pocket. All the little guy could see would be the headphones & the headphones line going to the pocket. He knew there was a listening device, but wouldn't know it was an iPod until he opened the pocket & pulled it out. Thereby, in my own mind, makig him a pick pocket, but that's just me. But yeah, I'd definitely want to press charges against him.

[Becks]

I'd do like idrinkarum says.

Holy biscuit.

Some children and their mothers. What IS this world coming to?

[XCashier]

Mother: Whats going on?
Me: He just took my i-pod out my pocket!
Kid: I was just looking! I wanted to see what they look like!

"Then go to the electronics section and look at their display! Don't take mine!"

I like idrinkarum's suggestion. I do not condone violence against children, but there's no way that kid's actions were innocent. A nice visit from Officer Friendly, complete with a matched set of bracelets, might just scare some sense into the Artless Dodger and Mommie Dreariest.

[Boozy]

He knew there was a listening device, but wouldn't know it was an iPod until he opened the pocket & pulled it out. Thereby, in my own mind, making him a pick pocket, but that's just me.

customersruinmylife didn't say how old this child was. He may have only been about 5 years old. That's possibly too young a) to realize that MP3 players other than iPods exist, and b) to form malicious intent to steal.

The mother was sucky, not the child.

(If it turns out this kid was old enough to know better, that's another story...)