Storytime!: Tell your shoplifting stories here

[flyonthewall]

Your best shoplifter stories here please!

Okay, so I'll start with a new story.
Scene: Lazy weekday morning. Fly is currently on the retail team.
Who: Mother and son in stroller.
How: Son grabbed something, hid it in his stroller and mom brought it back sheepishly. Major credit to the mother for bringing it back.
Lesson learned: Strollers are a dangerous tool used by toddlers for criminal mischief and security dudes have off days too.

Mine so far:

Shoplifting Granny drives away in her Bentley SUV

Justice for Fly is served

Justice for Fly is NOT served







P.S. I love storytime.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I actually have a shoplifting story.

Several decades ago a local B. Dalton bookstore had a Software Etc. store inside itself. Whilst shopping one day I noticed another customer secreting a certain software package in his coat and walking out of the Software Etc. section. He dumped it in the bookstore section. Then he walked over to another software store and attempted to steal the same program, which happened to be a cheap card printing program. (Why shoplift such a cheap program?)

I mention this guy's attempts at both stores. At the book store they said if he didn't leave the store with it they couldn't do anything.

At the second software store they were unconcerned. They told me that when a new game came out they were so involved in playing that game on the in-store computer that someone could walk away with the entire store and they wouldn't notice.

I didn't take advantage of that information.

[katzklaw]

many years ago i worked in a big box hardware store... not the orange one, but the other one that's just as big. they had an appliance and TV section (that area was very popular every sunday afternoon LOL everyone hanging around watching the game)

anyway. this was long ago enough that flat screen TVs weren't a thing yet. if you wanted a big TV, you ended up with a box the size of a refrigerator. lol i worked the garden gate. one day i had a guy come strolling up to the gate from the BACK door into the garden center (the one closer to the appliance/TV section) with a huge TV (around $700ish) on a flatbed cart. i stopped him and asked to see a receipt. he starts spinning this story about how he bought the TV, and when he got it home, he realized it didn't have picture in picture, so he brought it back to return it, but then when he got into the store, he realized he forgot his receipt, so now he was just gonna go back home with his TV and come back later with the receipt. i managed to get a manager involved, and they convinced him that they would "hold the TV at the gate until he came back with his receipt"...

guess who never came back to return that tv? LOL

TL;DR i stopped someone with a creative story from walking a $700 TV out the garden gate at a big-box hardware store way back when... XD

[figgyx]

I have two shoplifting stories.

Years ago I was working a girl scout cookie booth at the front of a grocery store. This woman came running past us and was quickly apprehended by store security and cuffed in front of myself and my group of young girls. Apparently she was walking through the store drinking 40 ounce beers that she never paid for. Bonus: she also earns mother of the year award for screaming out about who is going to watch her young children she left home alone if she gets arrested.

Years before this one I was working in the warehouse of a big box hardware store. Part of my job entailed taking stuff to customer's cars. The dude working in plumbing and electrical asked me to take a box to the front for his customer. I was stopped at the front by the head cashier who decided to open the box. Holy crap there was no sink in the box but a VCR and a band saw. Dude got arrested and I was believed to be his unwilling accomplice. I had to go to court to testifty but he must have plead guilty because I was never called.

[otter]

I was a terrible book shoplifter as a toddler, apparently. Mom always brought me back and bought the book when she realized XD

[WishfulSpirit]

When I was working at the retailer that rhymes with cheers we had a guy try to return about three hundred bucks worth of stolen clothing. Since he had no receipt policy dictated he got a Store gift card. As soon as he walked out the door my manager hit the void previous transaction button on the register. Thus making his ill-gotten gift card worthless. Muahaha.

[greek_jester]

I once almost accidentally shoplifted.

It was coming up to Christmas and I was walking around a local model shop writing down models I was interested in while chatting with a friend. The pen kept going through the paper so I picked up a box to rest the list on. 10 minutes later we were just about to walk out the door when I realised I was still holding the box I immediately turned around to put it back, and ran nose-first into the security guard who was just about to nab me. A tad awkward!

[Limescale]

One that comes to mind for me isfrom my days working at a cult merchandise (i.e. movie and comic specialty) store in London.

This was when the red security tags for DVDs were first becoming common (these things basically: http://www.redtagsystem.com/what_is_red_tag.aspx ). I worked in the same section as where we stocked all our movies and one day noticed a guy in an enormous trench coat huddled over one of the shelves. I notified the manager who checked the cameras and found the guy was indeed stripping the plastic overwrap off DVD cases in order to open them and steal the discs...only to find that thanks to the new red tags he couldn't (the tags lock the case shut and have to be removed with a magnet at the registers).

My manager watches this guy struggle with the cases, going so far as to try to break them open, then when that fails he seems to give up...for about a minute. To both my and my manager's surprise instead of cutting his losses he shoves all the cases into his coat and makes a bee line for the store entrance. Manager notifies the person watching the door, who in turn later reported that the man walked right up to the security gates and then stopped dead. Since policy states he has to actually try to leave the store for it to qualify as shoplifting, the guard can only watch as this guy tries to figure out how to get past the security gates while his coat is loaded with tagged merchandise. The guy scratches his head, tries to figure out how to pull off this heist...then gets an idea.

He proceeds to start doing a ballet routine straight up leaping, pirouetting, and all the other stuff in the middle of our entrance way, surreptitiously sweeping his coat just within range of the security gates. Naturally they go off so he realizes that won't work.

Time to give up? Not quite. It didn't work the first time but if he tries again...

Yep, he did a repeat of the ballet routine (to set the scene this guy is trying to be nimble and agile in a sweater, shirt, jeans, sneakers, a scarf and his coat, and the store's sound system is blaring the theme tune from Ghost in the Shell) , and got the same result of the security gates blaring their own musical accompaniment when his coat swept in range. Now stumped he finally accepts defeat, getting in a parting shot to the door guard by saying "I think those are broken, mate."

The door guard by this point can only just stare in awe as the guy heads back into the store to drop the merchandise and leave (he didn't set the gates off so again we couldn't actually stop him). Still gave us one of the most surreal and funniest bits of security footage ever which we brought out and replayed at every holiday party thereafter.

[Pixelated]

When I was working at the retailer that rhymes with cheers we had a guy try to return about three hundred bucks worth of stolen clothing. Since he had no receipt policy dictated he got a Store gift card. As soon as he walked out the door my manager hit the void previous transaction button on the register. Thus making his ill-gotten gift card worthless. Muahaha.

Love your manager!

At my current retail job, this happened a few years ago. I didn't see it ... actually NOBODY saw it. But one CW said one day, "Hey, what happened to the [description which I can't remember] cast-iron teapot? Did somebody sell it?" CW looks around at everybody working that day.

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Nope ...

Finally, after checking with everybody (we don't have THAT big a staff, LOL) we realized ... somebody had stolen it. Not that hard; just tuck it under your coat when nobody's looking and walk out -- we don't have those electronic tags or anything.

[MadMike]

I once almost accidentally shoplifted.

I actually did once. It happened at the K-Mart in my area a few years ago. I went in looking for three specific items. I found the first two right away, but couldn't find the third one. So I went up to the service desk, with the first two items in my hand, and asked about the third item.

They told me they didn't carry it, so I left... Completely forgetting about the items in my hand. I got halfway across the parking lot before I realized it. As soon as I did, I ran back into the store, thinking they were about to send security after me. I went straight back to the desk with my items and explained what happened. Turned out they had no idea I had even done that, and were surprised I actually came back.

[BrenDAnn]

We actually just had one happen a couple weeks ago. At my C-Store location, we have a liquor cabinet. Most drinks are locked up, but some do sit on top. Well, a guy came in and was stupid enough to steal a bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey. Not only was he that stupid, but he also was stupid enough to step back directly into camera view to stick the bottle in his pocket. Little did he know, our cleaning guy that night was watching, and told our manager ASAP. Manager brought up video the next day, saw the guy do it, and called the cops. Needless to say, dude was well known by the police & county deputies. As a matter of fact, the deputy that came to take the footage told me that the dude was, in his exact words, a piece of shit. Cops made a case, got a warrant out, and dumbass got to spend a night in jail, as well as getting a permaban from the C-Store. I can't tell you the justice boner I got when I realized we had him clearly on camera! Lesson: If you're going to be a dumbass, don't steal. Actually, just don't steal at all. You WILL get caught.

[Pixelated]

I actually did once. ... Turned out they had no idea I had even done that, and were surprised I actually came back.

I don't know if this qualifies as "shoplifting" but ... in my most recent college career, I got a cup of tea in the cafeteria and was talking to one of the staff (I was very recognizable as one of the oldest students there at the time) and we both just strolled on out ... apparently talking to cafeteria staff = paying for what you've got ...

I realized halfway to class what I'd done, did an abrupt about-turn and went back to pay for my tea. As in your case, they were amazed that I'd bothered to come back and 'fess up.

[Lovecats]

Back in 1970 when I was in the AF and going to tech school in Mississippi I was at a local mall with some friends. Picked up a pair of snap on sunglasses that I planned to buy. We walked around the store for a bit. Walked out into the mall and realized that I was still holding the sunglasses. Let myself be convinced by friends to not go back and pay. I never did wear those things. I think I just threw them out. I didn't drive at the time so couldn't go back on my own to pay for them.

Then in 2006 when I was working at a department store in the area & had a woman walk up to my register and tell me a man was urinating on the side of the building. Called the LP. The man came in later. He was extremely drunk and could barely walk straight. They had a display of men's jeans in the middle of the aisle. LP told me they were watching him on video and he was trying to stuff the jeans down his pants and falling over. I guess they were in hysterics in the LP office. They did chase him out of the store. Our LP (just happened to be a woman) knocked him to the ground and was literally sitting on him while a group of male employees (1 of them the store manager) just stood around and watched. Man said, "American woman strong!" with an extremely thick accent.

[Catwoman2965]

We had tons of stuff go missing when I worked in retail. Upscale women’s clothing store with no security whatsoever. no tags, stickers, cameras or anything at the door so if you tried to leave with merchandise not paid for, a siren would go off. Nada.

And the geniuses at corporate who did floor sets one year and INSISTED one year we put all the cashmere sweaters folded on a table JUST INSIDE the one door. Yeah, you know how this ends. I mean all you had to do was open the door, and literally walk in 2 steps, grab the sweaters and walk out. And because of the layout of the store, unless someone was right up there in that part of the store, you couldn’t see a thing.

So after that was discovered, what do you think happened? WE, the staff, were lectured as to how we should never leave any part of the store uncovered. Well, that’s all very well and good but at night, which is when this happened, we may have 3 on plus a manager. One is across the other side of the store, the other maybe in the back getting something for a customer, and the other two ringing up.

[Pixelated]

Yet another example of how, too often, management is living in some noddy-world that isn't even within shouting distance of reality. No security whatsoever but it's still 100% the store staff's responsibility to see that nothing gets nicked ...