Pregnant mom says sandwich arrest was 'horrifying'

[aloser]

One of my retail stories is that I worked as a cashier once with a similar situation; major difference was that instead of a pregnant lady and her Armed Forces hubby eating a wrapped sandwich it was a fat lady and her equally fat son each eating a donut. At the time we had an employee who was training for law enforcement, so he would "practice" in the store doing loss prevention. The day in reference, he sees they're in my checkout lane so notified the manager in person (intercom would give away his actual status as an employee), manager intercoms me, says "don't say anything but let me know if they pay for two donuts or not" and when they didn't, I intercom him saying so and they nab them right at the door. I don't know for certain what happened, but I know no police were called, no one was arrested, anything like that.

As for the general policy, while it may well be allowed to do so, it's probably not the smartest thing to consume something without having paid first; I know I was quite annoyed by having to contend with these half-opened items (barcodes being folded over themselves or whatever else, making them much harder to scan than had you exercised enough restraint to withhold your primal instinct to devour said items until AFTER you paid for them)...

 

[DrPizza]

The article doesn't say - where was the wrapper? Where was the other sandwich? If they were put into her purse, then I have no problem with the store pressing charges and things happening the way they did. Were I on the jury... "guilty."

However, if they were out in the open in the cart, and the cashier failed to notice them, yet the security guard was right on top of it, then I question the employees' common sense in that store. If I were on the jury in the civil lawsuit against the store, "pay up."

It's amazing that large companies have such little trust in the employees that it promotes to management that the companies don't allow room for common sense in cases like this, and instead, write up "zero tolerance" policies. Zero tolerance = zero intelligence.

Heh, I remember a store that stayed open in the middle of a noreaster. Emergency travel only, everyone stay off the roads. Yet some dumbass of a manager kept his store open - the only store in an entire mall that remained open, because he couldn't contact anyone at headquarters for permission to shut down. What a 'tard.

 

[jhansman]

She thinks that was horrifying? What til she squeezes out that puppy...

 

[HateMeAlways]

She thinks that was horrifying? What til she squeezes out that puppy...

She already has a pet.

 

[KGB]

Hey, I just threw my post up there, stop accusing me of a crime!

Do you have a receipt for that post?

 

[KGB]

LOL!
This IS ATOT, 96% of the population here would demand a refund!
(And then request that their 6 pack of Ramen be Comped for their inconvenience)

...AND bitched about the store not cleaning up the barf fast enough.

 

[Locut0s]

Yes, this is well know, or at least I thought it was. This is why you see someone like Wynona Ryder shoplifting and there are many cases of wealthy people doing it on a regular basis. I would imagine it's only about half the time, if even that, where the shoplifting is actually done out of necessity and/or lack of funds.

KT

Depends on the store. This is very true for larger ticket items, meaning most stores. But at convenience stores and at the lower end the majority of theft comes from street people, young wannabe thugs, drug addicts and the like. Or from the staff. Which isn't to say I haven't seen a few grandma's and businessmen steal a chocolate bar or two, I have but it's not the bulk of it. And like you say these people do it for the thrill of getting away with it, meaning they usually only steal one or two small items they think they can get away with, cause the item itself means nothing. They aren't the ones coming in with a Duffle Bag and clearing out a whole shelf of Haagen Dazs 500ml tubs.

 

[mb]

Good thing they didn't do anything with some vinegar. Could have landed in FPMITAP.

 

[slayer202]

ATOT has gotten to gotham like filth. it must be destroyed

 

[Perknose]

Do you have a receipt for that post?

I'll throw one up!

 

[Paladin3]

...Zero tolerance = zero intelligence...

We've gone so crazy with being "tough on crime" that we have put all these zero tolerance laws and rules in place to fool the American people into thinking something positive is really being done about crime. In the end we only hurt ourselves when we put little girls in foster care and give parents an arrest record over forgetting to pay for a sandwich.

And even if they "forgot" to pay on purpose, the store had a security employee watching them check-out with the wrappers, just waiting for them to exit without paying so they could charge these people with a crime. How hard would it be to telephone down to the cashier and say "remind those folks pay for the sandwiches they ate" and avoid this whole mess.

It seems like Safeway and the store manager were more concerned with seeing the couple arrested than they were with either getting paid for the sandwiches, keeping a potential customer, keeping that kid out of foster care, or avoiding the bad publicity this would cause.

My wife owns a retail store. If she catches a crackhead stuffing jewelry into their pockets and trying to run out the door then they get arrested. If an average looking patron with a child tries to walk out with $5 of merchandise she politely reminds them to pay for it. It's the smarter way to do business, as Safeway seems to be finding out the hard way.

 

[edro]

The article doesn't say - where was the wrapper? Where was the other sandwich? If they were put into her purse, then I have no problem with the store pressing charges and things happening the way they did. Were I on the jury... "guilty."

Right. If she had simply put the wrappers in the cart and put it on the counter while checking out, this wouldn't have happened.
I'm sure the store took this into consideration and is why they called police.

 

[SP33Demon]

Only low class people people eat in the store while still shopping.

 

[KGB]

I'll throw one up!

"Clean up!!! Register three!!!"

 

[CRXican]

I wouldn't have waited 4 hours for the police to show up. Fuck the grunt store security punks.

Would have thrown the $5 at them and left.

 

[Krioni]

They paid for $50 worth of groceries, but forgot about the sandwiches. Give them the benefit of the doubt or confront them before they leave rather than calling the police on them and involving DFS because they're both being arrested.

I agree with you... and frankly, if this would have happened to my wife over a simple slip of the mind.. and my child been forced away from me for the night I would beat the living sh!t out of that store manager when it was over. People need to use some damn common sense.

 

[Krioni]

I wouldn't have waited 4 hours for the police to show up. Fuck the grunt store security punks.

Would have thrown the $5 at them and left.

Very good point... Here's your $5... so sorry for the mistake... i'm out.

 

[Onita]

I agree with you... and frankly, if this would have happened to my wife over a simple slip of the mind.. and my child been forced away from me for the night I would beat the living sh!t out of that store manager when it was over. People need to use some damn common sense.

So you really want to lose your kid.

 

[Kaekae]

Seriously how did they forget to pay for their opened item? I mean come one you are playing with fire at that point.

 

[some_guy]

From my experience in HI, often Hawaiians don't take any crap from mainlanders or Hallees(word for white people or foreigners or something like that). In which case, they feel they need to keep them in line, and in some respects they are correct and in other respects it goes too far. And they may not have the best judgment on when some one is being ignorant.

One other note. I almost got arrested there for a misunderstanding that was quickly exposed. But there was kind of an unwritten rule that the policeman told me about that if a policeman is called, somebody gets arrested, and it gets settled in court for the police get called on stuff a lot. (This may have changed but this was about 4 years ago. I thought was to not use the police so much for stupid stuff.) I was not arrested but it took some time calling around by the company that made the mistake to keep me from getting arrested, while I sat and the policeman waited. By the way, the policeman was nice about it.

 

[AstroManLuca]

That's called grazing, and is not looked at very highly, willing to pay for it or not. Do it as an employee, even if you pay for it, you're gone.

Well then it's fortunate that they weren't employees isn't it?