when "customers" steal..what do you do

berger89

if you work in retail, and when you are pretty sure someone has stolen something but you don't have the balls to confront them or you are only like 99.9% certain they have, what do you do?

I've wrongly accused people on two different occasions of stealing. One is still is a bit iffy coz I'm convinced he did. Though you have to be 110% correct..if not, you can be in big trouble.
Sometimes children can be cagey enough. It's hard to know what to do in certain situations

*edited!

ec18

How sure are you that the people you have double charged are stealing? You've been wrong before, are you the business owner?

MarkR

Maybe they stole because they were overcharged?

If a store said they were "pretty sure" I had stolen something, they direction they can have sexual relations, is off. You can't be relying on hunches (unless you're scooby doo), and your double charging revenge is bizarre. Are you a store owner? If not, do they know your policy?

Check with your employer (assuming you are not the owner) to see what their policy on shoplifting are.

berger89

Ah I make myself out to be really bad here.

OK, the ones I have double charged before = 1. I KNOW they have stolen.
They, generally speaking, are people that you do not want to confront, mainly for the sake for other customers, because a scene is generally made. Also, it's usually only a bar of chocolate worth 80cent.
No they weren't overcharged and thats not an excuse to steal either.

And the one that I "wrongly" accused..here's the situation.
He came into the shop. Came up to the counter with a can of coke. Put it on the counter. Pushed it towards me to scan. I scanned the scan. He snatched it up. Called me a disgusting name. Said he had bought it in another shop. I said why did you bring it in then and then give it to me at the counter? He then laughed and said he got it in our shop. I asked him for the money for it then. He refused. Laughed again, called other staff members unpleasantries. Then denied buying it in the shop again. When another staff member came over, he said AGAIN that he had gotten it from our fridge. Turns out once we looked back on the camera, he had brought it into our shop.
However, what was I to think when he put it on the counter, pushed it forward with the rest of his items? Then couldn't give me a straight answer as to where he bought it? Mind you, this was at the time, happening twice or 3 times a week with him.

28064212

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/girls-get-45000-for-false-theft-accusation-26781093.html

Your employer should be setting policy on this. You take it upon yourself to monitor shoplifting, and you're opening yourself up to a world of trouble. The only thing you should be doing is reporting your suspicions to your employer

DoomZ

berger89 wrote: »

if you work in retail, and when you are pretty sure someone has stolen something but you don't have the balls to confront them or you are only like 99.9% certain they have, what do you do?

I've wrongly accused people on two different occasions of stealing. One is still is a bit iffy coz I'm convinced he did. Though you have to be 110% correct..if not, you can be in big trouble.
Sometimes children can be cagey enough. It's hard to know what to do in certain situations

*edited!

Use security or call the Garda.

gavindublin

Its a false arrest and your a cross between someone's meal ticket and a wet dream!!

Slippin Jimmy

I used to catch the young lads from a local school robbing stuff the whole time. I used to watch them pick it up (usually sweets or energy drinks), and put it in their jacket. They would just walk straight passed the till and out the door. This is when I would say it to them. Got a fair bit of stick for it. When they started to cop on, a gang of them would come in and fleece the place and leg it.

In another place I worked, a staff member stopped a woman at the door believing they had robbed something. Turns out they didn't. The woman didn't make a complaint to the company but instead went to her solicitors.

Frynge

When i worked in retail there were people who have been caught stealing based on staff hunches that led to cameras being reviewed. When anyone suspected to be a shoplifter was in the store the staff would be notified across a walkie talkie using a type of code and then staff would just congregate around the person and constantly asked if they needed any assistance.

It turned out to be quite fun as you knew well what they were doing there but it could never be said explicitly. But if they picked something up we would say something like "you can pay for that over there at the till"

One time there was a lot of stock missing from the LED xmas lights back when they were stupid expensive (2005) and when the management reviewed the cameras they found out who was stealing them. They would come in and buy something small but ask for an extra bag. Then come in and fill the extra bag and leave it just inside the entrance door. When they walked out the second time they would walk by the entrance door which would open and then lean in pick up the bag and gone. In one week they stole about €1800 worth of lights.

Management kept an eye out for him and stopped him one day to check his purchases. He had bought sonething small which was in the bag and he had a reciept for it but the manager told him he had been overcharged and insisted he come back to the till for his refund. Meanwhile another manager was swapping the bag he had left inside the door with boxes from the display lights filled with stones and a very clear note inside.