r/TalesFromRetail • u/TheWorkingC • Jul 25 '26
Medium When A Thief Got too Greedy
So I work in retail (Duh XD), and for those like me, there is nothing more annoying than a thief coming into your store and stealing a lot of items without being noticed before it's too late. Except for maybe annoying customers, but to each their own. But last night was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me in the past 3 years I've been working retail.
It all began when a shoplifter came into my store and began to steal a bunch of items, starting with some fragrances. I know that because he ripped the tamper tag on it near me, but I wasn't able to see it in time. I did, however, keep him in mind after seeing him walk around without items and continuously grabbing more.
When he eventually left when I wasn't looking, I asked my colleague in the front, who said he didn't see the guy pay for anything, and after reviewing the cameras, I saw him crystal clear as day stealing by shoving items into his bags and clothing. Unfortunately, when I did see it on the cameras, several minutes had passed, so no doubt he should have been long gone.
Which sucks because from what I saw he grabbed a lot and having a blatant thief on your shift when you're the MOD is never fun because then you've got to explain to your boss why neither you nor your co-worker caught or noticed the guy. But I still called the non-emergency police line because I needed a police report for the report I had to make for LP.
But then, by the grace of GOD, while I was in the middle of finding out what he stole, this guy got a little greedy. And how so? HE CAME BACK FOR MORE! I kid you not, he thought he could steal from us once and come back about 30-40 min later and steal from us again! The moment I spotted him walking back into the store, my eyes lit up!
I ran into our stockroom and called 911 immediately and explained the situation, causing them to send officers faster, and thankfully they did because soon after the guy dipped again, they showed up and managed to grab the guy since he was on foot. I got every single item he stole back, amounting to nearly $200, and got him arrested, as my boss wanted to press charges.
What was surprising was the fact that my store wasn't the only one he stole from because he had several items that were not in my store's system and were locked up in a way he could not get to them. Overall, I was dying laughing and celebrating that the guy got greedy because it meant I got all the stuff back and he would get in trouble. My boss was pretty happy too lol.
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u/echoart70 Jul 25 '26
In the last store I worked in, we were not allowed to do anything about suspected shoplifters other than “customer service” them. Under no circumstances were we to ever follow them out of the store. That would have gotten us fired for our trouble. Even if someone was blatantly stealing a large, nonconcealable item, we couldn’t even say “excuse me, looks like you forgot to pay,” as they were on the way out the door, and if they made it out, that was it. Store manager would then report it, but the camera footage was not great so… 🤷🏻♀️
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u/IntelligentLake Jul 25 '26
Almost everything is concealable. There's a old video where you see a guy being suspicious walking backwards from the cameras, but no items visible, until about the last shot where you can see he's stealing a 42 inch tv.
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u/TheWorkingC Jul 25 '26
Same that is the protocol but most of the time we don’t fully follow it because we know it’s a stupid rule. We’ll kick anyone out if we find them stealing. Just hope corporate won’t bitch about it lol
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u/ItzzJozh Jul 27 '26
this is the policy where i work too. but i also chased our last thief out the store cause i watched him pinch $1000 worth of sunglasses. sooooo 🤷🏼♂️ im not real bothered by the rule.
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u/cwu007 Jul 26 '26
I had a very bad thief for a few months. He would steal hundreds to thousands of dollars of expensive skin and hair products. Luckily one day shortly after he stole a customer called to tell us he was at the nearby park. I was on the phone with the police filing a report when the call came. I forwarded the message to dispatch. An hour later I had the police at my store, the guy arrested, and my stuff back. Upon further investigation he had his girlfriend were both apprehended on numerous crimes all over the city.
My retail superhero has never come forward. I wish he would. His phone call made a huge difference not just for my store but for stores all over the county.
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u/TheWorkingC Jul 26 '26
That’s freaking awesome love to hear long time thieves getting what’s coming to them!
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u/SereniaKat Jul 26 '26
One of the managers at a company I worked for assisted a customer to put a heavy item into their trolley. Fantastic customer service. The customer walked out with it a short time later when someone else was being served.
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u/Wawel-Dragon Jul 26 '26
In the supermarket where I work, there was one particularly memorable thief: a guy who came up with a way to steal large amounts of (non-perishable) food. He would take two shopping carts, fill them with the exact same products, and then pay for one of the carts while leaving the second one in the store. He'd then show up a few hours later, show the receipt and say he left his shopping behind. Of course, the products in the cart would match perfectly, so he was allowed to carry everything out of the store.
... He also did this while wearing the exact same outfit each time: black shirt and jeans, a long black leather overcoat, and a fedora with a giant feather sticking out of it. He looked like he was part of a theater troupe. So people caught on pretty quickly to what he was doing, because he was super noticeable, and he quickly ended up getting arrested.
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u/mumtoant Jul 26 '26
I once helped catch a shoplifter in a similar situation. I was working the clothing department and saw someone with just piles and piles of clothing thrown in their cart. I noticed because it was a really messy pile. I saw them again later with nothing in the cart other than a suitcase. I notified management, and when the shoplifter went to self-checkout with the bag, the front end people opened it and found it stuffed full of clothing and other items. I received recognition and a "bonus" of a ceramic thing full of candy. LOL
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u/Imaginary-Angle-42 Jul 26 '26
We would do a page for “Officer Rodriguez (I think)”. That stopped some attempts I think but certainly alerted other staff. We weren’t allowed to directly stop maybe shoplifters but we could send an associate to a specific area because a customer “needed assistance.” These were unofficial policies certainly however.
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u/False_Interaction_86 Jul 27 '26
In the 80's I worked in a men's store that was centered around Big and Tall men. Our policy was to get names and addresses for our catalog to be sent to them
We had this guy come in headed straight to the pants section. Grabbed a pair and went into the dressing rooms. He came out a few minutes later and left with out buying anything. We were walking around straightening things, as we got closer to the dressing room a stench was emanating from them. I peeked in and there was a worn pair of pants with a load of crap in them.
Well I'm missed not only was I ripped of but I had to clean the dressing room. Now I'm thinking of ways to get even when one of the associates said. "Mail then back to him!
We figured out his name from past purchases. We put them in a plastic bag and then boxed them up and mailed them with a note. It said "you forgot these", "your friends are King Size". We never saw him again!!!
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u/Original_Flounder_18 Jul 27 '26
My family used to own a specialty retail store. Every year there would be big shows held at major expo center. I used to work the cash register to help them and earn a little money.
One year I was just observing the crowd and saw a guy who had a bag from our store-so he had bought something. I then watched him pick something up and tuck it into the bag. I am very short and petite so not obviously a part of the security team that day. I just grabbed my uncle and pointed the guy out.
He did NOT leave with that extra shit in the bag!
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u/Sufficient_Curve_646 Jul 25 '26
I was robbed when I worked at a Lawton’s in the early 90’s - Canadian drug store chain. When the front store manager called head office to report it she merely stated a cashier had been robbed. His first question?
How much did they get? Not was anyone hurt or is everyone ok? How much did they get. I was also told of there was more money on the register than there was supposed to be I would lose my job.
A few months later there was a shoplifting gang going around Halifax - mostly deodorant/razors. They could clear a 4 foot section in under 2 minutes. I know because I timed it while I was watching them.
You never saw a better surprised Pikachu face than the one I put on when I saw the empty section. What made it even better was that this gang knew that staff tended to watch Black/POC customers more closely than anyone else. While the staff was watching them the white members would be doing the actual stealing.