Jun 6, 2014

Got Caught Stealin'

The other day at work I caught someone shoplifting.  There have been times in the past while working at the hardware store that I've witnessed unsavory characters attempt to steal and saw managers confront or escort people out but I've never caught somone red handed.

I was standing at our counter that faces the aisle with the higher priced tools and I saw a scruffy older man with baggy, dirty pants and a long shirt.  We have many legitimate customers who come from job sites who look scruffy so I'm not quick to assume he's a homeless tweaker.  They usually are tho.  Anyway.. he reaches for a $50 pair of wire cutters, turns away from me and proceeds to shove them down the front of his pants.  I dont know if he saw me there at first but as he turned to check he saw me looking right at him from 12 feet away.  I said "hey, you gonna pay for that?"  in the tone of  did you seriously just do that right in front of me? He sheepishly said a bunch of "aww I wasnt gonna do that.. aww"  while he pulled a 12 x 7 inch package from his 24 inch inseam dungarees.  I expected to see the top sticking up from his belt when he lifted his shirt but he got that thing ALL the way down in there.  That's when I noticed his belt was loosened up for easy stuffing.  I told him "If you really want to buy these I can take them up to the register for you... but you cant be putting stuff down your pants man"  He handed me the item and walked off.  At this time my co-worker was tracking him through the main aisle of the store and he was gone in a flash.


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