Pregnant woman arrested for eating sandwich @ store, not paying for it

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well....that would be pretty effective in identifying culprits. >.>

Maybe in the future, that will actually happen. XD

I may be assholish, but I just don't understand why anyone feels entitled to grab food at the store and graze/snack before paying, with the only exception being those samples people hand out in the deli and whatnot.

I have done my grocery shopping with my stomach rumbling like the original Exorcist after a 12 hour shift and not eating since 10 pm the night before. I still didn't justify it as a reason to grab something, open it and eat it before I paid.

Same here. If I am feeling desperately hungry, or if my head is starting to ache (I get migraines if I'm dehydrated and my blood sugar level goes down), I'll go to the kiosk and buy a bottle of water and a chocolate bar before I shop. Key word here being "buy". I certainly wouldn't tear open a chocolate bar and scoff it before I pay for it. My parents taught me that grazing in a store was stealing, and kinda rude.

[Andara Bledin]

Why are you people still arguing that eating before paying is rude and foolish when nearly everybody has already agreed that eating food that you haven't yet paid for while shopping is rude and foolish?

You're preaching to the choir on this particular point.

^-.-^

[Rageaholic]

Yeah me too. I also agree that she was stupid in eating before paying, but the response was disproportionate.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Which is what everyone is saying. But her beef is with the police, not with Safeway, so why not sue the police?

[blas87]

I apologize, I wasn't aware this thread was over and done with and my opinion wasn't welcome.

[HYHYBT]

Well....that would be pretty effective in identifying culprits. >.>

Ya, but it would also cut down on repeat customers.

I go shopping there all the time. Once, I put a pair of CR batteries in the trolley, the pack was about a quarter the size of a matchbox. I went up and paid, but the batteries were in the corner of the trolley and I missed paying for them.

Walked out with my groceries, loaded up the car. Noticed the batteries in the corner of the trolley and went back in with them. I told the customer service person that I'd accidentally walked out with then and hadn't paid, so could I pay for them now.

The response? Sure, no problem. Thanks for your honesty. Please come again soon.

That you brought it up yourself makes all the difference: there's no way to interpret that as intending to steal.

[Gravekeeper]

Why are you people still arguing that eating before paying is rude and foolish when nearly everybody has already agreed that eating food that you haven't yet paid for while shopping is rude and foolish?

DrFaroohk keeps resurrecting it -.-

[jackfaire]

The way the store handled it was way out of line, IMO ) pregnancy or not she did intend to pay for it but instead of allowing her to pay for it and being on her merry way, she gets arrested and her child is separated from her for it.

Said she intended to pay for it and actually intending to pay for it are two wildly different things.

It's a common, yes common no I don't have citations let's just say that I should have been arrested at one point, practice for people to go "shopping" and grab food from the deli while "shopping" eat a meal and if they feel they can get away with it leave without buying anything leaving the cart and wrappers behind or if they feel they were noticed too much buy some things and leave.

I don't think the store overreacted. It's up to the judge to decide if he wants to grant leniency. The store didn't tackle the woman to the ground and give her a cavity search for a bag of funyons.

A policy against letting people pay for things once they have left the store with them is actually a good one. It is a deterrant. If you let people do that then people will steal what they came to steal and just pay if they get caught then boom no fuss no muss.

Shoplifting in great enough numbers can, will and has, shut stores down. Holding an adult accountable for their actions is not wrong.

Honestly I can understand forgetting to pick up your keys but forgetting you just ate a sandwich that seems fishy.

[Andara Bledin]

Honestly I can understand forgetting to pick up your keys but forgetting you just ate a sandwich that seems fishy.

People have forgotten they left their own children in the back seat of their cars. Why is it so damned hard to believe someone could forget about a couple of wrappers in their cart?

^-.-^

[blas87]

I'm thinking the punishment was quite severe, considering when I worked at the mall as a teen, girls knowingly stealing (aka, stuffing underwear in those giant Hollister paper bags, working in "teams" around the store to distract the associates, multiple girls in the tiny fitting rooms to gank clothes) were only arrested and "banned" from the store. Like that was even enforced anyway.

[jackfaire]

People have forgotten they left their own children in the back seat of their cars. Why is it so damned hard to believe someone could forget about a couple of wrappers in their cart?

^-.-^

Honestly because I believe those people should be arrested too. If you have such a hard time forgetting what you did ten seconds ago you should write it down.

I don't think she should have been eating in the store period.

If she was really that hungry then she should have gotten the food and paid for it then went and eaten in the car while her husband finished the shopping.

Businesses have a right to protect themselves. Customers talk. If it gets around that there is an easy way to scam a company then people can and will do it.

When enough people do it your neighborhood Fred Meyers closes and you have to spend 30 minutes on a lightrail to get to the next closest one.

In my neighborhood when I was a kid that is what happened. People found out it was ridiculously easy to shoplift there. The shoplifting kept growing finally it was so bad that they were losing money.

If it had been a single guy in his 30s with no physical ailments people wouldn't even care that they enforced their rules and that the cops enforced the laws.

But if the situation involves a pregnant woman, someone with a disability or anyone else considered to be at a disadvantage suddenly the law isn't supposed to matter and rules are made to be broken.

When I see a thread that says, "Healthy 20 year old man arrested for breaking this law that I think is stuipd" then I will think people actually care.

Until then it seems like the same reason people root for the underdog in a movie who lucked into winning when the other team has been working hard for years to win and only are the bad guys because how dare they try to beat our favorites.

[Nyoibo]

Which is what everyone is saying. But her beef is with the police, not with Safeway, so why not sue the police?

Because the police did what they're supposed to, if the store insists on pressing charges then the police have to arrest them.

[Gravekeeper]

-were only arrested and "banned" from the store. Like that was even enforced anyway.

Technically that's all that happened here too. She was arrested and they were banned from the store. But because she was pregnant and police procedure said to turn her kids over to CPS, shit hit the PR fan.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Because the police did what they're supposed to, if the store insists on pressing charges then the police have to arrest them.

The store were only following policy, probably handed down to them by corporate. Every store I've worked at, and shopped at for that matter, seems to have the same policy regarding shoplifters; ie, "Shoplifters will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law". They can't use their own judgement, ie "Let's let off this pregnant woman" or "This kid is only ten years old, let's not call in the police". They have to follow policy.

For example, at the garden centre, the police were called when I caught an eleven year old boy red handed stealing a bag of dog biscuits from the pet section. I called the manager, the manager followed the set policy by calling the boy's parents and the police. Some people might say that was excessive; however, neither I or the manager could make a judgement call in that matter as the policy was set by the owner. The garden centre was a privately owned business so any thefts would be felt by the owner, therefore the strict policy.

The supermarket where I used to work on the checkout also has the same policy, with the added bonus of "Thefts will be taken to civil recovery". At the petrol station, it doesn't matter that you forgot to pay for £5 worth of petrol, we will send the police after you. If you forgot your purse and we fill out a form, you have seven days to return; if you do not return to pay, we hand over your details to civil recovery. So you will probably end up paying £100 on top of the £5 you didn't pay for petrol. Might seem unfair but there it is; it's policy and can't be deviated from. I'm not about to get into trouble over not following it.

[Andara Bledin]

They can't use their own judgement, ie "Let's let off this pregnant woman" or "This kid is only ten years old, let's not call in the police". They have to follow policy.

Yes, they can use their own judgment.

This zero tolerance bullshit has got to stop and people have got to stop supporting it.

We need to stop considering only the letter of the law and take at least a moment to contemplate the spirit of the law.

There is a reason why a jury is perfectly allowed to choose to find "not guilty" a person who they know for an absolute fact committed the crime in question. The idea that they must come back with a "guilty" verdict is just not true. That is because a jury is allowed, as is the rest of society, to decide that the crime in question was justified or not worthy of punishment in that particular case.

Even creatures of habit are forgetful. All it takes is a break in routine, something outside the ordinary to cause us to lose track of a thread of thought. Anyone who claims to have not forgotten something important is likely forgetting the last time they did so.

I once left a restaurant without paying for my dinner. According to some, I'm a thief and should be treated accordingly. Honestly, anyone who thinks I should have been arrested for a dine and dash is a simpleton and a fool who can't manage to see the greys in the world when it's not about them.

In my case, I realized my error about ten steps outside the door, stopped, and went back inside to pay, because, in direct contradiction to some here, I am not a criminal, merely a human being with other thoughts on my mind.

^-.-^