Accidental shoplifting with your kids

[anita665]

Yesterday I was in superdrug and paying for some stuff at the till. Then, just as I got by the door to leave I saw DS trying to get into a creme egg wrapper. He's picked it up from by the till while I was paying. I just wen't back to the till and paid.

It got me thinking though, it happens to most of us at some time, no matter how careful we try to be and it's happened to me several times. My friend told me that in Tesco they always prosecute. Having worked in shops myself I know there are people who use kids as an excuse and their pushchair or car seat as somewhere to hide things but I think it is very unfair on honest parents who get caught out.

So I was hoping others would perhaps like to share their experiences.

 

[Charlotteee]

I went into the shop with my neice who was 3 at the time, and paid for my things, i walked out and she pulled a packet of bombay mix from up her top

I marched her straight back in to apologise and put it back
I think its bad that women who are shoplifting use their kids as an excuse, because when it does happen to honest people - we still get prosecuted x

 

[MyFirstNoodle]

My aunties little boy (who is more like a little brother to me) does this all the time. I have been there with him when he's done it and you seriously don't realise until your either half way down the road after coming out of the shop or when you get home.

We were in next a few weeks ago and my aunt was buying a pair of jeans etc. for her birthday....when we got home her little boy had a ben10 wrist band on (he obviousy stole it) my aunt went mad!!

Then the other day she rang me crying saying she doesn't understand why he keeps stealing things....they went to her friends house for a birthday party, and her son stole some jewellery from my aunts friends house. My aunt didnt realise until they were in the cab on the way home....so made the cab driver stop at the police station and brought him in....he started crying but he had to be taught!!

Juts thought I'd add that. I know my aunt was getting really upset with it! xx

 

[JuicyLucy]

I've had this sometimes when mia was younger.. but i wouldn't find the things until i got home!
It was only little things like you say a creme egg. - If i'd noticed it whilst we were out i would go back in and pay.
I myself sometimes pick things up under my arm or hang them over the pram like a top or something and then walk out the shop forgetting i'd picked them up! The alarms obviously go off and i go beetroot red with embarrassment!!


When i was a teenager.. I watched a mum go and give a girl a young girl of about 5 a carrier bag and take lots of jewellery off the shelves in new look and went back and gave it to her mum. I was convinced they were going to steal it as they looked pretty shifty.. So i told the staff!

 

[pinkmummy]

Caitlin's done it once I was mortified!!

We were in the cornmill (mini shopping centre) and we had been in a few shops then we were getting ready to go home and OH noticed Caitlin had a grey plastic bowl about the size of her head! We asked her where she got it from and she just laughed (she was only about 1 1/2) There was no sticker on the bowl so we couldn't even see where it was from!

I could never steal never mind use my child as an excuse to steal! xx

 

[Blah11]

I've done it twice when Amelie was really young... i blame being really tired Once was a pair of socks from next and once was a packet of wipes that got hidden under my bag in the trolley.

 

[hopeandpray]

my mom and dad went shopping with my cousin when she was about 3. they let her carry her own little basket with a few things in it. when they got to the checkout she would put her basket up on the till and told them they should just put theirs down really low like hers so the lady wouldnt see it
my little sis and bro used to always do this in shopping centres, like they didnt understand not to take things from one shop to another and i'd always have to march them back in and make them apologise

 

[LandN]

LOL this has reminded me of someting that happened not so long ago,
well me and my partner were shopping in TK Maxx and were looking near the bra section anyway we left the shop and went into asda living which was next door then i noticed lilly playing with something and it was a bloody bra!! it was too small for me lol so at least i could say if i was going to nick it i would at least get my size. But we took it back and put it back in the bra section and didnt tell the staff that would have been to embarrsing

What is it with kids and trying to get you into trouble hehe, My brother nicked a dog bone when we were little, we didnt even have a dog.

 

[Bluetomato]

Harrison did this a couple of weeks ago. Id popped into the supermarket to get some bits, and it had been raining so I had the hoods over the buggy. After leaving the shop, I was walking up the road and I went to check on Harrison and he had obviously helped himself to one of those little lindt eggs and was eating it! I was mortified! When we got to my friends house, I then found that he had stuck a milkybar down the side of his seat I'll be watching him like a hawk from now on!

 

[Cariad_bach]

Katie (my 4 year old) was a sod for it when she was younger,

It was always teddies and stuffed toys, shed just grab them and cuddle them as if the were her's.

Quite often shed go into a shop with her own teddy and come out again with a diffrent one

 

[Jules]

Its happened to me once, genuinely didn't realise, i'd passed her a toy mobile phone to play with until we got to the till and i've just gone through with it, and realised once we have gotten home

I've seen someone in tesco get arrested for it, a bloke with a little boy in a pram, the poor kid had food hidden in his coat, a lot of food like. I felt a bit sorry for them being so poor to have to nick food tho tbh And obviously sorry for the poor kid crying his eyes out.

 

[emilyjade]

well i was in wilkos n we was looking at the eyelashes coz i was going out and thoght i would be easyer to do that so we put them in the ood n went to have a cuppa in ythe cafe got half way to the otherside of town and left like i was dying coz i pinched them


edit : and the saturday b4 mothersay day i was in tesco getting a few bit n bobs at the self service tills i put everything through and one card was 1.50 and the other was 1.00. the 1.00 one didnt have a price sticker so i know i scanned it but it didnt come thru on the reciept so i gather i pinched that 1 too!

 

[moomin_troll]

zanes always grabbing things in shops but luckly ive always seen and taken things off him and put them back but i can see how easily this can happen.

when my sister was 2 she grabbed a toy and sat on it, when my mum got home and saw she went straight back to the shop and gave it back.

i think if u walk back in by urself and say sorry my son/daughter grabbed this and pay for it or give it back its alot different then if u get stopped.

it is terrible that u cud get into trouble for a accident

 

[GoldenGSD]

I work in a supermarket and have had a few mums come in with a small toy or chocolate bar that their child has hidden away! It is nice when mums do return the item and we always have a laugh about it in the office.

 

[oOKayOo]

Used to do it all the time , not in purpose though , Carly would put things at the bottom of my buggy whilst i food shop , as i use it as a basket sometimes when my shopping basket is full i guess she thought it was ok to do so!

I didnt relise till i got home and i'd have a basket full of food ! Never took it back though as by that time it was too late.

When both the girls were babies id always have mummy brain and put things on top of the pushchair about to pay but something catches my eye so ill look and walk out , completly forgetting i was about to pay for something!

Nowadays i dont get mummy brain much so im always on the look out with the girls , the other day ella nicked one pair of £100 boots I took it back though straight away!

 

[futuremommy91]

My little brother got into those scooper candy things- you know, where you can make your own bags of candy?

He had a blast :Rofl: until my mum caught him, that is...

 

[Nikkinoonoo]

Jess pinched a peach coloured photo frame from poundland when my dad was pushing her round a while back. She pulled it out from her footmuff... I told him to take her over M&S lol.

 

[Chris77]

I used to do this to my Mom when I was a baby. I walked out of the store with Flintstone Vitamins. The clerk ran out of the store and said, "Ma'am...your little girl has vitamins." My Mom was so embarrassed...when she tried to take them away from me, I became very upset and said, "But Mommy, I'm shopping!"

 

[AppleBlossom]

Happened to me twice! When Grace was tiny I took her over to Liverpool and was in Primark, picked up a pair of jeans and hung them on the pram handle but then Grace started screaming to be fed so I left the shop to find a seat and halfway down the street realised I still had the jeans! So i shoved them under the pram lol then I was in a baby clothes shop, again, hanging clothes on the pram handles, then realised I hadn't got any cash out, left the shop and went to the cash machine and realised I had a load of clothes on my pram. They were from an outlet store so not expensive stuff so I bailed!

 

[Babydance]

Shocking ladies! Just shocking!! Mine is a packet of dummies but ive got a feeling she'll be a "shopper" in a few months lol she's always grabbing at stuff and shoving it down by her side etc xx