Failed Distraction

A few days ago, there was some fuss over someone trying to walk out of the store with some stuff. Things like this do (unfortunately) happen on occasion, so I didn't pay too much attention until I saw the basket of items.

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~ I was checking most of the day, so I missed the majority of what happened with the shoplifter. It was only once they pushed the basket full of what they tried to walk out with up to the service desk that it struck me as to how ballsy people are. From there, I found out that it was a joint effort between a man and a woman and that the two, main items that they were trying to steal were $400 vacuum cleaners. Everything else amounted to over $2,000 of housewares items. Pretty awesome, right? And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for one pesky store employee.

From what I was told, one of our employees (I'll call her Tabitha) was standing near the exit to the store when the thieves wanted to leave. Because of this, the woman hurried up to Tabitha and told her that she was having an emergency. The woman thief then proceeded to coax her away from the door for assistance in finding a phone to use. She really must not have been very convincing and the man thief must have been too impatient, because as he tried to slide by a not-completely-distracted Tabitha, he did not go unnoticed. They bolted out the door when they saw her lay eyes on the basket and asked to see a receipt. Because none of it was in bags, there's no way they could even try to pretend that they had bought it. Its a bummer that they got away, but the store still has security cameras. They'll be recognized next time.

Tabitha is also preggers, and because of that awesome catch, some of the women from the front-end of the store plan on throwing a mini baby shower for her. Its not every day someone catches something that outrageous and they understandably want to show their appreciation. Unfortunately I have no idea what to get her...

Present and Past

Ok, I've got two things to share today. The first event happened today, the 7th. Yes, I know that you're probably reading this on the 8th, but I got off work way late tonight, so its still the 7th right now, dangit.The other happened a while ago... more than once. I'll get to that. I'm also apologizing in advance for how long today's post is. I don't usually post two stories in one, but I didn't want to wait to write either of them.

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~ Today I have the wonderful opportunity to inform you that someone tried to mug one of our patrons in the parking lot. He had a box cutter as his weapon-o-choice and demanded her purse and whatnot. This genius didn't really think too hard about what he was doing, though because it was broad daylight at the time in the middle of a rather busy parking lot. A truck drove up soon after he approached her, which she ran in front of to grab attention, while he took off in another direction.

The reason I know all of this is because the would-be mugged came into the store and told me about it. She was understandably shaken up, but I still got a description of what the guy was wearing from her and called the cops. An officer showed up about five minutes later, but the woman had already left and I assume the would-be mugger was long gone, as well. I think I may start carrying a knife with me again. Or some bear spray. I like the bear spray idea.

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~ This second happening is something I've meant to mention for a while now, but I just keep forgetting. While cashiering, I've come across some people who really drive me bonkers, but this one really drives me up the wall. The particular patrons in this situation are regular customers and I've checked them out at least three times now. The group consists of one caretaker and three, disabled women. Of the three, one has smaller arm that she doesn't use and holds to her side and one is getting rather elderly. I don't know how to put this any more gently, but all three aren't quite all there in the noggin. Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, it is not the three disabled women who bother me. Those three are actually very kind and sweet. Its Mrs. Caretaker who (I feel) needs to be beaten with a very large, pointy stick.

To begin with, I want to give you an idea of what goes on here. Mrs. Caretaker brings these women to the store, usually at the beginning of the month, to purchase groceries. When they do, the purchase is always very large and paid for with food stamps. They usually have two, full baskets and more food is always brought up to the register than what they end up having money for. None of this bothers me, though. I prefer them bringing more than they'll need instead of holding up the line to grab more. With all that being said, allow me to move on to what does bother me about this set up.

Mrs. Caretaker does not:
1. Push a basket... ever.
2. Help take items out of the baskets to place on the moving belt.
3. Pick up full bags to place back in a basket.

Mrs. Caretaker does:
1. Stand in front of the register while the other three woman do everything.
2. Stand in front of the register and bark orders at the other three women.
3. Nothing to help the other three women.

I HATE IT!

In one instance, she even made the sweetheart with the bad arm carry something heavy which clearly required two, good hands. The poor dear had to hold on to it with her good arm and press it up to her body to even carry it. Mrs. Caretaker never lifts a finger for them, only raises her voice. She'll even send them back into the store to pick up things she forgot. In another instance, there were a lot of items left over on my belt that they didn't have enough money for. Mrs. Caretaker asked me if I wanted help putting the stuff back into a basket to move out of the way, but I declined. I knew that if I said yes, that she'd just bark an order for the others to help me. There's no way that she would have actually helped me, herself.

While they're at my register, I do every, possible thing that I can to help those women while trying to keep the purchase moving smoothly. I wish I could do more, but I can't do everything with Mrs. Caretaker throwing orders around while she watches the purchase total climb. She always tells me what amount to stop at, so there really is no reason for her to just stand there and stare at it. There's just no excuse, at all. People, disabled or not, do not deserve to be treated like that. Even if she were under some direct order to specifically have the three do everything by themselves, I still don't see that as an excuse not to help them. I don't care if she does everything at where they live from cleaning the toilet to washing their fannies. She. Should. Help. Them.

I've thought about trying to find someone to speak to about all this, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I don't know any of their names, where they're from, or what company Mrs. Caretaker works for. Our state's food stamp cards don't even have names on them, either, so finagling a peek at it would be useless. Because I've been working later shifts, I haven't seen them in the store for a while, too. If I do see them again, I plan on getting names, though. I plan on doing something.

01/15/2010

Today is an exciting day. With the completion of today's rant, I've officially run out of saved stories in my phone. Because of this, I may not be able to update daily since (believe it or not) I don't always have anything noteworthy to mention. I have to admit, it was getting kind of difficult recently to make a post every day. So its going to be nice that, from now on, all my posts are going to be current events.

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~Before I get into the meat of this episode, allow me give you some back-story.
It is not uncommon for customers to need to return items without a proof of purchase. There are specific items that we, at the service desk, are not allowed to return without the receipt, though. Those items are things, such as cosmetics, small tools, or small electronic devises, which are generally expensive and easily pocketed. Last Friday was made special by the fact that it wasn't just one person that bothered me, it was a number of them.

I've declined plenty of returns without the receipt, but this day was ridiculous. I've never had so many people, within one work shift, try to return a bundle of stolen goods. Of course I'm not suppose to assume that the items are stolen, but its usually still pretty obvious. A customer who legitimately purchased something will usually throw a fit if I don't let them return it. Younger shoplifters in their teens to twenties don't, for the most part. They sometimes press the return, but seldom cause a scene and draw attention to themselves.

At first, it didn't bother me to turn the first few customers away. Then it got to the point where I literally had to decline every other person walking up to my desk. They had everything from ratchet tools to expensive craft ink. It felt as if there was a gigantic sign on the front of the store that said, "IF YOU STOLE SOMETHING AND WANT TO RETURN IT, DO IT NOW!" It got to the point where I almost went outside to make sure there wasn't.

I eventually asked a co-coworker, who has worked at the desk for longer than I have, if she'd experienced anything like that before. It didn't shock me that she had, and even to a worse degree. She also pointed out that the weekend was coming up, and they probably wanted the money for drugs and alcohol. Even though they would just get a gift-card if we did let them return the stuff, people have been known to try and sell the card for cash-money to support their bad habits.

12/16/2009

Before I start this next installment, I just wanted to throw the little F.Y.I. out there that you guys are more than welcome to post comments. In fact, I might even encourage it. O_o
Also, I'm off today, so here's yet another story from the text archive. Its another short one, but still worth posting.

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~On this particular date, it was brought to my attention that there was an elderly woman in the store shoplifting. I know this because one of our asset protection guys had seen her leave behind three packages that turned out to be empty: some rather expensive chocolates and two over-the-counter medications out of the pharmacy. To add insult to injury, she was doing it while scooting around in one of our motorized carts.

What is the world coming to when you can't even trust a little old lady who is too frail to walk around the store on her own two feet?

To my dismay, he wasn't even able to knock her for stealing. He had noticed them in her basket, but she had already ditched the empty cartons by the time he was able to throw another glance at the old hag. Unless we searched the rest of the store, there was no way to prove that she hadn't left the items he had spotted her with somewhere else. Due to these circumstances, he would have needed to have seen the person physically remove the contents from it's receptacle to be able to accuse them of anything. It seemed as if he had already been suspicious of her before that day, too.

Crappy little grandma stealing our merchandise while navigating the store on one of our complimentary scooters... I'm surprised she didn't try to fit that in her purse, as well.