Wombat was writing recently about politeness and how
overly polite Americans have become (and here I'd thought it was a Canadian thing).
When commenting I mentioned how I'd once been accused of thievery and that it was possibly a post in the making.
It was. Or is...
A long time ago, in a small Canadian town, Just a Girl was spending time at the mall with a friend. They were college aged and oh so cool (but not really) and just wandering about looking at things. They went to the music store, Sam's, and were flipping through the bins and comparing finds. The friend asked JaG to hold her wallet and proceeded to pass it over the shelves. Upon receiving it JaG placed it in the pocket of her army jacket. They made some purchases and moved on.
Unbeknownst to them they had had an observer.
While walking and giggling down the main mall corridor they were approached by two men:
"Excuse me ladies, I need to speak to you. We are with mall security." The girls stopped and were feeling a bit bewildered. Maybe one of them had dropped something?
"I need you to empty your pockets."
"What? Why? We don't understand."
"Someone saw you shoplifting"*silence*
Then JaG got upset. She
politely spouted off about never stealing as she emptied her pockets and bags. She tossed her receipts at the men and stumbled over her words. Since there was nothing to find the men soon left but not before saying:
"Sorry to bother you."The two girls made their way to the parking garage where JaG broke down and cried due to anger and embarrassment. Then she stiffened her lip, grabbed her purchases and went back to the music shop. The clerk was
politely given what for, the music was returned and JaG told them she would never shop there again. The clerk was baffled but returned her money.
Once back at the car JaG shed a few more tears then drove to her grandparents place. Once she'd calmed down she began to think more rationally about what had happened. She saw how unfair it was to be stopped in the middle of the mall. She wondered who reported them as shoplifters. She thought about calling the mall management.
She did. She called and explained what had happened and the consequences for the store. Management had no idea what she was talking about but promised to look into it and call her back. Jag believed that she would not hear back. She was wrong.
After about an hour management called back to explain what they had found out. A clerk from another shop in the mall was on her lunch break in the food court which was situated right outside the music shop. The clerk observed JaG's friend passing over her wallet and JaG pocketing it. The clerk decided they'd stolen some music and so went back to her shop, talked to her shop's security and sent them out to hunt down the girls.
An apology was offered and accepted though JaG informed management that this situation would still cost the music shop their customer and that she had no plans to patronize the rest of the mall either.
(I am still surprised about how calm I was during it all. I never yelled and felt that I remained fairy rational throughout it all. Now I would challenge the security guard more instead of just emptying out my pockets but otherwise not much would change.)
