Posted by Pax on January 19, 1999 at 12:31
In Reply to: caught shop lifting posted by bob on January 18, 1999 at 21:32
This reminds me of something I witnessed a long, long time ago. When I was a teen, I worked at a local drug store as a stock-boy/clerk/custodian, etc. When things were really slow, my assistant manager (Mr. D.) enjoyed showing me how easy it was to catch shoplifters. This store had the typical parabolic mirrors in a few strategic locations. In this case, "strategic" meant near the tobacco, candy, and costume-jewelry/perfume aisles, since these were the most frequently pocketed items.
I learned that if you stood a few aisles away, you could look over and/or between the items on the top shelves and have a fairly good view of
the parabolic mirrors. From this vantage point, it was fairly common to witness people slipping things into their pockets, without them noticing that they were being watched.
On one evening, two girls about my age came into the store; one headed to the cosmetic department, and the other kind of "circled the store". I suspected they were up to something from the way they kept looking around. I mentioned this to Mr. D., and we both decided to "stake them out". I saw one of them slip some cheap perfume into her purse and start heading for the door. Mr. D. saw it too, and also headed for the same door (the only one). I followed behind her after turning down the aisle she'd just come from. She must have suspected something, because she doubled back when she noticed Mr D. at the door. But when she turned around, she nearly ran right into me. She was clearly startled. After composing myself (as best as a cocky teenager can) I asked what she had in her purse. She told me it was none of my business, so I then mentioned that we had seen her slip the perfume in her purse, and that Mr D. had just phoned the police (he didn't). With that she just froze and started pissing herself severely. I couldn't believe it! One part of me felt so sorry for her, because this obviously wasn't staged, but regardless, I became so excited that I creamed in my briefs. I didn't know what to do next, so I just stood there and stared at her. Just then, Mr D. came around the corner and I sort of snapped back into reality. When he saw what had happened, he felt that that was more than enough suffering for her and told her to leave. I was so mesmerized that I don't even know what happened to the other girl. I still remember having to mop up her mess, and having Mr. D. tell me it's the least I could do after "scaring the piss out of the poor girl". Ha! If only he knew how much I enjoyed cleaning up after her. And it's a good thing I was wearing a smock, or he might have noticed that *I* needed a little cleaning up too.
After this incident, I spent more time staking out suspected shoplifters hoping for a repeat occurrence, but it never happened again.
Nonetheless, it's etched in my memory forever.
Email: anon1ddb@nyx.net