Five Minute Crimes

I worked in customer service at a well-known superstore. I am coming back from break, and I go my usual route of sneaking through all the clothing areas to avoid customers. I went around a corner and bumped into a lady in the shoe aisle with an armful of boxes.

Me: “Oh! Sorry!”

I helped her pick up the boxes she dropped and went back to the service counter. 

About three minutes later, that same woman walked up, put the boxes on the counter, and said:

Customer: “I want to return these.”

I kind of stopped and stared at her.

Me: “l just saw you bring these directly from the floor over to here.”

Customer: “Yeah? And I want to return them.”

Me: “I need to get my manager to do the return.”

I use the code we were taught to alert the manager to just this type of situation when he arrives. Since we don’t get paid enough to argue, the manager made the return for her (something like $200 on a gift card), and off she went… straight into the loss prevention officer waiting for her at the door. 

In processing the “return,” we got all of her details, which the loss prevention officer found very helpful when handing her over to the police.