Stealing Away For A Break

(I work at a petrol station. As is the case with many stations, we do get theft, but have been told to never single anyone out or judge people on appearance. A coworker and I notice a customer coming in, the only one as it is around 11 pm at the time.)

Coworker: *loudly, but whispering to me* “LOOK AT HIM!” *points to the customer*

Me: “Yes? What about him?”

Coworker: “He’s CLEARLY going to steal something. You can just tell. I’m going to check the cameras!”

Me: “Okay… then?”

(A couple of other customers come in the pay for their petrol or buy small items. As she has left me alone, I am the only one on the checkouts now. I serve all three quickly. The original customer comes up last.)

Me: “Is that all today?”

Customer: “Yes, thanks.”

Me: “By the way… and sorry if this is left field. I’m in no way accusing you of anything here.. but you haven’t got anything in your pockets, have you, sir?”

(The customer laughs a bit, then winks at me, pulling out his wallet to pay. It’s got a police officer’s badge on it.)

Customer: “I should hope I don’t. I don’t really feel like calling it in off-duty.”

(We both laughed and I explained the coworker had ran upstairs to monitor him because he was wearing a hoodie in the store. We laughed more at this and went on with our day. The coworker came back about half an hour later, having taken a nice, relaxing break on the cameras – and I had a line of eight customers who were getting grumpy at the wait for a simple purchase.)