The Wrong Trousers

It’s early on a fairly quiet Sunday morning. A man rushes up to the customer service desk. Customers aren’t meant to come behind the desk, but he walks in and up to me as I’m stood at the till. He’s dressed in a nice shirt and blue formal trousers.

Customer: “Help! Please help! I have to be at a wedding in twenty minutes, and the security tag is still on my trousers! I can’t go there like this!”

Me: “Okay, sir. I’m going to have to ask you to back up and stand the other side of the desk as you can’t be in here.”

At first, I think this may be a scam or a distraction of some kind. However, seeing that the security tag and the trousers are not sold by our store — we don’t sell much, if any, formal wear — and how panicked the man is, I take pity and attempt to take the security tag off with my detagger.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but this is a security tag specific to the store you bought it from. My detagger is the wrong shape.”

A look of further alarm comes over his face, so I ring my manager. My manager tells me to send him into the holding room near to us — usually reserved for shoplifters to be held whilst we deal with the police — and to get him to take the trousers off. My manager will come and grab them and get the tag off.

I take the man to the holding room and he pretty much takes the trousers off, belt and all, in front of me with the door open. I quickly shut the door and am stood there with the trousers.

Security Guard: “Um, what are you doing?”

Me: “It’s… difficult to explain. I’ll explain later. Just… don’t let anyone into the holding room until he’s gone!”

My manager came and got the trousers. Somehow, our store manager got involved in helping. With a pair of pliers, they managed to force the tag off without damaging the trousers. The man was very thankful, and he sprinted out and into a waiting car.

My manager later said that the man had commented he’d brought the trousers a week ago at [Popular Department Store] but hadn’t realised the tag was on still. Something tells me he was a bit late for the wedding he was attending.

My colleagues and I were giggling about it all day!