Toy Crime Story

I’m shopping for toys for our child in a famous London toy store. My husband is a few shops away doing something else. He is finished and I am nearly, as well. Instead of shopping baskets, the store supplies big, red, very visible, and branded bags to carry your purchases around. My husband calls me to try and find me.

Because the store is full of people, he goes into “husband panic mode,” saying he’ll never find me. In order to help him, I go to the entrance. Trying to locate him, I step out of the store with my big bag of stuff I have not paid for. I am literally standing still, not even an arm’s length from security, scanning people to find my husband.

Suddenly, I am grasped by a man who I realize is security. He thinks I tried to steal and is very upset about it. I find that pretty funny, considering my choice of standing right next to him with a big bag proclaiming the store name. Very quickly, a young man who is some sort of a manager arrives at the scene and also gives me a stern talking to.

I understand their initial interest in me but am really amused that they never stopped to consider the exact circumstances after they initially stopped me, so I ask them, “Do you really think this is what stealing looks like? Me standing stock still next to a security guy with a big, bulging bag provided and branded by your store?”

I had a pretty hard time convincing them that YES, I WOULD ACTUALLY buy all that stuff now, as if the register wasn’t three feet away, and as if they couldn’t quite easily check that I was going to buy it all. I honestly think people in security should have enough experience to know an honest mistake when they see it.