Caught a scammer at work yesterday

[MarcB]

I caught a scammer at work yesterday. For those of you who don't know me I work part time at The Drust Family Shoprite of Southington, Connecticut. My job is to bring the shopping carts in from the parking lot and maintain the bottle redemption room. - Empty the full machines, unjam the machines, count bottles for customers who's bottles won't go thought the machine even though they bought them at Shoprite, etc.

So yesterday during my shift I walk inside the store to check the schedule to see who's coming in after me so I can let them know anything that I didn't get done. My supervisor Debbi tells me there's a customer who needs assistance in the bottle room. - (Not an uncommon occurance given the fact the plastic machine is very tempermental). So I walk down to the bottle room, where a female customer is waiting for me.

Me: Good morning ma'am, what seems to be the trouble?
Customer: The machine ate my redemption slip.
Me: Which machine was it?
Customer: The can machine.

I walked over to the machine, pulled the key out of my pocket and unlocked the machine. I look at the receipt tape and don't see any slip. Humoring the customer I push a couple buttons, but of course nothing happens.

Me: Ma'am, I can't find your slip. I'll have to call my manager.
Customer: Okay.

I pick up the phone that automatically connects to the Customer Service Desk.

Tracy: Customer Service Desk.
Marc: Tracy, it's Marc in the bottle room. Will you send Dorothy out to the bottle room please? (Dorothy is above Debbi on the Shoprite managerial food chain).
Tracy: How much is the customer's missing bottle slip for?

I cover the phone and repeat the question to the customer.

Customer: $3.65
Me (on phone with Tracy): $3.65
Tracy: $3.65? I have to have Evan from Loss Prevention come out and give her the bottle slip because it's so much money.
Marc: Thank-you Tracy.

I hang up the phone.

Me: Ma'am our Loss Prevention Officer will be out in a moment to assist you.
Customer: Why does the Loss Prevention Officer have to come out?
Me: Because it's such a large amount of money.
Customer: $3.65 is a lot of money?
Me: Yes.
Customer: Never mind.

The customer leaves quickly. I wait in the bottle room a moment or two. I go back inside the store to the customer service desk.

Me: The customer left. I think she was up to something.
Tracy: Yeah. Evan checked the camera. She never put any bottles into any of the machines. She just went up to the machine and pressed the button. Then called about the alleged missing bottle slip.

[WMC2006]

Everyone thinks they can get something (even $3.65) until they realize they are on video.  In this day and age, you'd think people would realize they are on video everywhere, even in the bottle room.

I hope you remember her face so the next time you see her shopping there (if she dares to come back), you can just give her the evil eye and say "welcome back".   

[Silkie]

Petty theft of all kinds adds up.  It puts me in mind of a young man who showed up at my car window one day as I left the bank asking for one dollar for the bus.  I told him I don't give money to men, I don't barter with men, and I don't pay for the apartment with men, so get away from me, get away from my car and steer clear at all costs.

He persisted with all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but never got the dollar.  You can bet your butt he had stolen and otherwise connived for his drugs, a little bit at a time. 

It was about drugs, you can be sure.

[DToTheJ]

I'm still stuck on the part where he says he was "humoring the customer"... 

Seriously, well done.

[dmargalotti]

Sounds like a new take on the old game show, Supermarket Sweep! 

[ddsparxx]

I have had some people asking me for some money and promising to pay back and I said No. Period. No exceptions.

[quadraphonic]

I have only given money to a few people over the years, and in retrospect, since I started offering to take them for food or whatever they said they needed, I'm pretty sure that the financial-returns aspect of those gifts was a waste.
But what can ya do? I did what I thought was right at the time, and was obedient to the Spirit who told me to give it to them.
Who knows? Maybe that was a few dollars that helped them buy the last drugs that pushed them over the edge or made them recognize they were doing terrible things, and made them want to change their lives?

[Silkie]

I'm still stuck on the part where he says he was "humoring the customer"... 

Seriously, well done.

I would not have humored the customer.  I don't humor anyone who is up to no good.  I make sure it is out there for all to see and hear, just as Marc did with the manager, right down to the particulars if they are operating in concert, as it were, with someone else.  There won't be any "never mind" when I (and mine) are finished with them if they keep it up.  Someone like that tries to play head games until reality bites them real real hard when they try to turn it around.

[landtuna]

In 1972 I was working in Manhattan in an office of about 200 people.  Most of us took the subway on our way home.  After witnessing several purse snatchers and muggings in subway stations I made it a policy not to carry my wallet, just the money I would need for the day.  Apparently others did the same.

One morning one of my office-mates came in visibly shaken and told the following story:

As he walked to his subway stop after work a mugger pulled a knife on him and demanded his money.  He told the mugger he had only a dollar but if he gave it up he wouldn't have enough for his subway ride (fare was 50 cents in those days).  Believe it or not the mugger took the dollar and handed him a token.  

If I hadn't known the guy personally I would have never believed it either.  

[Silkie]

LOL - Exactly.  I pointed out a situation to people in my office too.  The difference is that everyone in my office knows what the perp looks like - and everything else he does while he is anywhere that I or they can see him on his regular errands of obedience. 

It appears that we are all unanimous.  Never worry that somebody will think you're nuts.  Tell.