This kind of situation can go either way…

Employees who follow people they think might be thieves around stores can either catch someone in the act and be a hero…or they were wrong the whole time and they look like fools!

Guess what happened in this story…?

Read on and find out!

Follow me around like I’m a thief? OK!

“One day, during a lunch break from work, I decided to pop into our local Boots (a pharmacy/beauty retailer here in the UK).

She had some time to waste…

It was a really big one and I had an hour to burn so I began wandering the aisles looking at all the nail polishes and make up and trying out the testers (before that became a foul practice).

After about 10 minutes or so I noticed that one of the employees kept conveniently needing to be in the same aisle as me to “rearrange” or “straighten” something.

She kept taking furtive glances at me and was watching my hands.

Now I know that theft is an issue in these places, since people love to steal make-up, but for some reason this really got up my nose.

I was very arrogant back then and was hugely insulted by the fact that, despite me being one of at least 10 other shoppers in the place, I had become the target of her attention.

There were only 3 employees in the immediate area so it’s not like they had one on every customer.

I hatched a petty plan.

I made eye contact and smiled at her and started loading my basket.

I added all sorts of little bits until the basket was full.

There was make-up and nail polishes. Moisturizers and deodorants. Hair products and toothpaste.

The works!

She was hot on her tail!

I wandered far and wide choosing items from every section and proceeded to the tills.

All the while she tailed me, even going so far as to watch me at the tills.

I waited patiently while one of the other 2 employees rang up my purchases.

She told me the final amount and asked how I was paying.

I looked at her and said “Oh! No, there’s been a mistake. I’m not actually going to buy this. This is what I would have bought had your colleague” I looked over and pointed at the woman who had followed me “Yes! You!” I said loudly, “Had you not followed me around like I was a common criminal”.

She went beetroot red and sputtered something like “No! No I didn’t”.

Here you go!

I emptied the bags of my “purchased” items back onto the belt and left her to sort out the reversal on the till and put everything back where it belonged.

I even got a £50.00 voucher from Boots when I complained to Customer Services.

I’m older now and realize I was a jerk because she was just doing her job but, for goodness sake, if you’re gonna tail someone, be subtle about it.

I hope she learned a lesson that day and upped her sneak.

Here’s what readers had to say about this story.

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And this person had a story to tell.

She got fed up with being treated like a common criminal.

Who wouldn’t?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.