Loss prevention is an often unrealistic expectation cast onto customer service workers who are already overworked and underpaid.

How would you handle someone who had the audacity of being a recurring thief in the same store?

One guy recently told Reddit a story about how he dealt with exactly this.

Here’s what went down.

“You’re not selling to me because I stole?” No, that’s not correct at all

So I work in a store that has a lot of thefts.

Calling Security is never an option, because they take 10 minutes to arrive, even when there was a fight at the registers that ended up requiring the police and multiple ambulances.

WHAT is going on at this store!?

Because of this, people get away with a lot of things, to the point that there’s a recurring customer who’s stolen more than he’s ever bought.

What an outrageous accomplishment.

This isn’t that Customer, but the other week, I was serving a customer who asked to take Cash off his eftpos Card. Not a big deal, but it failed so many times he said to just cancel the order and just walked out while I cancelled the Cashout order.

That’s when I realized that he also took out the entirety of his cart, about $50 of Deli meat.

Sounds like these customers have some audacity.

I of course knew I was going to get written up, and just mark it as a loss. At least we know what he took.

A few hours later, he came through again, his order at $400 now, full of a Lot of Premium silverware, Cosmetics and the Like. Plus he wanted Cashout.

On the same card as before.

This guy is bold for coming back.

I said sure, and put his groceries on my other side, so he wasn’t in arms reach of any of it before continuing, before setting up for Cash out.

Instead of using his card he immediately asked why I moved the bags, and I told him that I was looking to clean the area while he finished his purchase.

A lie, but i couldn’t tell him I suspected he was a thief.

Have to play it smooth in these types of situations.

I didn’t even mention the previous shop, but he immediately started yelling for me to give him his bags, and that I was refusing to sell to him because he stole earlier.

I hadn’t mentioned it at all.

Way to tattle on yourself, bro.

It took a few minutes for the Manager to arrive, taking over the man’s shop.

Turns out his card still didn’t work, and with a huff, he just left.

So two write ups that day, one for a $50 loss, the other for suspecting a thief, but I got praised by loss preventions, so It was a roller coaster of a Day.

Retail can certainly be thankless. Let’s see how Redditors chimed in.

Concern was had all around.

Some pointed out the obvious.

Even some who played devil’s advocate changed their tune.

And a few came up with solutions.

No good deed goes unpunished in retail.

Everyone knows that.

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