When you think of thieves, families with kids probably don’t come to mind.

Then again, if you work retail, there probably isn’t much that surprises you.

This person and their coworkers caught onto this family’s scheme, and eventually thwarted their attempts to steal.

Read on to check out how they managed it.

Whole family comes to shoplift not once… not twice… but THREE times.

This is another story from my time working at a store going through liquidation during the summer of 2019.

Around when I had first started, I became grossly aware about how bad of a problem shoplifting actually was in retail, or at least at my job.

The first time, no one was prepared.

The first time this family came in we were able to scare them away.

While we couldn’t really do anything to stop shoplifters if we saw them (most we could do was yell and hope to embarrass them enough to put the stuff back or tell our managers and then keep an eye out for them again) when we knew one was in the store, everyone came to the floor.

Both managers, all the leads, even people in the back in charge of getting big orders out to customers for pickup.

With us all on the floor, most shoplifters would give up and leave whatever they were trying to steal on a shelf.

The first time this family came in, we all quickly focused in on the mother who was the most obvious.

She actually came up to some of my coworkers asking us where certain things were, and since we hadn’t caught her actually trying to steal yet (she was acting really shady though) we couldn’t do anything but give her vague answers.

After a while they did end up leaving with some stuff bc one of my coworkers got lazy and didn’t care to watch, but we did make the husband and son leave their stuff.

None of us had expected the father and son, especially the kid because come on… that’s just sad, but they became uncomfortable because of how honed in on the mother we were.

Once they were gone we could do nothing but sigh and move on with our jobs.

Still, they got away with it a second time, too.

The second time they came in, I wasn’t working at the time.

I only knew they came back because my coworkers told me when I had come in later the day.

They had tried to get out with some expensive shoes and tools, but they ditched them by what was left of our selection of refrigerators.

I was also told a week or so later by my manager that when cameras were checked from another store these people had hit, these people actually snuck out the back and stole someone’s car to get away.

By this point we had actually given these people nicknames and my manager was fuming.

I had been told stories about how this woman literally chased down shoplifters in the past, so not being able to get these people was eating at her.

The third time they tried, no one even gave them the chance to do it again.

About another week went by and the mother and father came back without their kid.

My coworker instantly came over to me and told me to watch for her and stay by the mall entrance by my registers.

I made my other coworker stay at the registers and watch the changing rooms while I “cleaned” the racks by the mall entrance.

The untrustworthy coworker who let them get away the first time was at the other exit and so after a few minutes I went over there while another coworker took my place.

I really didn’t trust this coworker to not let them slip out without any issues again.

When I got over there I saw my manager on her phone while she was telling another worker to go outside and follow the woman.

There are the details on how they did it.

Apparently the shoplifter had walked up to my manager asking where a certain item was, and my manager called the cops right in front of her and told them that there was a shoplifter currently in the store.

The woman ran out right as that happened, leaving whatever she had on the counter by the registers on that end of the store.

My coworker came back inside and said the lady went into a different entrance to the mall, and my manager began making her way to the back of the mall thinking the husband was meeting her back there like they had before.

My manager was gone for over an hour before I saw her again, looking particularly proud.

I never got to ask her what happened, but the smug look she had on her face gave me reason to believe the woman and her husband would not be returning to steal again.

At least they figured it out eventually.

Let’s find out what Reddit thinks of these people.

We love a good citizens arrest.

If I can’t get free stuff, why should they?

The lies are never that good.

What stellar parents these people are.

You can only hit the same place so many times.

People need better hobbies.

But I guess they do keep retail interesting.

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