One of the toughest moments working retail is when you have to confront someone you believe is committing an illegal act.

In this case, a couple of kids had a checkbook that very likely didn’t belong to him.

The employee handled things just right, though.

Check it out.

Dude and his girlfriend decide to go on a shopping spree with a stolen checkbook

This happened a few years ago while I was working in the electronics department at a big box retailer.

This guy and his girlfriend (both around 18-19 years old) comes up to me and say they want to buy a few things, including a 50+ inch TV, and were wondering if we took checks.

He didn’t need to be a professional.

The dude straight up hands me his checkbook, and without even needing to put a detective hat on I could tell it was stolen.

Both the routing number and account number were lazily altered with a pen, and they had crossed off the persons address at the top.

I was not much older than either of them, so my first thought is they are trying to get me to go along with their scheme.

Being that I don’t know these people and have zero reason to help them with crime, I decide to play along.

He plays along while he figures out what to do.

I let them know that we absolutely take checks as long as one of them has a valid ID. I excuse myself to the back explaining that I need to see if we have the TV they wanted in stock and they should have a look around to see if there was anything else they wanted to buy while I checked.

At the time I had zero sympathy for these people.

They were both dressed like their families were well-off (this store was in one of the more wealthy suburbs), and the whole thing seemed like they felt so entitled they were just going to steal from someone to get whatever they wanted.

Time to get management involved.

I head to the back and immediately call an assistant manager and let them know what’s going on.

He says try and stall them for a few minutes, get them everything they want, and when they are ready to check out make some excuse about needing to bring them up to the front registers.

I bring the TV out on a cart and find they have decided I seem cool and was going to let them use a stolen check, so they now want a load of random crap (DVD’s, surround system, etc.).

I spend something like 30 minutes with them going over the differences in all the console gaming systems, have them look at laptops, cameras, and all kinds of other junk.

They are excited by all the stuff they are going to buy, and after filling a shopping cart they are ready to check out.

The fall is coming…

We get to the front check out and the assistant manager has put on a cashier’s vest and is waiting at a closed check out line for us.

I steer us to his line and he starts ringing everybody up.

He gets to the total (which I think was somewhere in the $7,500+ range), they write a check, and he asks for ID.

The girlfriend hands over a license with a 50 year old woman’s picture on it, but with the same name as on the check.

Finally, the consequences arrive.

Without missing a beat the assistant waives over three police officers who were standing at the entrance waiting for these two kids and arrest them.

They were planning on grabbing them either way since they were reported as being in possession of stolen checks.

Because of these two I spent the rest of the evening writing up a detailed itemization of everything they were trying to purchase for the police report.

No details on the aftermatch, sadly.

I never found out what happened to them but I assume they were charged with a crime of some kind.

They didn’t seem to realize what was going on when I had someone else check them out, and were totally blindsided when the police came up to arrest them.

I know I could have probably just told them we can’t accept their check when they first came up to me, or maybe had a little chat with them about not committing crimes.

Thinking back, though, even if I declined their attempt to use a fraudulent check they would have probably just tried the same thing somewhere else – and who knows whether this was actually the first time they tried it.

I do feel a little bad helping them dig their own hole.

But at the end of the day I just don’t think it’s cool to go up to a stranger at their job and expect them to help you with crime, it’s pretty rude.

I mean, he did the right thing.

I’m sure Reddit agrees.

He shouldn’t feel badly at all.

He went the extra mile.

Not a very good criminal.

There’s one in every family.

Why are people do awful?

Don’t involve strangers in your crimes.

It’s really not fair to anyone involved.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.