When you think about shoplifters, you probably include adults and young adults in the equation.

You probably don’t imagine both working together to pull off a laptop heist, though.

That’s exactly what happened in this story where a whole family works together to steal.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Larceny: A day out for the whole family

So this happened quite a number of years ago at the retail computer shop I worked at.

We specialised in built-to-order notebooks & desktops.

To help understand what happened, here’s the layout of the store: We had three display pillars around the showroom floor. Each pillar had a stand surrounding it, and on that stand where notebooks. Each notebook was locked to the desk using notebook locks.

At the entrance to the store was a pillar so when you walked in you were faced with new and exciting notebooks – the main one being a huge 17″ gaming one.

There were blind spots in the store.

Around the edges of the showroom (back wall, sidewalls) are sales persons desks, so customers can sit down and get a quote.

My desk was diagonal from the front door.

I could see people enter, but if they were standing against the pillar looking at notebooks, I couldn’t see them, and neither could anyone else.

A family walked in, not as unassuming as they…assumed.

So in come The Family: A mum, dad, daughter, and two sons.

Now, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I have a good level of intuition, however, which is why I clicked on what was happening so quickly.

So when this family walks in, and the dad & one son go to one sales person to get a quote for a PC, and the mum comes to me to get another quote, whilst the other son & daughter wander around the showroom looking at notebooks, a little bit of me thinks….

This is strange. Why would they split up and occupy two sales tables…

Then, it happened.

So as I am doing up a quote for the mum & son, I am surreptitiously keeping an eye on what the kids on the showroom floor are doing.

Eventually they make their way to the pillar at the front of the shop. They go to the entrance side of it and stay there for a good few mins.

Then suddenly I see them turn around and walk out the front door.

At that point I knew exactly what was going on.

I stood up and said ‘Excuse me”, and went straight to the front and saw the empty space where the computer used to be.

And he chased them right down.

I quickly turned and pointed to the manager who was in his office and yelled his name – loud enough for everyone to stop what they were doing – and told him to call the police & detain everyone – and then went out the front and saw the son & daughter walking down the walkway in front of all the shops (from the minute they walked out the door to me following them out the door would have only been about 10 seconds).

So I went after them and yelled for them to stop.

When they kept walking, I let the son know that I will chase him and I will take him down, so he stopped and turned around.

There he was with the huge rectangle shape of a 17″ notebook under his jumper.

I told him to give it back or I’ll be happy to make a citizens arrest by force.

So he took it out of his jumper and gave it back to me and then turned and bolted.

Everyone ended up getting away.

As I turned back to walk to the shop I saw the door slam open, and out walked the rest of the family.

The father was yelling some unintelligible profanity at someone inside and they just wandered off in all different directions.

I went inside and there was stuff thrown all over the floor and chairs knocked over, so I had guessed they threatened violence if they were detained, so I cant blame anyone for letting them go…

They left the car behind that they had come in (which turned out to be stolen)….

And yeah, that’s my one experience with retail that will always stick in my mind.

The cops never found them. They said it’s a very common thing, and it’s unlikely they’ll be caught.

So I guess this is just a cautionary tale.

Let’s hear what Reddit had to say about it.

Turns out there are so many ways to be a bad parent.

The family that steals together…

Maybe they were older.

Not everyone is up to the challenge.

Apparently this is a thing.

You can’t judge a book by its cover or a shopper by their status as a parent.

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.