People who take advantage of retail workers really stink – and if those workers are teenagers, well, there’s a special bad place for them.

This young lady was excelling at her first job when she came face-to-face with a seasoned con man.

Read on to find out what happened next.

The Con Artist

I got my first job when I was 15-years old, and it was in a retail environment (as many first jobs are). I only worked in retail until I was 19.

Despite being removed from that world for over a decade now, this story still continues to haunt me. That’s the thing about working retail – some experiences will remain stuck in your brain for years and years to follow.

It sounds like she was really good at her job.

I started as a grocery store cashier, and I guess I was a decent employee because the powers-that-be decided to promote me to the customer service desk.

I theorize that putting a teenager on the desk was done solely because none of the older employees wanted to work evenings or weekends.

As a high school student, I could ONLY work evenings and weekends, but I’ve always enjoyed taking on extra responsibility so I was thrilled to make this move.

That’s a lot of responsibility for a 16yo.

After a short period of time, they promoted me again to supervisor, which basically meant that I coordinated the cashier breaks, did cash pick-ups from the registers, and continued to assist customers on the service desk.

The service desk at our store handled returns, lottery ticket purchases, answered the store phone, took Western Union money orders, made intercom pages, etc.

It’s important to note that as a supervisor, I was given power to override register warnings with a physical key and a unique passcode.

Things were great until this guy came in.

On the fateful evening that this story takes place, I was working as a supervisor, and I was stationed at the service desk. Up until that point, it was no different than any other weekday night. Answer the phone, cash out lottery tickets, make customers happy, wash, rinse, repeat.

We wore nametags, and to this day I hate having to wear a nametag under any circumstances thanks to what occurred on this shift. Either way, my name was displayed prominently for all to see.

A man approached my desk. M = Man, KSR = Me

M: Good evening, KSR.

KSR: Good evening, how can I help you?

Him using my name left me feeling slightly on edge, given that customers rarely called me by name, but I was naïve and thought he was being friendly. I wish I had paid attention to that first, uneasy feeling.

M: Listen, I know your manager John Doe (not his real name) is on vacation this week, but we had worked out a deal.

You can see how it made sense.

As a side note, the man correctly name-dropped my manager (who was in fact on vacation that week). Also, my manager was the kind of manager who would back up his employees without fail.

If a customer demanded to speak to him because we were unable to circumvent store policy, he would often say, “My associate was correct, but I will take care of XXX for you this one time.”

He was fantastic that way. Anyway, back to the dialogue.

M: Listen, I know your manager John Doe is on vacation this week, but we had worked out a deal.

At this point, he shows me a letter, with what looks very much like my manager’s signature on it.

M: I bought a bunch of items from you for a trade show, and he told that I could return anything that I didn’t sell during the show.

He then presented a variety of skincare products found in our (small) body care section of the store.

I examined the letter, and nothing seemed out of place. It presented an agreement, my manager’s signature was right there, and this guy knew John Doe was on vacation.

He didn’t have a receipt, but nothing seemed out of place. I scanned the items, and sure enough they were products we carried.

I entered in the returns, and the items totaled $220 or so. Our return limit is usually $10 without supervisor approval. Normally I would have had to page someone to override my register, but I was the supervisor that night.

I popped my key into the register, entered my override code, and popped open the cash drawer. I handed over the cash, wished him well, and he thanked me and walked away.

But she realized quickly she had made a mistake.

Before you judge, remember – I was probably about 16-years-old. There were no alarms that went off in my brain telling me that this wasn’t okay. The guy even left the signed letter behind with his products!

As the shift wore on, I started to get that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had made a huge mistake. By the end of the shift, I realize I had been completely taken by a con artist.

None of my managers were in that night, and the weight of my mistake wore on me until my next shift (probably two or three days later).

When I got in, the product was still sitting on the customer service desk, silently mocking me. I knew that I had to tell them what I did, and face whatever consequences they deemed appropriate.

At least she had a great manager.

John Doe was back from vacation by that point, and I approached him and near tears, I told him the whole story. His response?

JD: Don’t give it another thought. That guy was a professional. You were conned by one of the best.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fantastic manager.

This guy is the worst.

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

That’s what experience will do for you.

That would be quite the caper.

There’s always that one customer.

You can’t be on guard all the time.

I’m sure she learned a lesson that night.

Man, get a real job.

Stop bothering teenagers.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.