Some people will stick to a lie right up until the moment they realize they’re caught.

This grocery store employee watched that happen when a woman tried to leave the store with a pack of diapers she claimed she had already purchased.

When the cashier asked a few simple questions, the woman’s story started falling apart almost immediately.

Then a manager overheard her explanation and pointed out that he was the only manager in the store, and he hadn’t made the sale.

Even though she left that night, it wasn’t the last they heard from her.

Read on to see what happened when she and her partner came back a month later.

Shoplifter and the vanishing cashier

This didn’t happen to me, but was described to me from a coworker (W) at previous job as an overnight grocery store stocker/cashier.

W was manning the front end of the store and was restocking the registers, when a young woman (C) came in, pushing a cart with a young toddler in the seat.

C must not have seen W, as W is partially behind the cigarette display, so C goes breezing by, and as she does, grabs a sack from a near-by register. W thinks this is a little odd, but figures C will use the sack in case her little one makes a mess, as toddlers are prone to do.

When C came back, she had an item already bagged.

About half an hour later, C comes back up with a bunch of baby related items, including one box of diapers, already in a sack. W runs everything else through and then asks for the diapers.

C: Oh, I bought those earlier. Don’t worry about them!

Now, W is like the rest of us overnight checkers: She has a very sensitive ** meter, and has very low tolerance for it. Her meter is pinging like crazy and she asks to see the receipt.

She was trying to play it cool.

C (as she makes a show of digging through her purse and in the sack): I must have dropped it somewhere! I promise I did buy it though!

W knows C is full of it and asks if she remembers which cashier she bought it from. C proceeds to describe a blond male assistant manager.

C: He was here earlier! I don’t know where he is now!

At this point, the manager stepped in.

C was so busy fumbling for excuses and tending to her over-tired toddler, she failed to notice the non-blond assistant night manager (ANM) had come up front to drop of supplies, and he heard her claims of who she bought the diapers from.

ANM (reaches in and grabs the diapers): I’m the only male manager in the store right now, and I don’t remember selling these to you. You either pay for these as well, or you can leave.

Apparently, C did a very good ‘deer in the headlights,’ mumbled something about forgetting her billfold, and hurried out the door, leaving everything behind.

And that’s not the end of the story.

Unfortunately, C came back.

C was a repeat offender. After that first encounter, everybody on the crew would watch her like a hawk, and we ended up preventing her from swiping pills, small baby related items, and cigarettes.

This whole thing was brought to an end when she and her male partner were caught red-handed a month later. He was shoving individual beer bottles into his baggy jeans, and she was stuffing a pregnancy test (that she’d removed from the box) down her bra. We prevented them from leaving and called the cops.

We had eye witnesses and security video of it, and they got arrested over stuff that cost less than $20.

Yikes! People like this really make you wonder.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a grocery store employee who is fed up after months of going above and beyond for no monetary return.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about shoplifters.

Stealing is never the answer.

This is so true.

Well, this is kind.

It sure does.

Getting caught once should’ve been enough.

This woman had every opportunity to stop before things got serious, but she kept coming back and trying the same tricks.

It’s hard to feel sorry for people who do these types of things. They got in trouble with the police over less than twenty dollars’ worth of merchandise.

And that’s a pretty ridiculous outcome.