After Catching Two Kids Stealing A Video Game, The Loss Prevention Manager Called Their Parents — And Watched Them Lay Down The Law
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Kids often make bad decisions, and when they do, parents need to crack down on them to teach them not to do that in the future.
What would you do if you caught a couple of kids stealing a video game from your store, and when you told them you were calling their parents, they begged you not to?
That is what happened in this story, but they called the parents anyway. When the parents arrived at the store, they instilled the fear of God into these kids to ensure it would never happen again.
Read through the full story and see if you think they did the right thing.
Crazy parents of shoplifters
So, I used to work for Big Red City of Circuitry (of course, now out of business) several years ago, and this is the story of some insane parents IMO.
You have to watch closely for shoplifters.
I used to work there selling computers, so it was part of my job to make sure everyone was helped. This particular day I noticed two shifty looking young asian kids were looking around.
I mentioned it to my LP guy up front in case they decided to take anything. As soon as they walked away, I was right behind them looking to see what they were messing with.
It never made sense to me to just let theft go.
Turns out that they decided to open up a Half Life 2 box and steal disc 1. I mention it to LP, but the kids literally had just walked out. SOP was to just let it go, but today for some reason this LP really wanted to get these kids, so he took off running after them.
One of the other associates runs after them, and the kids think they’re in the clear and try hiding inside of a local Mexican fast food joint. LP and his “backup” catch up to the kids. They bring them back to the office, kids looking a little smug, like ha. You can’t do anything to us.
They really don’t want to have their parents called.
Our Assistant Manager sits them in the back office, tells them that they’re in deep trouble. He threatens to call the cops (he was faking it of course, just wanted to scare them silly), but they seem to be like, meh. until we say give us your parents phone number.
They try everything in the book to try to get us to call anyone else, including giving us a username on aol or something to talk to their sister, but finally they cave.
They are livid.
At this point we’ve called the parents and we’re closing up the store. I’m manning the front door when I see these two fuming Asian folks walk up.
Per usual, I let them know we’re closed, and the father grumbles something about his son being inside. Ok sir, this way. I show them to the office, and they go inside and start screaming at the kids.
I have to go clean up, but I got the rest of the story from my manager after they left.
This is awkward, but the kids will learn a lesson.
Apparently, the mother had destroyed the original disc for Half Life 2, and the kids decided that they’d just swipe another one. Big mistake.
After a few minutes of yelling, the father demands that the boy kneel and apologize. At this point the AM starts saying its ok, don’t worry about it, we just wanted to let you know what happened. We’re not going to call the cops, just take them home. Father won’t let up until the kid is on his knees.
Dad doesn’t mess around.
As the kid kneels and apologizes, the father out of nowhere WHAM back hands his son on his chest. Loud enough to scare my AM into thinking he might really hurt this kid.
This proceeds another minute, then the father apologizes, explains that this kid is his son, and the other kid is a friend of his. Apologizes again, then proceeds to leave with his kids.
While this must have been crazy to experience, you have to respect the fact that the parents took it very seriously. It is unlikely that those kids will be stealing again anytime soon.
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Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.
Here is someone who heard a similar story.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a burned-out employee who finds a way to ease his stress with an extended daily lunch.
This person has parents who would have done the same thing.
It will be a good reminder not to steal.
This is a lesson those kids will never forget. While parents can sometimes take things too far, it is important to discipline them when they do something wrong.
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