Shoplifters

[bcteagirl]

Oh, and one summer when I worked at a 7-11 as an undergrad we kept having people gas up and then drive off without paying.

[Prue]

Oh I had that when I worked at a gas station too! And funny thing is it was right off the highway with an OPP station right next door...you would think that would deter people!

[jelyanne]

I'd tattle on them! tee hee

[Boo Radley]

Oh, and one summer when I worked at a 7-11 as an undergrad we kept having people gas up and then drive off without paying.

I always wonder what gas stations do about this?

[Prue]

Not really much you could do unless you got their plate #. I suppose that's why so many of them have camera's now!


I actually had a few people who did it by accident and came back to pay. I was always impressed because I'm sure they knew we didn't get their plate #. Say's a lot about their character.

[blistex]

that sucks! i hope the money that they didn't pay doesn't come out of the workers' pockets

[Prue]

I don't know about other stations, but it never came out of mine.

[bcteagirl]

I always wonder what gas stations do about this?

Was kids... we got their plate number and had them charged... When you work at a gas station, you have to press a button to turn the pump on when they request it (at least at the 7-11 where I worked.. yet *another* machine that beeps.. Oh good, because, you know, I hate sanity).. Whenever they came back, we would make them come in and pay in advance, and turn off the pump as soon as it reached the amount they had paid for.

[bcteagirl]

No, it didn't come out of our pockets.. nothing did unless the till was consistenly way off.. I had a friend who worked at a 711 in a rougher neighbourhood... her coworkers were taking out of her till.. eventually the boss tried to take it out of her salary, so she quit.

[freebiescout]

I would not even attempt. In my eyes I think it is quite idiotic to risk your life to save a corporation a few bucks. Especially if you do not work for them. Some thieves carry weapons, and if people resist arrest, what do you think they can do to you? I was at my friend's depanneur where he works and some man came in and cut the tape of a stack of a few boxes of beer and ran out the door with one. I was kind of shocked because I thought of what else he could have done if we had tried to stop him. My friend was busy with some customers so when the thief was out of sight I phoned the police to file a report.

[Kempette]

lol... I'm surprised no one has said they gave they guy a coupon for what he was stealing

[cheekysaver]

I worked at a store... and a service station for a total of 3 years... i am dreadful at catching shoplifters.. i did have one of those money changing guys that tried to con me... laughs... that didn't work at all... he tried saying i had 50 of his...called a manager and we cashed out the till on the spot.... and another con bites the dust! other then that the only person i caught stealing was a staff member... and they never fired him for it... he did it several times a week too... not alot you can do if the company won't deal with it

[ashmaster]

Couple things I have to say in reguards to this thread.
first off; people steal for one of two reasons; they have a disease called kleptomania where they just like the rush and can't help it, its like an obsession, people steal and they don't even need it.. take winona rider for instance.

Second; alot of people steal because they can't afford, and unlike us don't know how to coupon.... that being said I know my brother had probally stolen over 1000 worth of merch; but i know when this happened he was pretty much homeless, so you really can't judge people...


As for people who are trying to be heros... thats just stupid, I read that someone threw a can at someones head?????? thats grounds for getting sued, your not allowed to use force, even the security there knows that, so yes your boss had all right to yell at you; and for you people not working, don't even bother with saying anything to these people because you dont know, they could have a knife or something, would it really be worth it protecting 5 dollars of store inventory who has insurance on this type of thing?

[abbasgirl]

I've never seen it. But if I did I would just tell someone who worked there and let them deal with it.

[poppleton]

Couple things I have to say in reguards to this thread.
first off; people steal for one of two reasons;

i think there's a third reason...people that don't have kleptomania, but rather do it just for fun or to prove something to their "friends". I've never understood the allure of doing something like that, nor felt any peer pressure as a teen that would have led me to make such a bad choice.

I don't think I've ever really seen anyone shoplift! But when I worked at a WM McDonalds years ago, we had people constantly asking for a water cup and then they'd head to the drink machine and steal orange drink (it was on the same nozzle, just a differnt little push bar). I guess they didn't know that we could tell what they were doing by looking at the drink canisters behind the counter. I'm a very non-confrontational person, so I would just lean over the counter and say, " oh, shoot, did you hit the wrong button and get orange instead? Here, I'll grab you a new cup". Sure, the drink got wasted that time, but the same folks stopped constantly returning while I was running a shift