Is this shop lifting?

Should've had an orange tbh.

Edit: Bit of an overreaction by the guard to be honest, a polite 'Can you please be sure to pay for that banana at the counter' would have sufficed, no need to start grabbing her cart off her :| not like she was a 5-a-day-conscious chavy thief.

These sort of things need to be judged on a case by case basis, you simply can't have 1 rule for every scenario. Would he have done the same to a frail oap?
 
Last edited:
Security guard was right. She was wrong to question him on his job position, and she was wrong to eat the banana before she paid for it. If she was so upset over the ordeal which ensued, she shouldn't have put a up a fight and just let the guard do his thing.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps it's more the case that the guard didn't think out of the box ?

A theft has not occurred and that is the crux of the matter. An attending officer would have to justify the arrest and the necessity test to a custody sergeant and if the matter was as black and White as stated then I would not arrest the female in these circumstances, irrespective of the store's wishes.

If she has a full trolley and the means to pay for it and the banana and states she would have paid for it then a theft has not occurred.
 
Security Guard should be sacked, because he was going to kick her out of the store, which would have 1) meant the banana was unpaid for, and 2) Tesco loses money on the rest of the items in the trolley.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
On the assumption that she intended to pay for the banana then she has not committed theft.

A person commits theft if they dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.

I have often taken my little un shopping and will give him the odd bag of crisps while he is plonked in the trolley that I have bought as a multiple pack. I volunteer this info at the checkout and nobody has batted an eyelid over it.

Same with a banana. If it is eaten in the supermarket and the intention is to pay for it and no attempt has been made to leave the supermarket then how do you prove dishonesty ?
Click to expand...

STOP, THIEF, CALL THE POLICE.


Oh hang on.
 
not read all the replies in here. But i do a weekly shop of around £80 at Tesco's each week and I grab stuff and eat/drink when doing my shop. Pay for it when I get to the till.

Never been approached by anyone or had anyone say anything to me.

I thought this was quite normal.

It is certainly not theft if you intend to pay for it at the till. Along with another £79.60 worth of food.
 
Last edited:
I used to do the weekly shop with my mother when I was a kid and I always had a packet of something to eat on the way round. It was always paid for at the till and no-one ever mentioned it.

As far as the woman in question is concerned I think she was in the wrong.
 
i had a coughing fit in asda other day, grabbed small bottle of water,

opened it
chugged it

then put empty bottle in trolley and paid at end,

i dont think i did anything wrong

also in this case if the small child was hungry and she fed him/her something,and was going to pay for it at end, thats not wrong in my book
 
A good friend of mine with a bit of a weight problem would routinely eat a snack in the supermarket whilst food shopping when were students.

He'd grab an dove bar or a chocolate bar or something similar, eat it walking the aisles and present an empty packet to the checkout girl to swipe so he could pay for it.

I always felt it was pretty classless to do so, not to mention extremely bad form if you're overweight, but he 'got away' with it every single time - if the intent is to pay for it I don't see the issue - but with fruit, etc, weights and prices vary - so eating a banana leaves no way to prove exactly how much she should pay for it - so in that instance I can totally understand.

.
 
Raymond is correct, Tesco Express offers a unit price for Bananas (18p) but the main Tesco charges per KG.

It depends on the type of store, some stores are more likely to sell one banana or a bunch.
 
Hmmmm.

With eating a Banana from say a bunch needing to weighed then it could be a little dodge, but eating a choclate bar or drinking something isn't wrong in my eyes as long as you pay for it. You haven't left the store so have not actualy stolen it if you are going to pay for it.

I had a security guard come up to my in Sainsburys one day. I was looking through the book section and wanted to buy a couple for the flight away next day. He got right up close and it went like this:

Him: 'What were you doing in the toilet'
Me: 'Eh, what????!!!!!'
Him: 'What were you doing in the toilet with your bag'
Me: 'I entered the store and walked straight to the book section, what are you on about? GO AWAY!'
Him: Wanders off mumbling to himself.

Weirdo!
 
Raymond Lin said:
I do that ALL the time, i can't eat a bunch, so I snap off 1 and buy that for the day.

The til asks how many I got, I put in 1, put in change in the machine.
Click to expand...

Some stores charge per weight, but I did see a self service Tesco ask for quantity.

I don't think it's stealing until she's left the store. Although if they charge by weight it'll be difficult to charge her the correct amount. Would also be difficult to catch her leaving the store if she hadn't paid as she would have eaten the evidence.

MW
 
It's not theft until she leaves the store without paying for it as it's impossible to prove dishonesty (as Raymond has pointed out a number of times but people are still blindly arguing whilst ignoring the law)

The point that it may be a store which charges per kg is moot, I'm sure Tesco are more than capable of charging someone for a unknown sized banana :p
 
I would have thought checking with the checkout staff after she had gone through would be the most subtle way to go, if she leaves the store without paying for it then it is theft by the letter of the law... but even she did try to get a freebie I would just kindly ask her to pay for it rather than throwing the book at her and treating her like a criminal.

It's not difficult for the checkout staff to pull a single banana off the bunch and add it to the overall weight, the trouble as I see it is if everybody started eating stock while doing their weekly shop then it would be a logistical nightmare for the store to police and there's always a minority that will try to get away with it.
 
I don't believe anyone that says they don't nibble on the baguettes when they are warm.

I've eaten a whole one before I've got to the till before. Bread f.t.w.

Oh and I always drink some tropicana as I'm walking around.
 
She was in the wrong, infact, its beyond me that ANYONE eats food in the supermarket before they have paid for it !?!?, its just nasty and not very nice IMO, kinda makes my skin crawl, its just plain weird.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom