I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I caught 3 teenagers stealing candy! We were all on the candy aisle, and I looked right at them while they were stealing and said, "Interesting" and went to the cashier and told on them. The security guards talked to them, but I assume by then they had put the candy away and the guard let them go. That was fine, I hope that at least they will know that people are watching them and that they got a good scare.
This is actually the second time I saw teenagers stealing candy- the first time I said nothing, and I still feel incredibly guilty, and so I had vowed that I would never keep my mouth shut again. Teenagers stealing candy bothers me for a number of reasons:
1. We happen to live in a suburb where there are no apartments and no low income housing, so these kids come from families where they can afford the 10 cents needed to buy candy. (Not that stealing is ever OK, but I think we can all at least emphatize with a father who steals a loaf of bread to feed his hungry children as opposed to spoiled brats stealing candy).
2. I have to pay more at the grocery store to make up for those brats stealing the candy! It's rediculous!
3. There are a lot of people in this horrible economy who are going to bed hungry- whose children are going to bed hungry- who still obey the law and don't steal. It belittles their efforts to be good to have those with plenty stealing things they absolutely do not need.
Can you tell I am upset about this? It really bothers me- where are values being taught???? I almost want to go every day to the grocery store and just stand in the candy aisle for an hour until the high school students leave to make sure they don't steal anything. (Our grocery store is right next to the high school, so they come in during lunch and after school and steal- in fact, it has become such a problem, that they can no longer bring their backpacks inside the store, they have to leave them outside at the entrance). It just makes me sad that while so many people are suffering so horribly this holiday season (yesterday on the radio they were talking about how kids visiting Santa were wishing for things like, "Please help my Daddy find a job), there are bratty teenagers who think it is "cool" to steal candy!
So, I am sounding a call to all of us: If we see somebody stealing something, SAY SOMETHING!!! You don't even have to say it to them, you can tell a cashier who will alert the security guards. Maybe if people know others are watching them, they will stop! At least, I can hope so!
I have to tell you, something similar happened to me out here at Walgreens. Except it was a HS kid stealing a toy, stuffing it up his shirt (couldn't have been more obvious). I forget now what exactly I said to him, but it was kind of snarky, then I went and told the cashiers/security. I headed down another aisle to get what I needed and the kid came up behind me and called me a "B****"! I hung out a bit longer until he left and was scared to walk home, but I'm still glad I said something. Although next time, I probably won't be as snarky to the thief, just to be safe:)
ReplyDeleteThat was one thing I worried about-I didn't want them coming after me-unfortunately, that is a legitimate fear in this country. That's awesome you said something, even if you did get called a bad name (funny how they blame other people for them doing something wrong, isn't it???).
ReplyDeleteUgg...I remember when I worked at the GAP in college. I was working in GAP kids (this was at ghetto-southcenter) and this was sort of school-shopping time. This woman came in with her two young kids (like 5-8ish) and she had a couple of very large bags of clothes that she was "returning" which were obviously stolen. She was a very large woman and she was returning multiples of the same pants in like size 0, etc. saying "they just didn't fit." It was so irritating because I had to return them, even though we all knew she had stolen them. It was like hundreds of dollars in merchandise and the part that fried me was that to her kids it was shopping-spree time. It's like these people felt like society OWED them nice clothing, that was totally the attitude. Arg. Still gets me boiling because I PAY FOR MY STUFF. Anyway - way to be a proactive citizen - both of you.
ReplyDeleteyou'd think they'd find a different store. Don't they realize that if they aren't even allowed to have their backpacks on in the store, then there might be more eyes on them. I'm sure it's not even about the candy at all, it's about the thrill and the rush. It's also about peer pressure.
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