‘Stay in that area and keep an eye on them…’: Senior Employee Skillfully Complies With Upper Management to Stop Teen Theft

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Feb 1, 2024 5:00 PM EST

Customer service is never an easy job to work in. A whole different story, though, applies to customer service jobs during the holiday season. 

A disappointed retail sales associate tells his story below. For a while now, OP has been employed in the field of customer service. He is therefore well-acquainted with the variety of challenges that come with working in the field of customer service, especially retail. However, OP's life isn't getting any easier because of the new craze that's taking the youngsters by storm. Basically, youths start robbing various establishments throughout the mall during the holiday season—Christmas specifically. Although the workers are aware of this phenomenon, they are still limited in how they can respond when it occurs, which forces them to come up with a variety of inventive schemes to prevent the thieves from carrying unpaid goods off the premises. 

Having stated that, read the story below to find out what happened to OP as well as how he handled the teenage theaves! Once you're finished and in the mood for a little laugh, check out these 28 amusing memes that are sure to make you smile!

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  • 01
    Unfortunately that wasn't entirely correct. The girls rounded the corner of the next aisle. The one which housed all our hairbrushes. A different girl, one with one of those loungefly bags unzipped it and put one of our harry potter themed hair brushes in her bag. It didn't even zip all the way. She tried to zip it up hard, but the end of the handle stuck out, only slightly.
    via Canva
  • 02
    I'm not accusing you of stealing I can see the handle sticking out of your purse.
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 03
    About a month ago there was more theft than normal going on in the makeup store I work at, and it's because of the fact that it was winter break. Unfortunately when the teenagers in my area get a bit of free time they feel it's appropriate to use it to come into our store and steal from us. We
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 04
    were finding wrapper after wrapper, box after box stuffed under aisles and in displays. It was really annoying because it reflects really poorly on the hours we get. Anyways, towards the end of Christmas break we started to slow down, people had bought all their
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 05
    presents and spent their gift cards so there wasn't much going on. Except for on the night in question Me, my manager who we'll call M, and my two coworkers (C1 and C2) were the only employees there. We were only an hour from close and there was maybe two or three
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 06
    customers meandering around the store. I was replacing all the trash bags while my coworkers were cleaning up the register area. At my store it's sort of an unspoken rule that we make a point of greeting every single person who comes through the front doors. So, when a group of three teenage
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 07
    girls came through both my coworkers greeted them. They did what all the teenagers who come in to steal do, they don't acknowledge the greeters in hopes of coming off unapproachable, but my coworkers are seasoned retailers so they immediately get
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 08
    on the walkie talkies and alerted me to keep an eye out. C1: hey OP, C2 and I just said hi to those girls and they were acting a little weird. you might wanna stay in that area and keep an eye on them. OP: I will, I'll leave the trash over in the corner and I'll pick it up later.
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 09
    I didn't want the girls to feel like I was following them just in case we were wrong and they really just didn't want to be talked to, so I stood in the aisle on the left side of the aisle they were in. I had a direct view of them but they would have had to come stand at the very end
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 10
    to see me. At first they were just having a bit of fun, spraying our hand sanitizer testers at each other and opening the sugar scrubs to smell them. Nothing I really care about. But then the sound of a crinkling wrapper made
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 11
    me lean in closer to look at what was going on. I noticed that the girl ripping the packet open was also holding a starbucks cup, one of the white ones with a flat lid for hot drinks. I watched as she took the hand sanitizer out of its packaging and removed the lid
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 12
    from her drink. I watched her put the hand sanitizer in the drink cup and replace the lid. I knew I was going to have to tell my manager. OP: Does M have a walkie on? because I just watched one of these girls steal a hand sanitizer. M: Yeah, I do. Where are they?
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 13
    OP: There in the bath aisles. I think they're gonna head up to the front soon. Unfortunately that wasn't entirely correct. The girls rounded the corner of the next aisle. The one which housed all our hairbrushes. A different girl, one with one of
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 14
    those loungefly bags unzipped it and put one of our harry potter themed hair brushes in her bag. It didn't even zip all the way. She tried to zip it up hard, but the end of the handle stuck out, only slightly. They promptly abandoned that aisle and started making their way to the front of the store.
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 15
    OP: M they're coming up right now. They put something in that drink cup and there's something in the backpack too. Now, we're not allowed to accuse people of stealing. We can get into trouble if we're incorrect and were definitely not allowed to hold them
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 16
    back from leaving. So I wasn't sure what my manager could do, but I wanted her to be aware. They made it up to the door when my manager stopped them, asking something she asks everyone who leaves our store empty handed. (the girls are G1, G2, and G3)
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 17
    M: Was there something we could help you guys find today? G1: No, you guys don't have what we want. M: Oh okay, well is there anyway I can get back the stuff you took from us. So I don't have to trespass you from the store?
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 18
    G2: Are you accusing us of stealing? we didn't take anything. M: I'm not accusing you, I can see one of my hairbrushes sticking out of your friends bag. The girls all just sort of looked at each other, not sure what to do. Eventually the girl with the
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 19
    backpack ripped the hairbrush out of it and handed it to my manager. They started to walk past her to the door when my manager stopped them again. M: Can you please give me whatever you put in that cup? Then you can go.
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 20
    The girl with the cup huffed and rolled her eyes. Nevertheless she opened it and took out the hand sanitizer that was now covered in what looked to be hot chocolate or maybe really sugary coffee. She put it in my managers hand.
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 21
    M: If you guys come back with your parents I'm gonna have a talk with them cause this is really ridiculous, girls. They all left really quickly and we got to go about our business for the rest of the night. Could have been worse! But we never really get the stuff back people steal from us so I wanted to share!
    via u/texaschainsawmolycre
  • 22
    cynTheFledermaus · 11 hr. ago This is how it should always be. Confront them, but do it in a professional manner. Retailers need to stop allowing theft to happen just because "we could be wrong and hurt someone's
    via u/cynTheFledermaus
  • 23
    feelings". Anyone who's got half a brain would comply if they were approached and didn't steal anything. Only id ts would make a scene.
    via u/cynTheFledermaus
  • 24
    Eulalalalalia · 9 hr. ago I do agree that there is a more professional way to go about it. However... Considering how crazy people are these days, most retail workers don't want to risk their safety confronting a thief over some stolen merchandise. It has nothing to do with "hurting feelings."
    via u/Eulalalalalia
  • 25
    Dull-Bed-7557. 12 hr. ago A couple of days ago a couple of teenage girls (14 and 15) came in and stole from us, but for safety reasons we can't stop people from stealing, whether we witness it or not. We just report it to our asset protection
    via u/Dull-Bed-7557
  • 26
    department after they leave, and it's on cctv anyway. They got caught by security a couple stores down and they had stolen from a handful of other stores as well. Totaling over $1,000 which in my state falls well over the qualifications for
    via u/Dull-Bed-7557
  • 27
    grand theft. The cops were called and the girls were super uncooperative. They were asked for their names and replied "I don't know." "How old are you?" "I don't know." "What's your parents' names?" "I don't know." So on and so forth. They were caught around 6pm, and by the
    via u/Dull-Bed-7557
  • 28
    time our mall closed at 8pm, the cops still couldn't get any information out of the girls. They detained them, and obviously we got our products back. While I feel a mild bit of sympathy for them being that they're so young, you play st pid games you win st pid
    via u/Dull-Bed-7557
  • 29
    prizes. Hope it was worth it to them. I don't know anything further than that, but I might look into it and see if I can find more information. Edit: typos
    via u/Dull-Bed-7557

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mall antiwork workplace-stories work stories retail shopping retail worker coworkers reddit story gen z workplace trending tales-from-retail Reddit tales from your server
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