I don't think I've ever accidently taken something from a shop (as in, I can't remember any incident) but I'm sure I must have done, because I do lots and lots of shopping / supermarket shopping and it would be very statistically unlikely for me no to have made a mistake at some point. When I was $very-small, I put 2-penny-sweets-that-were-stuck-together into a back of 9 penny sweets and paid 10p for it, something that I felt bad about for days.
I've twice accidentally left without paying (or paying in full), but never unwittingly (unless, I suppose, I never realised my mistake at all and hence still don't know about it). On both occasions I attempted to pay, found I was short, and went back and paid later.
Oh, and there was one occasion on which I took something from a shop without paying, with the consent of the shop: Sainsburys had a pack of cheese with a French price label, which confused the till assistant so much that their supervisor decided it was easier to just let me have it for free.
Two comic magazines (on two separate occasions; they caught me the second time), when I was 11 or so. Probably worth about five euros in all.
They also banned me from the shop, and I occasionally wonder whether that's still in force so many years later. Especially since it's changed hands a few times since then (it was a stationer's in a railway station where I used to hang out during the winter while waiting for the bus, browsing the comics).
A 2p sweet when I was small. My mother said I wasn't allowed to buy it, so I took it, and got caught eating it on the way home. She made me go back to the shop and apologise.
Oh, yes. And a shiny reflective strip from the Science Museum gift shop. Probably worth about 20p, but priced at a couple of quid, which was more than my pocket money could support. I've still got that on my 'shiny stuff' shelf at home.
And at Eastercon, I think that the cash machine at the hotel gave me £10 more than it should have given me. My uncertainty about whether it *had* given me the extra combined with my irritation that the machine charged £1.80 for the honour of using it to withdraw money left me disinclined to try to correct the error.
I think I might have done that about once as a kid, but felt far too guilty about it to do it more. But while I have a vaguely feeling it could have happened I don't have a more solid memory.
I admit I've come out of shops before and realised they hadn't charged me for one of the items I bought or have given me the wrong change and not gone back to sort it out. I should try be better about that.
That's different, there you are the sort of dog owner who flaps ineffectually going "oh, dear! Oh, bad Rover! He doesn't normally do this! Try not to excite him! Give the man his arm back!"
It's quite clear there you are not responsible for your pet's actions. You are divinely absolved of them.
Last year, I accidentally only got charged for one item instead of two when I was in a shop. I only realised when I got home, so I went in the next day and said "I need to give you money". The shop assistant thought that I was completely daft for voluntarily going in there and giving them money when I could quite easily have done nothing at all and nobody would have known. But *I* knew, so that was the important thing as far as I was concerned.
It was about sweets most of the time. They were more maybe a £1 or less worth. It was in Germany not in this country. I was a teenager as well. I hardly received any pocket money. The most expensive might have been a dictionary for a course or for school which I could not afford. The security in Britain is much stricter than in Germany. I realized it immediately when I saw all the warning signs whenever I came for a visit. German shops don't pay that much attention. There was a book shop where nobody cared. I was living with my parents but it does not mean I have myself lots of money. Now I live by myself in London. It rarely happens that I leave without paying by accident. I have still no money. I don't bother going back for the piece of cheese or whatever little thing.
About 4 weeks ago I stole an umbrella from Sainsburys in town. I'd picked it up and hung it over my wrist, where it stayed while I payed for everything else through the checkout. Didn't realise what had happened until I got home. I intended to go back and then came down with lurge and forgot.
A couple of weeks later I went to use the damn thing and it was faulty - it doesn't stay up for more than 5 mins and the slightest breeze blows it inside out. By which time what I wanted to do was go back, explain that I need to pay for it and then ask for my money back. I'm sure you can see why I decided not to do anything. It is now in the bin.
Once, at an off-license in Brixton I bought two decent bottles of wine. They cost about 18 quid. The cashier was far too busy talking to a mate to pay attention, and I had to wait for her to bother to serve me. She was using an old fashioned till, which somehow allowed for the following - I gave her twenty quid, she rang up the amount, and then rang it up again, and then kept the change, and gave me back the cost of the goods. The service was so shite that I didn't bother telling her.
Not really a shop, but I left a pub once without paying for some food. We remembered about half an hour later, turned around, went back in the fire door, and paid. I don't think they noticed anything awry, :).
I've not knowingly taken anything from a shop without paying, at the time or later, but for all I know I've done it and never remembered that I haven't paid.
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dave holland (from livejournal.com)2008-03-28 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
When Joshua was about three he picked up a hat from a shop display while strapped in his pushchair, and Gina and I didn't notice until later. We weren't sure which shop it was from so we didn't take it back.
More recently, the scan-it-yourself till at Tesco's got confused and didn't charge me for all the items I'd put through. I didn't notice until after I'd got home. For the small amount involved (a pound or so) I'm afraid I was too lazy to make a special trip back to own up.
[x] None of the above. Some time when I was - six? - I went shopping for a birthday present for my mother, alone. (As in, she was somewhere in the village but not with me - hard to believe at that age, but 6 is the oldest I can believe making myself in this story.) I went into the funny little shop that sold handkerchiefs etc., but they didn't have anything I could afford, and I was very upset, cried, etc., didn't know what to do. The shopkeeper told me I could have the packet of handkerchiefs for all the money I could have. So I took it without (fully) paying, but it wasn't stealing. Needless to say my mother was mortified and went back and paid the difference. (But I'd love to know what she thought she was doing letting so young a child do this alone! Those were strange times.)
Oh actually, now I think about it I once took a 45-minute train journey for the princely sum of £1 because it was after the station ticket office had closed and I didn't see a single official between walking into station A at one end and walking out of station B at the other. You were meant to guess how much the ticket is worth and put that amount in the platform-ticket machine before getting on the train, but I had no idea and in any case didn't have much change. This was before they had automatic ticket machines which can sell you an actual ticket for your journey (and it was a fairly small station anyway).
I wrote to one of the train companies concerned and they graciously said they wouldn't bother to charge me the difference.
I assume deliberately exploiting software bugs in supermarket checkouts that you can't get fixed even after complaining and trying to pay more money doesn't count?
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Oh, and there was one occasion on which I took something from a shop without paying, with the consent of the shop: Sainsburys had a pack of cheese with a French price label, which confused the till assistant so much that their supervisor decided it was easier to just let me have it for free.
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They also banned me from the shop, and I occasionally wonder whether that's still in force so many years later. Especially since it's changed hands a few times since then (it was a stationer's in a railway station where I used to hang out during the winter while waiting for the bus, browsing the comics).
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I'm a hardened criminal, me.
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I admit I've come out of shops before and realised they hadn't charged me for one of the items I bought or have given me the wrong change and not gone back to sort it out. I should try be better about that.
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It's quite clear there you are not responsible for your pet's actions. You are divinely absolved of them.
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…unless it was actually meant to be free of charge.
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We hit... Ryman's. And were caught. In retrospect not surprisingly, since there were 5 or 6 of us and it was a tiny shop.
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A couple of weeks later I went to use the damn thing and it was faulty - it doesn't stay up for more than 5 mins and the slightest breeze blows it inside out. By which time what I wanted to do was go back, explain that I need to pay for it and then ask for my money back. I'm sure you can see why I decided not to do anything. It is now in the bin.
As Sion keeps saying, I got what I paid for.
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Of course, accidentally walking out with something from a shop isn't theft.
(S)
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URJeffrey ArcherAICM5P.
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(S)
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I've not knowingly taken anything from a shop without paying, at the time or later, but for all I know I've done it and never remembered that I haven't paid.
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More recently, the scan-it-yourself till at Tesco's got confused and didn't charge me for all the items I'd put through. I didn't notice until after I'd got home. For the small amount involved (a pound or so) I'm afraid I was too lazy to make a special trip back to own up.
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I wrote to one of the train companies concerned and they graciously said they wouldn't bother to charge me the difference.
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