Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › Aggressive QFC security accused my son of stealing
- This topic has 10 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 1 year, 9 months ago by cabe.
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January 7, 2019 at 1:07 pm #937548
cabeParticipantwas at QFC in Westwood Saturday when one of the contracted security guards approached my son and said something to the effect of “you can’t steal that… you have to pay for it… here’s a basket, use this”.
it was a bit hard on my son as he then felt like he was being watched and was anxious. i do admit that he was dressed fairly shabilly, with a hoodie to hide is bed hair (he is a young 16 and doesn’t quite understand why it’s not a good idea to wear a hoodie over your head in a store) but still, it’s the QFC policy to not harass their customers like this. you have to be outside the store before they are allowed to accuse you of stealing. the fact that the security person crossed the line with a lone kid (e.g., a vulnerable population) is a warning sign that authority may be an issue for this security staff – and it’s why i brought it up with the management at the store (who were very understanding).
i was told that the the guard is going to get some additional training by their company.
yet, it is just another case of corporations paying folk to oppress other folk.
January 7, 2019 at 9:23 pm #937586
mark47nParticipantTheft can and does occur within the store prior to the thief exiting the store, it’s all about intent. You do not have to be outside the store to be collared for shoplifting.
If you weren’t there you don’t really know what happened and if the security guard saw something that he thought was suspicious then it could’ve been much, much worse than being told to use a basket.
Being 16 doesn’t make you a part of a vulnerable population.
It’s possible that the security guards training will consist of hauling suspected shoplifters into the office and possibly trespassing them from the store rather than handing the suspected thief a basket and tell them that stealing is wrong.
I’m so sick of parents faux outrage when it comes to their children. They’re all perfect little angels, they’re all squeaky clean and us mean old grownups are just bullying their darling little babies. Nope, teenage boys are suspicious and often up to trouble. I know that personally, I was one for several years. I was followed through stores, I looked suspicious because I had long hair, wore boots, sunglasses and a trench coat. I was belligerent, I weighed consequence and more (this really isn’t the place for a detailed inventory of youthful indiscretions). I was sneaky. I did act suspiciously. When I did get caught my parents had a problem with me, not the police or a store owner. Me. The assumption was that the other grownups have better things to do with their time than wrestle with me and handed that off to the parents.
The moral of this story, Cabe, is that you have but one side of the story, your son’s, and it may be…slanted. It’s not the security guards fault, or the store managers, that your son was doing something that brought a watchful eye onto him.
Oh, here’s why teens are considered suspicious: According to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP), $13 billion is stolen each year – about $35 million a day. The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) adds that around 25 percent of those apprehended for the crime are ages 13 to 17. Many teens don’t even perceive it as a big deal.
January 7, 2019 at 10:13 pm #937598
BeckyjoParticipantWhere I work the average age of shoplifters is 25-40 male, and female. They say 1 in 11 is a shoplifter.
January 8, 2019 at 7:03 am #937630
mark47nParticipantGreat, Beckyjo, but the stats come an organization that complies nations information. If it were Ulta I’m sure those numbers would vary from yours. Your experience, in your location, may not match up with these numbers but note that that stat for teens was 25%. That leaves 75%.
January 8, 2019 at 9:29 am #937636
newnativeParticipantCabe stated that they were there, with the teen. Why would you read their story and then accuse the person of not knowing what really happened? I often go into the store without a basket and pick stuff up, in the hopes of not impulse shopping. Some people put unpurchased items in their bags on the way to the check out. Some of us aren’t profiled, some are.
January 8, 2019 at 11:10 am #937652
mark47nParticipant@Newnative; my response stands other than my misunderstanding as to whether or not the OP was present. Just because the OP was present doesn’t mean that the OP actually knows what the kid is doing unless they have their eyes on them the whole time. I reference back to my misspent youth.
Profiling is not illegal, especially in commercial retail establishments, and there is a reason that it happens, especially to teenagers.
January 8, 2019 at 11:11 am #937653
blblParticipantLOL Mark47n – another man judging a kid based on his own past instead of the facts. It’s not about you.
January 8, 2019 at 1:28 pm #937676
mark47nParticipantI have to ask blbl, did you actually laugh out loud when you read what I wrote or are you using it as a barb? My guess is that it’s the latter.
We make judgments about all sorts of things all the time based on experience and available data. Teenagers do incredibly stupid things as a matter of routine. I have two children, one of whom is a teen and the other who’s 21 and they both do ridiculously stupid things from time to time.
I didn’t judge the kid, either. I made broad statements about modern day parenting and about teenagers in general and used the presented situation as a backdrop for it, everything from parental rage to inaccurate statements regarding the elements of shoplifting.Oh, I used myself as an example, not as the measuring stick. I didn’t make it about me, you did.
Is it possible that the kid was unjustly accused? Sure.Did anything actually come of it? No. Could something more have come of it? you bet!
- This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by mark47n.
January 8, 2019 at 2:56 pm #937680
blblParticipantOf course you judged, Mark47n, both the kid and Cabe. I’d even call your post a rant. Your broad statements about modern day parenting based on your own experience are completely irrelevant. That kind of reasoning is why Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court. All the old men simply remembered their own similar “youthful indiscretions” and gave him a pass. You’re doing the same thing by assuming that Cabe’s son was “doing something that brought a watchful eye onto him” just because you could remember acting “belligerent” when you were his age. Maybe the security guard was overly aggressive. Or maybe he was completely right and reasonable. Either way, I guaranty it had nothing to do with how you acted as teenager.
January 8, 2019 at 5:36 pm #937689
JoBParticipanthe handed the kid a basket.. and you are upset?
really?January 10, 2019 at 8:22 pm #937903
EdSaneParticipantSounds to me like the security officer was attempting to use discretion rather then make a larger issue out of petty theft. To be clear you can be detained for shoplifting if you conceal an item, pass the last point of sale and are heading towards the exit (where those pesky baskets are located). I’m not sure why QFC managment gave some other impression in this case but the last place loss prevention wants to tussle with someone is outside the store in a parking lot where accomplices often times have vehicles and/or weapons. As a parent I would have been elated that it had only gone that far rather then having the police called and a trespass noticed issued. The re-training they’re likely to get is to not avoid paperwork and bust them for stealing. Also, the security guard is the authority figure in this story and it doesn’t seem like they’re the ones with the issue…
June 15, 2022 at 9:12 am #1036890
Osiris HayesParticipantIt is very strange!
June 15, 2022 at 10:37 am #1036901
TheNation1308ParticipantI’m in my 50s, use a cane, and am a bit slow at checkout sometimes because I have MS and spinal arthritis. I also use a food stamp card. I’m white, chubby, and also wear hoodies to cover my bedhead – and I have been targeted several times by a specific woman who mans the self-service checkout line.
She hovers over me and squawks out “you need to remove what you didn’t scan from your bag!” when the scale is trying to catch up to the register part. I get confused about an item and use the picture menu and she barks out “you need to scan it again before you put it in the bag!”
She has gone so far as to check my bags AFTER checkout and my basket. I dropped my cane one day and she just looked at me. I slowly managed to pick it up and I said “thanks for your help” and she just smirked at me like I was faking it. She has ALSO hovered over me with a particular security guard there and commented loudly as she has above a few times. The guard now lingers around me when I am checking out, even when I use the regular checkouts with attendants, and I am furious.
She’s tall and big and intimidating especially to someone who is confused some days and learning to manage life with MS flares and chronic pain. I always get decent service and she is the outlier as is her stumpy security cohort. I have to shop this week there and my son and I are going to file a complaint of some type because I am exhausted from her assuming I am stealing. I hope you do, too, if you haven’t already.
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