Lifters among us, aka how I almost got caught.
I was travelling and decided to go to one of my favorite stores for lifting (ulta) with the intention of trying to get my hands on the new Anastasia highlighter and a few other goodies. I went in and everything seemed fine, I got all the stuff and concealed in a blind spot. Everything seemed normal.
Then an SA came up to me and asked me if I was finding everything okay, I said yes and she hovered, giving me a glare. I felt a little uneasy. She left after about 10 seconds but didn’t stay far away.
Then a second SA came up to me and offered me a basket. I said “no thanks, I don’t have much” She looked at me really intensely and said “take the basket” in a quiet voice, through her teeth in a smile.
I hesitated but took the basket and she said louder “let me know if you need help finding anything!” and walked away. I went to put some stuff I was carrying in the basket when I noticed a piece of receipt paper thrown in the basket, I looked closer at it and scrawled on it was “DITCH!!!”.
I felt my stomach knot and my palms started to sweat, when I dropped the items into the basket I snatched the little paper and crumpled it up, sticking it in my pocket.
I was internally panicking but making sure not to show it. There are several blind spots in this store so every time I passed through one I took out a couple products and stuck them in the bottom of the basket until my bag was empty.
I still wanted the highlighter so I went around putting items back, making it look like I was mulling over it before placing it back on the shelf.
I decided on buying a lip gloss and the highlighter and went to the front. There were several sales associates that seemed out of place just hovering, the girl that gave me the basket was one of them, she still stared at me intensely.
I paid for the merch in cash and didn’t give my name, said thank you and made sure to stay cool and normal the whole time (without forcing it). I took my bag and walked towards the door where a really mean looking lady was standing. Her mouth was contorted into a weird smile/grimace and she was driving daggers into me with her eyes.
As my hand touched the bar on the door to push it open, she put her arm out and pulled it back closed. I basically shit myself at this point but I knew I had nothing at all on me, so I just looked at her and asked her what was wrong.
She looked at me and curtly said “didn’t want the eyeshadow palette? Or the blush? Or the lipsticks?” I said “no, I only came here for the highlighter, thanks.” And pushed on the door again. Yet again she pulled it closed.
She asked me to go to the back room and I said “no thanks, I haven’t done anything.” Then she asks to look in my bag and I tell her “I don’t have to let you do that unless there’s a police officer requesting me to do so with reasonable grounds. Do you want me to call them? Because at this point you’re preventing me from leaving and you’re breaking the law.” I shoulda said violating my rights but whatever.
She tells me they’re already on the way. Cool.
The police arrive and walk up, they quickly chat with the manager and a couple staff members before approaching me and asking me to see in my bag. I oblige and open it up. All I have is my wallet, keys, phone, lip balm and a couple hair elastics. I’m wearing jeans and have very small pockets so they can see nothing is in there.
The cop asks me to wait one more moment and goes back to the employees/manager and I hear a bit of the quick convo including “did you even see her conceal anything?” (The SA that gave me the basket said no and that she didn’t think I took anything, Just following orders), “no she doesn’t have to open her bag for you unless police are here.”, “you can’t detain someone without solid proof or confession.”. Obviously they said it a bit different with proper terminology but that’s the basics of it.
I pretend to be inconvenienced and cross my arms, even though I feel like I’m going into cardiac arrest honestly.
The cops come back over and tell me I’m free to leave, they explain to me what the “misunderstanding” was and that nothing further will happen after I leave.
I thanked them and as I was leaving I shot the manager a dirty look and then caught eyes with the SA that gave me the basket, made sure not to smile or anything just wanted her to hopefully catch my thank you vibe.
If that SA is on liftblr honestly thank you so much I hope nothing happened afterwards and no one saw you do anything other than hand me the basket.
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