The weirdest caught but not really story
So my dears, I can finally write this down without shaking (shit is more traumatic than you'd think)
It was a beautiful day as any, I headed to my local mall to buy knee tape (that sticky stretchy stuff you stick on yourself so that something doesn't move and cause pain) and face cream. I headed to the [redacted beauty store] and browsed, chose two moisturizers I was on the fence about, then asked an SA for help with the tape. All good, I go to the counter and pay for one of the creams and the tape and I put the other one back.
I have lifted from this store before, but not that day, because I didn't have anything I wanted to lift.
So anyway, I leave with my rightfully bought haul, and not five steps away from the door an SA and a security officer run to me and stop me. They accuse me of shoplifting and ask me to go back with them.
Now as any smart lifter knows, NEVER go back with them. But considering I didn't take anything, I decided to cooperate with them, because I didn't want to cause a scene.
I go back into an employee room, and the SA starts, well, not exactly yelling, but definitely strongly talking that I was stealing, that they caught me and that they are calling the police.
The mall security asks me to empty my bag, with which I cooperate and I kid you not the SA bitch starts taking my own personal makeup and stuff and literally screams at me "DID YOU STEAL THIS? DID YOU STEAL THIS??"
I obviously say no, bc I didn't and as she picks out the powder compact, the lipstick I point out that it's all used because duh, and that they have cameras that they can check.
Now when I did lift in that store, I would do my due diligence and not be in the view of cameras, id go as far as try and not be seen taking things into my hands so I knew that they wouldn't see anything.
But nevermind, they go through all my things and ask, while I wait for the police to come and get me out of that situation. The shitty thing is that they take my phone (they can't do that) and don't let me call my boss that I'd be late. Bitches.
About an hour later, and half an hour into my shift that I wasn't at, the cops come, look at the cameras, ask me my side of the story, and of course can't prove that I stole anything, because I didn't.
Thankfully unlike a certain SA they didn't have their head up their own ass, and decide that I wasn't lifting my own makeup, which duh... Cuz what woman in her teens or 20s doesn't have powder, brush to apply powder and lipstick in her bag?
The cops let me pack my bag and go, but not before the SA gleefully tells me that I'm banned from the shopping mall and if I return, they will have people wait to arrest me. Lol, as if I wanted to ever return.
Now what did I do wrong? I went to the store I lifted from before
What did I do right? Played my cards well and made the SA look like an absolute moron, yelling about my own personal products that were obviously used and on my face.
What did the SA do wrong? Try to get me in trouble without having any evidence. If she had waited until I actually lifted something, she could have gotten the satisfaction of seeing me arrested, but she was overly ambitious and made a fool of herself.
She also acted like a (and I don't like using this word because of how it was used against women) hysterical bitch, yelling about things that were perfectly reasonable to be in my purse, including that lipstick that I WAS WEARING.
She called the police on me with no proof of concealing, no camera records and no thing in my purse (or on my person).
What was the aftermath like?
The police men escorted me to the front of the mall, loudly apologizing for accosting me (loud enough that the SA bitch definitely heard). And I was let go.
Yeah, remember that shift I was supposed to be on? Well I got fired because I didn't show up. Even though I told my boss what happened, even though I had proof of it happening, my boss didn't believe and fired me over the phone. Shithead. Remember that even if you are innocent, lifting can still fuck you over.
And me? I am traumatized. For days afterwards I was having panic attacks. I couldn't write about this for weeks, nay months after. I had to write this over the course of several days to not freak out again.
And most importantly, I'm terrified of lifting. I use it to put food on the table, and now that I don't even have a job, I'm in even rougher of a situation than I was before. My saving grace is that I'm graduating in a few months and then I'll be able to have an adult job. Lifting gives me anxiety now.
I feel like every time I open Tumblr, I might get transported to that tiny backroom and get yelled at by that bitch.
So morale of the story, be vigilant, don't go back to the places you lifted from and if you are going to accuse someone of lifting, make sure they actually did 😉
