Wait, We Sell Guns Too. Did Ya Need One of Those?

I'm not a fan of  WALM-ART. I go there only when I need to. Unfortunately the need to go there has been twice in the last four days. Needless to say, I have had my fill and am WAY over my WALM-ART quota for the month. Maybe for the year.

I stopped in (if by "stopped in" you mean I dragged both children and my huge uncomfortable belly into the store after spending 20 minutes circling the parking lot for a space that would not cause me to walk my huge belly farther than a 3 mile distance...why the hell can't they have just ONE of those "Expectant Mother Parking" spots when they have 2000+ handicap spots??) to pick up a booster seat for my car. I've been breaking the law and driving around with LittleJuJu in the backseat secured only by a seat belt for too long now. His booster is in Mr. JuJu's car and I'll be damned if I can ever remember to grab it and put it back into my own. So what the hell, I buy another one and we both win.

So we go in, I find ONE booster seat in stock, throw it in the cart and make my journey up to the checkout to pay and hopefully get out before the kids start their kid crap:

Can I have this? I NEED this! Oh my god, Billy has this, can I get this? YOU ARE NO FAIR. I'm hungry, can I get a candy bar? WHY? You are so mean to me. I never get anything anymore. I bet BabyJuJu can have something, she gets whatever she wants. OHHH, can I have THAT? WHAT? No? Fine. I am not eating my dinner. I mean it. I don't care. Can we just GO? I hate this store.

YEAH ME TOO.

So after we get home and do homework, eat dinner, play with some toys, watch some TV, I notice that LittleJuJu is playing with something. It looks like a credit card. So I go over, thinking that it is one of the gazillion fake promotional cards that we get in the mail and I give to him to play with. I grab it to check and to my HORROR, I see that it is a WALM-ART gift card. I scan my brain trying to place it. Hoping and wishing that there was maybe one tucked away in the desk or in a drawer that I had forgotten about and never used. I couldn't come up with a logical reason that my son would have this on his person. I asked where it had come from.

"I found it."

"You FOUND it?"

"Yes."

"Where did you find it?"

"I dunno."

Ok, so there is my answer. He stole it. My son stole this card from a store. Great. Peachy. I am raising a felon. Not even a SNEAKY felon. He was laying on the couch just PLAYING with it, right in front of me! Like, LA-TI-DA....Lalala, looky what I've got! Wee, so much fun playing with this card, it feels so smooth across my lips...look how I can bend it just so and shoot it across the room...Lalala.

My little shoplifter. Who thinks that because it was not a toy or candy, that no one would mind that he took it...and it was laying on the floor. I mean really, MOTHER. The FLOOR.

So on top of the two visits in four days, I had to make the pilgrimage BACK into retail hell and find an employee who seemed to know where she was (no easy feat) and force my son to admit to what he had done and apologize. Do you know what that bitch said to my son as he handed her the card?

She said, "Oh it's OK, Honey. Thank you!".

After I picked my jaw up off of the floor, I grabbed his hand and rather loudly told him that it was indeed NOT OKAY and headed out the door.

I'm just...speechless. Really.

Has your child ever stolen anything? How have you dealt with it? I'm thinking I would have loved if the security guard at least would have come over and scared the boy some. Nothing! She thanked him and said it was okay! I'm speechless.

Comments

[jo]

To be vaguely fair to the Walm-art employee, she has probably heard from tons of parents who full of righteous indignation swear that Little Johnny or Little Janie couldn't possibly have stolen something and that obviously it was the store's fault or bad assumption. She probably didn't even know what to do with someone who was being honest and returning a stolen item. (My sister worked at a grocery store for 11 years, you'd be amazed at what people who steal claim or their parents claim.) If it were to happen in the future (which I'm sure it won't) you could probably go up to the security guard and get the response you need. :) (Do they even have those in the mart? Goodness knows the greeters wouldn't be useful.)

[Flybunny]

I don't think those cards are activated until you pay for them so even if he did "accidentally" take one there probably wasn't a value to it.

That being said, I remember stealing candy from the grocery store when I was about 5 and my Mom took me back in and made me give it to the manager (who happened to be a close family friend) and he told me very nicely that he appreciated me bringing it back and being honest but I was not to do that again. I was mortified and was almsot afraid to go back to the store after that. Hopefully just taking him in did the trick!

[JuJuBee]

FlyBunny: I'm sure the card was worthless, it's just principle...he knew it was not his and I have caught him playing with those cards in the past...he's been eyeing his catch for awhile ;) I hope you are right, and that going in was just enough to scare him out of doing it again.

[Shann]

Kripes! My kids were kleptos from infancy! Always loading up the stroller with what ever was within reach, while I browsed greeting cards, or whatever. Twice I have had to return Phoenix and Keegan to stores to return things they have filched. The last place was a toy store. The owner of the store is scary-looking to begin with, and she really chewed them out, even though they confessed. They cried all the way home. I'm pretty sure their thieving days are over. I think your son needs a scary frown to mend his ways...hopefully he's learned his lesson. If not, look for the crabby, scary employee!

[Chris]

Oooh, that's a toughie. I don't have an answer. I hate Walmart as much as you if not worse. I don't know if I'd have had the strength to go back.

[heathabee]

When I was about 3 1/2, I went to a birthday party for a guy in my pre-school class. It was your standard birthday party, cake, balloons, maybe 6 or 7 other toddlers all hopped up on sugar and running and screaming. I guess in those days birthday parties were like daycare - parents dropped their 3 year olds off and GOT THE HELL OUT OF THERE and let the mother of the birthday-kid take care of all of them.

I guess she 'took her eyes off us' (yeah, all 7 of us) and the Birthday Boy led us upstairs to his parents room. He started handing out jewelry. His mother's VERY EXPENSIVE jewelry. I got her engagement ring. (Muahahaha).

It was around Easter time, and I must have known it was wrong for me to have it, because I stashed it in my easter basket, under all the coloured "hay" that lines Easter Baskets. A few days later, as my mom was getting ready to dump the basket, and therefore going through it, picking out the Jelly Beans that I don't eat (or like!), she found Thomas's mother's engagement ring. Immediately I fessed up and mom was on the phone to Thomas's mother, letting her know that I had her engagement ring. Apparently she was very grateful and thankful, because it was the second time she had lost it, and the one I had was a replacement/replica of the first - she hadn't even told her husband yet!

My mom drove me to their house, and parked at the end of their front walk. I had to get out of the car alone, walk up to the front door, hand it back to her and say I was sorry. I NEVER stole anything again...

... point being, I don't remember AT ALL what Thomas's mother said to me - whether it was OK, or Thank You, or whatever - but I do remember my mom's reaction, and what she made me do and how guilty she made me feel - so don't worry, YOU DID THE RIGHT THING!!

:)

ps. WALMART IS THE DEVIL... you should see it here in Canada/Toronto - the ones in the States are nice, the ones here are DUMPS. Seriously. AWFUL.

[HazelHazel]

The same thing happened to me with my eldest son at about age 4. The stolen goods happened to be candy. I handled it the same way you did. I think the clerk moved to the Ohio Walmart when Ben Franklin's closed. Stupid biatch.

[leah]

i don't have kids yet, but i remember my mom caught my brother stealing handfulls of candy from a 7-11 store and made him go back in and give it back and apologize :)

[Melissa]

Stupid Wal-mart can't even scare your kid. Sheesh. Maya tried to steel a candy bar about 6 months ago, but the security guard caught her. And he did scare her. Hell, I told her later if she did it again, they might take her to kiddie prison. She won't do it again.

Oh but I am saving for therapy for my kids. :)

[Mom]

Obviously this person is a) a really bad parent, or b)not a parent. Honest to pete. "That's ok, honey"???!!! Sheesh. I wonder if someone broke into said person's house and stole personal belongings, if the response would be the same. The thief would probably have been a shoplifter from Walm-art way back when... I'm proud that you handled it as you did, even though you got no cooperation from the "authorities."

[Pamalamadingdong]

Brendan stole a chocolate bar with my father one time...well not like they were in on it together or anything. They were shopping together at a grocery store and when they got out to the car my dad noticed Brendan had a chocolate bar. And so what does he do? Turns around and they go back into the store and pay for it.
I'm not sure that's what I would've done (I woulda made him give it back..apologize) but he never stole again. And my Dad is still slightly paranoid to shop with him.

[luann]

WOW, JUJU, I think you did the right thing but the employee goofed. I hope she heard you tell him that it was not alright. Stupid B.

[Mark]

Good mothering -- bad employee-ing. I hope this isn't what we have to look forward to, but considering the shoplifting tendencies I saw in some of my friends (and myself for a brief period), I figure I won't be surprised if it is. Did that sentence make sense? I hope it's not bad to add a relevant link here.

I wrote a true story about a shoplifting experience (and a klepto friend) called "Midday in the Garden Center of Good and Evil." It's on my Story Blog at http://storyblog.markwill.com/2006/04/11/midday-in-the-garden-center-of-good-and-evil/

[Buie]

And you didnt even know he made off with it. You have a skilled theft on your hands. :-P

[Alvis]

Sorry for my late reply. :)

In reference to your post, remember Life Lesson #3:
Minimum wage workers: When receiving service from those who are paid the least, expect the least. You will never be disappointed, and sometimes your expectations will be exceeded.

I was a Wal-Mart wage slave for longer than I care to remember. I've been in that lady's position, but I had the sense, if not the pleasure, to chastise the child.