Shoplifting

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Simowalla

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@simowalla
Got a phone call Friday from a very dear friend of mine. 39 Year old lady, extremely successful career driver individual with no priors, not even a speeding ticket. She got arrested for shoplifting at a very well-known pharma chain store. 21 Items to the value of R1500.00. I was bowled over. She got release on bail of a R1000.00 Friday afternoon. Need to appear in Court on Monday morning.
Question: Her preferred lawyer is out of town till next Monday, what to tell the judge? How imperative is it to get alternative representation for Monday morning? (She is obviously disputing the allegations)
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated for this is a dear Friend of mine.
 
21 items is a lot. There have been a few cases in the past year of individuals who accidentally put an item into a pram or something and though some of those incidents were probably innocent mistakes, stores seem to have adopted a 0 tolerance policy. Do they have video footage of her shoplifting the items? On what grounds is she disputing the theft of 21 items?
 
21 Items. 21 items. And she wants to dispute the charges. Please let us know how this turns out.
 
I accidentally stole an item on three separate occasions. Two of the times I got to the car and found an item in either my pocket or actually in my hand I haven't paid for. The one time it was a chocolate and the other time a newspaper of all things. A combo of me being neverminded and the cashier not paying attention. On one or two occasions just before paying I needed to remind the cashier that she missed an item when ringing up. So I think we are even :D

21 items in one shopping trip is def not accidental so dont know how she is going to defend herself. Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime. If you are comfortable to steal 21 items you obviously got away with it lots of items before.
 
very well-known pharma chain store
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Dischem ? I assume they have cameras so your friend is lucky as video evidence is more clear cut than witnesses.
 
No camera footage. She had 2 shopping baskets. One was a shop basket (for her) and the other a private shopping bag she bouhgt stuff for her daughter going back to varsity. She went out to fetch another credit card not realising she had the bag in her hand and got nabbed. @stefanmuller "Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime" Or not.
 
Simowalla said:
(She is obviously disputing the allegations)
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On what basis? 21 items totaling R1500 seems pretty specific to me - so specific that presumably she got caught in the act. So just denying it isn't going to cut it.

edit...saw new post. Thats going to be difficult to defend.
 
Simowalla said:
No camera footage. She had 2 shopping baskets. One was a shop basket (for her) and the other a private shopping bag she bouhgt stuff for her daughter going back to varsity. She went out to fetch another credit card not realising she had the bag in her hand and got nabbed. @stefanmuller "Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime" Or not.
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Ok guess this can happen. The OP did not go into much detail. If it was a full bag of unpaid stuff then she should be able to explain to management. But why then still make a case against her if it was an honest mistake? Did she get to the till before realising she needs another card?
 
Stefanmuller said:
But why then still make a case against her if it was an honest mistake? Did she get to the till before realising she needs another card?
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That's what shops do these days, zero mercy/tolerance for honest mistakes.
 
We have a local shopping centre with a Checkers and a Woolies food next to eachother. The woolies has a walk through setup where there is an entrance on the checkers side and another one from at the parking area. So often I buy most of my stuff at checkers and maybe get a bag of salad or avos from Woolies, still carrying my checkers bag. Its easy to accidentally put a woolies item into the checkers bag (or on purpose to steal). I am actually waiting for this to happen to me. Point is how do you prove that it was accidental? It will likely be at most one or two items though. I bet they lose quite a bit from this daily.
 
We'll she will appear in court in the morning. Will keep you posted. She is a good honest person.
 
Simowalla said:
We'll she will appear in court in the morning. Will keep you posted. She is a good honest person.
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The best crooks usually appear that way ;). Hope she gets through it alright tho - not the best way to start the week having to appear in court and be found guilty over an honest mistake.
 
I once got home and found the shopping basket on my backseat... Still have it :p can't recall if I paid for the items in it.
 
Simowalla said:
No camera footage. She had 2 shopping baskets. One was a shop basket (for her) and the other a private shopping bag she bouhgt stuff for her daughter going back to varsity. She went out to fetch another credit card not realising she had the bag in her hand and got nabbed. @stefanmuller "Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime" Or not.
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I'm suprised that they didn't sorting it out at the store by having her pay for the items. They now have to go through the drama of letting employees take off work to testify in court if it gets that far.
 
Simowalla said:
No camera footage. She had 2 shopping baskets. One was a shop basket (for her) and the other a private shopping bag she bouhgt stuff for her daughter going back to varsity. She went out to fetch another credit card not realising she had the bag in her hand and got nabbed. @stefanmuller "Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime" Or not.
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This just sounds like a justification for theft.
 
Simowalla said:
No camera footage. She had 2 shopping baskets. One was a shop basket (for her) and the other a private shopping bag she bouhgt stuff for her daughter going back to varsity. She went out to fetch another credit card not realising she had the bag in her hand and got nabbed. @stefanmuller "Likely she has stolen literally hundreds of items in her lifetime" Or not.
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Don't completely understand the situation.

She had two shopping bags, one basket with stuff from current store.

Then another bag with stuff she bought for her daughter. I'm assuming shopping done at another store. Did this second bag also contain items from the current store?

On her way to get another card, she left the store carrying this second bag. What is the problem if this contained items that she bought elsewere? Surely a till slip could prove that.

If this bag contained items from the current shop, I looks rather suspicious imo.
 
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