Playing policeman

I felt so bad. I know that something had to be done but I just felt so awful.

I was at a large shopping centre a few days ago and saw a woman go past me with a rather full shopping trolley (I believe they’re called shopping carts in the U.S.). She would probably be in her early 30s.

As she went past one shop she grabbed a bag that was on display at the front of the store, placed it on top of everything else in her trolley and continued along. Had I seen correctly? Did she just steal that bag without even trying to hide the fact?

I decided to play policeman and watch what she did next from a safe distance. She crossed to the other side of the mall and went to a gift shop. She picked up a couple of small ceramic items, took a quick glance around, popped them on top of the rest of her loot and continued through the shopping centre.

At this point I decided that I wasn’t seeing things and that everything else in the trolley looked as if it had been purchased on the same no money down, nothing to pay shopping plan. Nothing was wrapped or in bags. I find it exceptionally hard to believe that no one else had seen her pinching stuff up to this point. Are we really that good at turning away and not wanting to get involved? I headed for the the information kiosk while I kept an eye out for any security officers.

Once I got to the kiosk I quickly told the lady attendant what I’d seen and she called security. Just at that moment, the woman in question walked past us and headed up the travelator to the next floor. A few moments later a security guy came past and grabbed my details as he headed off to talk to the thrifty shopper.

She had done the wrong thing. She needed to face justice. I knew that I had done the right thing in alerting security but I felt so bad about ‘dobbing someone in’. I know that there are likely to be circumstances that led her to this point and I wished that I could have helped her but I couldn’t turn a blind eye to her taking hundreds of dollars of goods.

I hope she can sort things out, pay the penalty and get her life back on track.

Posted by Rodney Olsen



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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25 Comments

  • I think the main circumstance that led her to do it was her own greed. I also think that there is nothing wrong with dobbing people in in these circumstances.

  • Rodney, first off – like the background colour change (I maybe belated in saying that due to reading your blog through feed but better late than never eh?).

    Secondly, I know how hard it is to dob someone in, so congrats on doing so!

  • I think you did the right thing. Australian culture derides the ‘dobber’ but honestly, if people get away with that, it just means that honest people end up paying more.

    At the end of the day, somebody has to pay for stolen goods – and it’s generally the paying customer.

  • I have heard that cleptomaniacs reach a point where they just can’t stop and WANT to be caught. You probably did her a huge favor.
    Peace…………….

  • Gosh. That’s pretty brazen to do that out in the open like that. You did the right thing. Thanks for the explanation of “trolley”. I never would have gotten that!

  • If it was me in your situation I would feel terrible too. Sometimes we need to make a stand on these issues. If everyone just turned a blind eye to such things, where would the world be eh!! In a bigger mess than we are now.

  • Thanks for your comments, everyone.

    Quirkie, I had wondered about politely confronting her myself but decided against it. I figured that she would probably carry on as soon as I left. If she was brazen enough to pick things up with people all around, I guessed that a polite discussion wouldn’t help.

    The other thing was, as she pushed her trolley through the mall she got to a busy pedestrian area and almost shouted abuse at an older gentleman that didn’t get out of her way quickly enough. I wasn’t sure that she was ‘stable’ enough to handle polite conversation well.

  • you speak a different language over there. Trolley, I get that even though here it’s a mode of transportation in some cities.

    Travelator must be like an escalator, right?

    Dobbing? Snitching? Ratting out?

    Anyhow, you did the right thing which is rarely the easy thing.

  • nah I have to disagree with the crew… it was the wrong thing to do. She wasn’t hurting a person, she was hurting a corporation. They’d do the same to you, given the chance. And they DO have the chance. And they DO do the same to you – every single day. That woman was a hero, and you took her down.

    although it is probably not a valid argument against the owner of the gift shop… but c’mon, $7 for a piece of bloody cardboard with a picture on the front???? THAT is daylight robbery right there, so once again, they probably deserved it. So I stick to my original view – I reckon you thwarted an everyday hero.

    would you have kicked the bucket from under robin hood’s feet??

  • If you’re still around, Jen, I’d have to disagree with you. I doubt that woman would claim to be doing anything political or principled at all. She’s probably that brazen because she’s absolutely desperate to be caught, either becasue she’s a helpless kleptomaniac or becasue she’s a helplessly angry scary woman who is desperately seeking someone stronger than she is.

    You sure it was *her* sensitivities you were protecting, Rodney?

  • Obviously I needed to protect myself as well, Quirkie. I had no authority to question her about her trolley load and if she turned nasty it would have simply been my word against hers.

  • No. Hand washing is for those who have the power and authority to do something yet refuse to act.

    The only power and authority I had was to alert those who could act.

    The many others who must have seen what she was doing yet didn’t act to alert those with authority in the situation were hand washers.

  • This bothers me: I’m thinking of this conversation as philosophical, rather than personal, which is easy for me since I’m anonymous and you’re not. Also, I’m questioning you, not the other way around. I would completely understand if you wanted to bow out. Heaps respect to you.

  • No problem but thanks for the thought. 🙂

    I still don’t know of a better way to have handled the situation but if there is one I’d like to know about it. I feel sure that there would be up and down sides to any scenario.

    Can you paint a scenario that would have suited the situation better?

    I’m more than happy to continue the conversation and to throw more ideas around.

  • Hmmm… I don’t know about ‘better’, but a different way could have been:

    RO: Excuse me, this is a bit awkward, but, I noticed what you were doing and I was wondering if maybe I could help you?

    (That would catch her off guard, because it’s ambiguous about what exactly you were offering to help her with, but it’s also a clear statement that you don’t want to be her enemy and get her into trouble for the sake of it.)

    From what you could read of the situation, how do you think that would have gone down?

  • Obviously it’s all hypothetical because I had very little time to dissect the situation before having to act.

    After seeing her snarl and shout at an older gentleman who simply walked in front of her, I doubt that a friendly chat would have gone anywhere.

  • It sounds to me that you are caught between doing what you know to be the right thing morally and what society at large,would prefer you to be, that is not be a tattle tale. (Canadian term perhaps)
    I would say, you judged the situation correctly. Way to go!

  • Yeah, if only we could press ‘pause’ on life occasionaly so we could sit back and calmly figure out the best thing to do or say in any given situation. (I know I would have used this feature more than once, not to mention ‘rewind and erase’).

    My first thought in all of this was that the woman, surprisingly, may have reacted not with a snarl, but with tears, when confronted with love (not unlike more than one ‘tough’ woman that Jesus met). She would have expected judgement, but instead seen compassion in your eyes.

    I don’t think the choice was between moral right on one hand and social approval on the other, but between compassion and … something else, not sure what.

    Again, how comfortable for me to be sitting back critiquing your actions! Blah.

  • Hmm….way too much discussion about right or wrong. What the lady did was truly wrong.She took something that did’t belong to her. There’s no rational way to justify her actions.

    Rodney, we as Christians, are implored to confront evil. Your actions were absolutely correct.

    Nothing abstract or philosophical about this incident. As we yanks say, “It’s a slam dunk”.

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