I was just arriving at Aldi as a woman was leaving with a handful of items and a couple of staff members close behind – informing her that she had to pay for her things. It was all quite tense for a moment, as the three staff members surrounded her (but didn’t touch her). She claimed “her father owned the store!”, but threw the items to the ground and made off. The police arrived a few minutes later but seemed disinterested.
I had taken pictures of the incident, but the staff informed me that they had plenty of cameras in the store and didn’t need anything from me. And when later I was at the checkout, I told the guy that I thought the staff had done a good job. He said that the she was known to the staff and seemed to have some “problems”.
In hindsight, could I have done more? What if I had offered to pay for the goods? It might have made a difference, but it may have been that any interference would just have made the situation worse. I wonder, too, about the staff. As soon as the incident was over, they were back at their tasks. I think they might have seen at all before.
Musings and Mutterings 