Wrongfully Accused of Shoplifting at JCPenney

actually, they do have to wait till you've left the store to approach
you, because the thinking is that as long as you are still in the
store, you might pay for the items they wrongly thought you'd stolen.
where they opened themselves up for a lawsuit is when the employee
started going through your personal property. "i'm sorry" won't cut
it at that point. the proper procedure is to call the police and the
police have to ask your permission to look through your things. you
can say no, but you'll get arrested. at the station, they'll get a
warrant and search your things. in your case, there was nothing to
find, because you hadn't stolen anything. you have a perfect lawsuit
and i hope you'll get a lawyer and pursue it. these employees were
not only way out of line, they acted illegally. the only mistake i
see that you made is leaving the unwanted clothes in the dressing
room. next time, take them back out with you and make sure an
employee knows that you tried them on but don't want them and ask them
what to do with the clothes, i.e., do you rehang them or do they?

You had a perfect law suit, they can not come out of the store to get
you! you need to consult a lawer. The same thing was done to me 30
years ago by J C Penny!

I can generally pick out shoplifters in my store, sometimes how they
look (meth heads), but most often how they ACT.

When I see women placing things under their stroller I alert my
undercover constables, and they handle it. I can only think of a few
cases involving a stroller at my store, but it does happen.

Most often it goes down their pants. The most aggravating is the new
"Earth Friendly" cloth bags. People shop with them putting their
groceries in them as they shop, then go out the door with them.

Although I did have one kid who walked by me, acknowledged me, and I
observed plastic bags in the front of his cart, sure enough he filled
em up and went out the door.

The general rule is, I have to see them conceal the item and never
lose sight of them until I stop them outside the store. If I lose
track of them, they could have ditched it without me knowing it.

And yes, women with children do steal. I have an old guy with a walker
I have my eye on too.


Good Day

Poor service indeed. Glad they rectified it to a point at which you
are satisfied.

We all make mistakes, and I'm sure the LP Mgr has taken care of that
staff!

I'm glad things worked out for you, but my concern is that you were
stopped outside of the store? And to have your children witness it?
Isn't this highly illegal to stop someone outside of a store and
accuse them of shoplifting when they did not? Or am I misunderstood
of the laws? Or are all stores different?

I just wanted to let everyone who left kind responses to know an
update on this incident.

I was contacted by the district LP manager who sincerely apoligized,
admitted they were completley wrong, and said that in the 9 years she
had been there, nothing like this had EVER happened. She also went on
to say that because of the employees complete lack of communication
this was the first stop they had ever made that did involve an inicent
party. With all that, plus said, I got of the phone with a personal
cell phone number for use if I EVER have any kind of problems in the
store again, anad a formal letter of apology along with a gift card in
the mail.

Although I will never forget what happened Monday, I do feel much
better knowing that the admitted wrong and apoligized.

Thanks!

I feel your pain. I had something similar happen yesterday at a
"Natural Health" store. After we left, we were followed out of the
store and asked (I say "asked," but it was an accusation) about an
item I had been handed, by the same person who had handed it to me. I
had put it back on the shelf, as I could not afford it on this visit
(first visit to the store). Unfortunately, the spot I put it back in
was about a hand's width down from where it was SUPPOSED to be (She
had handed it to me so I didn't see exactly where she took it from,
and it was the only one, there were no labels on that shelf). I guess
I should have handed it back to her directly, but she was with someone
else at that moment.

I don't mind that she came out and "asked" me, I probably would have
been okay with her asking me to turn out my pockets, but I'm really,
really upset that I didn't get any kind of apology, especially when,
after she denied that I had put it back, I went back into the store
and pointed the box out to her. Instead, I got a pissy look and "You
didn't put it back in the right spot!" in front of her other patrons.
I walked out again feeling like a criminal when I hadn't done anything
seriously wrong. I probably should have given her a complaint right
then and give her a chance, but I was just too shocked.

I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong, but it doesn't
matter, in any case, I had a bad experience, and I will never set foot
in there again. Nor will I have anything good to say about the store.
Which is too bad, because they had a lot of things I was interested
in and will now choose to buy from others, instead.

I wonder if it's a sign of the times?

call an attorney and get their opinion. People have sued for much
much less. Your sister was with you thus you have a witness to pain
and suffering. they didn't immediately ask for a receipt, they didn't
give you a reason for detaining you, I would ask the attorney if you
can sue.

I would have demanded to see a manager immediately after the incident
and asked immediately what they were going to do to compensate me for
the humiliation they had exposed me to.... I wouldn't have followed
the employees to the back room in the first place ! I would have
refused. I would have said if you need anything from me, you can ask
me right here, I am busy.

I think you have a case, I would take the time to call an attorney and
ask.

Just curious, but do most people leave clothes they don't want in the
dressing rooms? If I'm trying on clothes, and something didn't fit,
or I just didn't like it, my first instinct is to put the unwanted
clothes back on the rack where I found it, not leave it in the
dressing room for someone else to put back.

Am I in the minority here? Just how often does this happen?

Please let us know if you recieve any type of correspondence regarding
this incident.

This employee that checked your order out was over zealous and sounds
kind of crazy if you ask me. I mean calling out the item and price as
he is scanning it is weird. All he had to do was finish the order and
then alert the security person if need be.
He seemed to find this very entertaining up to the point that he was
found to be wrong.

This was a ridiculous situation. For the employees (and apparently
management) to think they can wrongly detain you and then blow the
whole thing off with a standard apology is interesting, to say the
least.

You have every right to be upset with the way this was handled, both
during the incident and after. Here's hoping the company responds
with some sort of compensation to help make up for the embarassment
you suffered for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

Thanks for using PlanetFeedback!

This scenario is a classic setup used by shoplifters. So I can see
why the employees were suspicious.

The thing is, you did nothing wrong. Thus, there isn't a reason to
feel humiliated or embarrassed. It was indeed a case of
miscommunication between the store employees, and the manager said the
emplyees have been spoken with about it.

If in the future the stroller isn't used as a ahopping cart, it will
reduce the suspicion that invites.

I don't know what else they can do either. Loss prevention is a big
deal. They saw suspicious behavior, and made an oversight during the
flushing out of the facts.

I can understand your feelings, but you did do several things that
threw red flags out all over. 2 adults + children + stroller in one
dressing room doesn't look good. Also, you state that you left the
clothes you didn't want in the dressing room. By that do you mean that
you left them in the actual dressing room or on the rack in the
dressing room? If you exited with a different number than you went in
with, that is another red flag to security.

I think the OP does have a valid complaint, and I wouldn't blame her
for not going back to that store.
The only suggestion I would have to offer the OP is to try in the
future to not use the stroller as a shopping cart. Difficult with kids
I'm sure.
Strollers are tricky. In my retail days at two different stores (one
in Iowa, one in WI) some of the biggest shoplifters were ladies with
double strollers. Funny how the kids never seemed to actually be in
the strollers. At the smaller store in Iowa, where we didn't have any
kind of loss prevention staff, it was up to us to try to deter
shoplifting before it started. Whenever she would start to pile
clothing up on the stroller (and slip a bunch of panties into the
little cargo area in the bottom of the stroller) we would convienently
offer to take her items to the fitting room, which was never the
handicap accessible one, so she had to leave the stroller outside but
take her kids in. Funny how she never had time to try on anything when
we started doing that.

When I worked at Kohls, the process of catching a shoplifter was
similar to the one JulieH described below. If an employee suspected
someone of shoplifting, the policy was to call Loss Prevention and
have them handle it. And under no circumstances could we accuse
someone of shoplifting unless we were 100% positive they did it; i.e
we saw them and had proof.

We took this approach because we felt it was better to let five guilty
people go free then accuse one innocent person. Your story illustrates
this point exactly. You were insulted and humiliated all because two
people didn't understand the meaning of the word "communication." And
how they handled the issue afterwards leaves a lot to be desired, to
say the least. I agree with Venice: you deserve much more than a bland
"I'm sorry." (And I don't often say that either!)

Normally stores do stop shoplifters outside the door, but this is not
always a requirement as others have said. I have stopped them both
ways....I was in charge of LP for years in a store and have detained
and had held hundreds to thousands of shoplifters. If someone wraps
dozens of shirts on their body and hides the hangers behind the
dressing room mirror and heads out of the dressing room...you have
them. It really just depends on what they did...if it is on
camera..if they looked around before concealing the item.

I never had a bad bust.

Believe it or not....women with strollers were one of the worse.

One time two women walked out the door and had their kids carrying
smallappliances in their arms. Several hunderd dollars including
items hidden under one child in the stroller and in the back of the
stroller bag.

They told me oh were going to the car we forgot something. I saw this
one coming and was standing outside the store against the wall as they
walked out. The only place they went were to jail and their kids to
juvi.

You said you "asked for your money back." Did they let you keep the
items? The reason I was asking we had a policy of being able to pay
up to 500 dollars on the spot if something ike this happened as long
as we got a release signed. If they let you keep the items it might be
deemed settlement and end any liability!

I am not at all justifying what the employees did and I am very sorry
for your experience. But I am hoping I can provide a little bit of
insight on Assets Protection/Loss Prevention from my experience in
retail.

I used to work at a major retailer and in order to apprehend a
shoplifter, you had to actually see several distinct steps of the
shoplifting process. You have to see them without the item, you have
to see them select the item, conceal the item, and then leave the
premises without paying. If you missed any of these steps, you could
not apprehend someone, even if you were 99% positive they are
shoplifting. You had to be 100% sure by witnessing all these steps.
This made it extremely hard to catch shoplifters, but it also
protected the company from these situations.

It sounds like JC Penney missed the step where you concealed the item
-- they thought this happened when you were in the fitting room, but
they were wrong.

Also, they did not stop you at the door because then they would have
not been catching a shoplifter. You aren't shoplifting until you
leave the premises. This means you can hide all the items you want in
your stroller, as long as you pay for them before you leave. Also, if
they had stopped you at the door and asked for your receipt, you could
have simply said "oops" and left the items and been free and clear.

Again, you weren't shoplifting, so this doesn't apply to you. But I
thought that understanding the process may help you. JC Penney
totally dropped the ball on their end and I am sorry for everything
you went through.

This situation definitely could have been handled differently and
better. I just had a different take on a couple of things you
mentioned and wanted to offer my point of view.

"I thought it strange however that as the man was checking me out, he
loudly stated each item I was purchasing, as well as the cost of the
items."
At my local JC Penney's, I know they do the same. This way you know
what you are being charged for what and there is no confusion. Maybe
he was just doing the same?

"I was detained without any explanation as to why at first and then my
personal belongings were gone through without my consent."
Honestly, if they had told me they me that they thought I had stolen
something and I hadn't, I would have thrown a fit. If they told
someone that who did shoplift, I bet that person would take off
running. They couldn't have predicted how you would react. I don't
know the law, but they definitely should have had your permission to
search your bags. If they still wanted to, they should have gotten a
police officer to aid. That might have made it a bit easier to take.

"They could have very easily asked to see my receipt and my items
instead of escorting me through the store and detaining me like they
did."
It would have been wiser if they had just asked to see your receipt
and checked your bags, but after working in retail for a while, it is
known that a lot of people try hiding things in strollers. Obviously
this is not the case here, but how were the store workers supposed to
know this?


This was definitely a huge miscommunication between the two employees
and you definitely deserve an apology. They handled this horribly. I
hope you hear back from them.

That's an incredible story! Didn't the woman hear the man call out
the items and prices? Isn't that the reason she was standing right
behind you? I would be extremely annoyed about this because the whole
thing was so unnecessary. As you said, why didn't they just ask to
see the merchandise and your receipt? And even that shouldn't have
been necessary because they both saw you pay for the items in
question!

I don't know what they can do to make you feel better about this. I
usually think apologies are pointless, but in this case the two
employees should apologize to you in person, if you're willing to go
back to the store. I also think Penney's should present you with a
gift card for a substantial amount of money in an attempt to make up
for their employees' complete lack of competency and judgment. And I
rarely say something like that!