Thread: This seriously depresses me.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Just being ex law enforcement if I had seen that I would have just told the clerk not her. You never know about people and all the what ifs these days. Maybe she might have pulled out a gun and shot you, maybe she was planning on robbing the place, maybe she had confederates with her. Maybe she was mentally ill or just a crook who does this all the time.

+1
You have to be careful interrupting a crime. I once saw a bouncer restrain a guy who was beating a woman in a pub. She immediately broke a bottle & glassed the bouncer.
No point in getting depressed about human nature. Just stay safe.

I think your response was very appropriate. Some might say it was none of your business. Leave her alone. She might have reasons you don't understand. Others might say you didn't go far enough. She's a thief. You should have turned her in. In the end, it's your only your own opinion of your actions that counts. You have to be able to sleep at night. I'd sleep well, my friend.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Just being ex law enforcement if I had seen that I would have just told the clerk not her. You never know about people and all the what ifs these days. Maybe she might have pulled out a gun and shot you

So she could shoot the clerk instead? Admittedly in the UK we don't have quite as many trigger happy people as there are in the US.
In the UK even the police and judiciary are starting to realise we have gone too far down the road of obstructing citizens from upholding the law.
This is despite the fact that in the UK everyone has the legal power of arrest for an offence if they see it being commited.
Not responding to many of the crimes we see happening would have been unthinkable to our parents' generation.

I actually think there are a suprising number of people who would take something like that if they had the chance, just because in their mind its a small item, not worth much and therefore its "not really stealing".

I remember when I worked in an off licence and a business man, who pulled up in a Jaguar and wore an expensive suit, swiped a single can of beer out of the fridge on his way out. I told him to put it back as well, with much the same reaction, but the point is that he felt he could get away with it and it was only a little thing, so who's going to care?

I'd bet pennies to pounds that if I'd asked the same guy if auto-theft was Ok he'd have looked at me shocked and said of course not.

About forty years ago I was a traveling photographer making portraits of church members for inclusion in church directories. In a conversation with a pastor of a small North Carolina Baptist church he mentioned that he had previously been employed as a chaplain in a state prison. I said that it must have been very interesting hearing the different stories from the convicts. He just shook his head and said, "The only difference between those people in prison and the people in this congregation is that these people haven't been caught yet." Admittedly he had a very dry sense of humor and was a bit of a cynic, but there was still a lot of truth in what he said.

Regards - Walt

It seems like that mentality that children are often taught, and many folks only partially mature out of - it must be ok because nobody stopped me

Mark you did the right thing, people need to know that they cannot do wrong without someone finding out about it sooner or later and then the consequences involved. She may me doing this all the time wether for thrills or maybe she is just cheap. It doesn't matter which, she just needs to know that its wrong and that better behavior is expected. I have much respect for you!