Last week, a former USAF staff sergeant and her husband moved from California to Honolulu. They went for a walk, got lost, and stopped into a supermarket to buy some food -- and eat a sandwich, planning to scan the wrapper at the checkout counter. (She's 30 weeks pregnant, so you can imagine how hungry a getting-lost-in-your-new-neighborhood walk made her). Although they bought $50 worth of groceries, they forgot to scan the wrapper, and so failed to pay for the sandwich.
So, when the security guard dragged them away, they were pretty embarrassed, and offered to pay for the sandwich. But it seems that Safeway's policy wouldn't let them do that. Do you know what Safeway's policy required the store to do?
Have the couple arrested. And put in jail. And have their 2-year old daughter taken away by Child Protective Services.
Obviously, Safeway supermarkets are going to fold all over the country, because from now on nobody in his or her right mind will ever shop at one. But the story (here, here, here) does raise another question: what sort of half-wit police officers do they hire in Honolulu? Because it is one thing for some lardass mall cop and his pimple-faced management trainee boss to follow this policy; it is another thing for the actual police to make it happen.
2 comments:
I thought of your blog when I read this; you know how to pack a sentence with meaning in your blog.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/ft/2011/01/how_to_write_a_good_sentence.single.html
When I had to appear in court for a traffic ticket, I met a older woman who was there for "shop lifting." She had gathered a few things to buy and also wanted to get a duplicate key made. She was encouraged to try the key in her car before leaving, which she proceeded to do...without paying for the other goods in her arms. Well, you can figure out the rest. The worst part of it was that in court, one is only able to plead guilty (which I was and did) or plead not guilty, in which case, one has to have a court date set for the future. This woman said she was the caretaker of her ill husband and it was very difficult to get away. The judge was very sympathetic, but he said she only had the two choices; she plead guilty.
Post a Comment