Hi, I am new to the forum so please be gentle. About 3 years ago I was caught shoplifting from Boots. This was something I am extremely ashamed of, as when it happened I was going through an extremely difficult time after suffering a miscarriage. The item in question was ovulation test strips, hence the connection to the emotional pain I was going though after loosing my baby. I know there was no excuse. I received what I can only vaguely remember was a lifetime ban from either that particular store or all Boots. I learnt my lesson and have never done anything like this again and never intend to, I was just in a bad place at the time. Anyway, today I needed some bits for my miracle little 1 year old and for myself. Since he was asleep and Boots was the closest shop with what I wanted to purchase, I decided to go in. I promptly got what I needed, as I felt very anxious being in there and even had help from one of the staff members that I requested. Nothing was said and no one approached me. Now I am in a total panic that I am going to be arrested after the fact for criminal treaspass as it was the store I stole from. Can someone please give me some advice. Am I overreacting?? What would have happened if someone recognised me? Would I have just been asked to leave or would the police have been called? Can they inform the police that I entered the store while on ban, even though I paid for my items and made it a point to have a staff member talking to me the whole time as to not be accused of intending to do something. I just feel so guilty and ashamed even to this day and it's been 3 years. Any answers would be great, feeling very anxious and scared as I learned by my mistake and realise I was not well at the time of the original incident. Thanks in advance.

In 3 years many staff have come and gone.

Even if some staff are still there from 3 years ago, it's near impossible that they'll remember you.

They see thousands of people every day and it's only natural to forget faces.

They also see many shoplifters every day and they forget them too.

Don't worry

Worst case scenario you would be asked to leave, but I would be very surprised if they asked a young mother with baby to leave.

Again, forget about it

Thanks for your quick response king12345. Has made me feel a lot better and will try to just forget about it. Again thank you.

If a store called the police because they thought they recognised a customer as being a shoplifter from years back the police would tell them to stop wasting their time and either ask the person to leave or suggest that being clairvoyant is not part of the criminal justice system.

What will never happen though is being arrested for deliberately paying for something you have chosen.

You can absolutely rest assured that you will never hear anything more about this. After three years, any memory of your face, name etc will certainly have been forgotten, and most likely any written record of the event will also have gone. Staff see many thousands of people, and even the security guards, if they haven't all left and been replaced, will not recall you from the many people that they have dealt with in the time since.

You have moved on and so have the other people involved - you are now just another customer. Even if you had gone in after a couple of weeks and been recognised the effect of a ban is that as a trespasser you would be asked to leave. There would be nothing for the police to get involved in as that would have been a civil matter.