what would be the situation if i wanted to swap some boots for a different size

but they wouldnt take them as they had mud on them.

i take the old ones to the shelf ,

put them back and take the ones that i wanted of the right size.

As i leave the alarm goes off and they follow me out and see me get into my car.

Whats likely to happen?

Cheers

Hello and welcome to CAG.

I have to ask, why did you think they would take back boots with mud on them please?

Best, HB

They werent that muddy , i had just gone for a walk to walk them in and they gave me a blister, was over pavements and all the dirt could have easily been brushed off. The person was just being quite picky imo.

you could well be arrested as the store has no powers of its own to deal with this matter

so they will go to the police who will trace you quite easily.

If you dont get arrested for this your car details will go on the police national computer as a vehicle involed in crime so you can expect to be stopped frequently as long as you own it or are associated with it.

People committing one sort of crime are often involved in others so you become an easy stop and search subject.

Clearly boots covered in mud have been used,

not just tried on and rejected

I am not surprised they didnt want them back.

If someone borrowed something of yours and trashed it would you be happy to accept it back in a parlous state?

They werent trashed. I only said muddy to make it clearler. They had literally been worn down the road and back.

I'm sorry Zack, I don't see the logic here.

If you wanted to try out the boots you could have done that around the house. If they weren't very muddy, why didn't you clean them before you took them back?

That's possibly by the by, what ericsbrother has said is likely to be more important.

HB

They seemed fine in the store. So i went for a small walk to walk them in before i went for a longer walk the next day.

During this walk i realised they didnt actually fit and gave me a blister so i went to return them the next day.

I forgot to clean them as they were not visible dirty unless you looked at the small areas of dirt on the bottom of the boots.

They are perfectly able to be re sold imo but as you say thats not really the point

You say they are perfectly able to be resold

- however, would you purchase them if someone else had actually done this ?

If you wanted to return the original purchase, you do so by dealing with the store staff.

Swapping them in store with another pair without going through the staff shows dishonest intent, IMO.

So, it is theft. The store may well involve the police if you left with the alarm going off and you didn’t stop and got in a car and left, depending on what the store staff saw and what (if anything) got captured on CCTV.

Since you know both that the alarm went off and that they were following you, what will you say if the police ask “So, why didn’t you stop, if only to say ‘I’ve not done anything wrong’”?

As for “kind of stole” in the thread title: what makes you believe you aren’t guilty of theft to make it “kind of stole”?

If you wanted to return the original purchase, you do so by dealing with the store staff.

 

Swapping them in store with another pair without going through the staff shows dishonest intent, IMO.

Definitely dishonest intent I'd say, as OP says in post #1 that he first took them to staff and asked to swap and they refused so then he swapped them anyway and then when the new boots set the alarm off legged it to his car.

True: I have to admit I missed the “they wouldn’t take them as they had mud on them”.

OP should have sold them on (ebay, gumtree, whatever) as “wrong size, so nearly New”.

What’s the odds:

a) they aren’t hearing what they wanted (that it was fine to do as they did, that they’ll hear no more about it), and/or

b) they won’t come back and answer / update the thread?

Hi

Regarding the thread title ' I kind of stole' There is no 'Kind of', You took a new pair of shoes from the shelves and replaced them with used goods. If not theft, then fraud would be first on my mind.

Did you expect that the store would clean them for you? You should have ensured that they were thoroughly cleaned before even thinking of taking them back.

CAG is all about helping the vulnerable, not assisting people who couldn't care less.

Would the CCTV have caught your licence plate? Possibly. If they did would the police get involved? Possible. If the store did get your plate then I would say they had good grounds for obtaining your details from the DVLA and take it from there.