Caught shoplifting at Waitrose-please help

[ImogenGrey]

Hello,

I feel very embarrassed to admit I got caught stealing groceries under £40 worth at Waitrose a month ago.

Unfortunately I have done this a few times and the LP person that caught me remembered me from last time. I don’t know what is the matter with me, I’ve been very depressed and struggling with life for a while now and I honestly don’t recognise myself anymore. I’m not a criminal I haven’t done anything illegal or been arrested in the past but i feel I have been really out of control lately.

Im not going to try and excuse myself what I did was incredibly stupid and wrong and if im charged my whole life is ruined, I’ll lose my job that I worked for for years to acquire and so much more. When they caught me, it was a month ago, they took me into a back office and took my photo and details although I didn’t have ID with Me I was too scared and gave my real name and address. They didn’t call the police then but gave me a paper saying im banned for life. And security escorted me out of the mall.

For the past month I’ve been having terrible anxiety, nightmares can’t sleep and keep thinking they will come arrest me or send me a letter to go to the police. I keep thinking they will give me details to the police or look into cctv and see I have done it multiple times.

They did not mention anything about cctv but they def have loads. They mostly mocked me for stealing and I know I deserve it. I’ve sworn on my life I’ll never steal anything again. I can’t believe what possessed me to ignore all the horrible consequences my actions could have.

Could you please advise, how often are people arrested after being let go with a ban?

I’ll be terrified for years dreading that if I let my guard down and think I’m safe it will happen one day and I’ll lose everything.

Thank you. 

[AndyOrch]

Welcome to the forum.

 

I have moved your topic to the appropriate forum please continue to post here.

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

Nothing further will happen.

The police were not involved, nor can they now or ever will be .

 

No one will search any CCTV etc etc 

 

Go see you doctor and p'haps have chat and explain what is going and why you have been doing this .

 

If you get any scary letter s from the likes of DWF or RLP you totally ignore them. They are simply after money no one will see bar their back pocket.

 

Bin the letters. Go see you doctor.

Plenty of like threads here to read 

 

 

Dx

 

 

[AndyOrch]

Perhaps not bin them...but file away incase a papertrail is ever required...not that it will be but for future reference.

[ImogenGrey]

Thank you both for the responses. I have read similar posts here but I haven’t seen any with later updates about what happened months later, if they were prosecuted or not and that’s why I’m very stressed.

 

If they did indeed decide to look into old cctv it would take them months I suppose to file charges hence my worry.

 

I also read local newspapers online about people being sent to prison for shoplifting insignificant amounts of goods and that doesn’t help. 

[theberengersniper]

Imogen,

 

If the Police were to be involved they would have been called at the time. You do not need to worry about legal action being taken against you.

 

What the security guard at Waitrose will do with your details is pass them on to a firm called Retail Loss Prevention, or another similar company. That company may write to you, requesting that you pay them an amount that they will claim is to pay for the security guard's time in dealing with you. This letter they may send you is not a fine, it is a speculative invoice.

 

RLP cannot fine you, and nor can anyone else other than a court of law. The only thing they can do is issue a speculative invoice that they hope you will pay out of blind fear and panic. Please understand that whether you pay this or not can have no adverse implication on you, and it certainly doesn't affect whether there is Police involvement. Their opportunity to involve them has passed. You can safely ignore their letters. Leave it to someone else to finance their Christmas night out.

 

What you do need to do is see your GP, and begin to understand why you're doing this.

[honeybee13]

  

2 hours ago, ImogenGrey said:

Thank you both for the responses. I have read similar posts here but I haven’t seen any with later updates about what happened months later, if they were prosecuted or not and that’s why I’m very stressed. If they did indeed decide to look into old cctv it would take them months I suppose to file charges hence my worry. I also read local newspapers online about people being sent to prison for shoplifting insignificant amounts of goods and that doesn’t help. 

 

I think you can be sure that if people had problems later they would have come back here for further advice. 

 

It's a huge shame that people don't update their threads though, it would be very helpful. Maybe you could think about doing that?

 

HB

[dx100uk]

you seriously think the retailer would waste 100's of hours of staff wages searching CCTV...

not a chance never happens and they'd never get anything back.

 

move on

go see your doctor.

 

dx

 

[ImogenGrey]

Honeybee

I’m happy to update the thread after a few months if everything is ok.

I hope you’re right and that the reason they’re not back is because no news is good news.

Dx I know reason says that but when you’re in the moment and scared it’s hard to think straight

I really hope you’re right but I’ll probably still be anxious for a while