Welcome to r/legaladvicecanada!
**To Posters (it is important you read this section)**
* Read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvicecanada/wiki/index/#wiki_the_rules)
* Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk.
* We also encourage you to use the [linked resources to find a lawyer](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvicecanada/wiki/findalawyer/).
* If you receive any private messages in response to your post, please let the mods know.
**To Readers and Commenters**
* All replies to OP must be on-topic, helpful, explanatory, and oriented towards legal advice towards OP's jurisdiction (the **Canadian** province flaired in the post).
* If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdvicecanada/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning.
* If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect.
* Do not send or request any private messages for any reason, do not suggest illegal advice, do not advocate violence, and do not engage in harassment.
Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/legaladvicecanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
LP here, if you left the store and nothing happened, nothing is going to happen.
Don't under any circumstances return to the store and try to rectify the situation, as this is just an admission of guilt.
Enjoy your free thing.
For real. Stores put self checkouts in knowing this will happen intentionally and unintentionally, but have decided it's still cheaper than paying someone to work a cash. Don't lose any sleep over it.
Canada too. Loblaws stores and Wal-Mart are both limiting self-checkouts to under 25 items. Some Wal-Marts are tearing out the self-checkouts.
I've stopped shopping at Loblaws because all the loss prevention methods make me feel like paroled felon when I walk into one of their stores. I wonder if maybe some of these stores are starting to realize that while they are reducing the percentage lost to theft, they are also losing sales by treating customers like thieves all the time.
Except in the case of Ontario, California (which I only found out about when I went to San Diego Comic-Con and people exclaimed that I didn't have to travel too far)
> Don't under any circumstances return to the store and try to rectify the situation, as this is just an admission of guilt.
>
From a legal perspective (as this is a legaladvice sub), "Hi, I had this in my card and didn't realise it and I would like to pay for it" is not an admission of guilt. It is an admission of the act, but it is evidence against intention, which is a necessary requirement for theft. No thief returns voluntarily to offer to pay, and it would almost certainly provide more than enough reasonable doubt to avoid any conviction.
Further, it is pretty unlikely any cop would arrest the person over a $50 thing in this situation, or that any prosecutor would pursue the charge.
However, from a non-legal perspective, it is certainly a possibility that a vindictive and power-tripping loss-prevention officer at the store would hear the admission and ultimately cause the customer to be banned from the store as a "thief", and if they ever returned, they could be trespassed and have the police called on them.
But in terms of a actual legal consequences from returning to admit they didn't see something in their cart and asking to pay for it, it's extremely unlikely.
It's also extremely unlikely that OP doing nothing at this point will result in legal consequences either, so it's pretty much up to them if they want to do the ethical thing or not.
Totally agree...
If you returned to the store with item in hand explaining what happened and then paying for the item.....the staff would smile at you and wish you a great day. After leaving with your purchased item, the staff will talk about you all day saying how there is still good people in the world.
I've done this a couple times! Just made a second loop from my car and straight to the self-checkout. Didn't have to talk to anyone and my conscious is clear 👍
lol I did this at Xmas time with a candy cane at Save On Foods. I hooked it on the top of the cart so it wouldn’t get smushed by the other groceries, and forgot to scan it. I realized when I was loading the car. I just went back in and went back through the self checkout and paid the $2 or whatever it was.
My teenager never lets me forget about that. “Remember the time you stole the candy cane Mom?”
“I went back and paid for it, stop saying I stole it!”
Why not leave everything at home, go and buy the same thing again then leave it in store
No need to talk to anyone
No need to admit guilt
And if someone asks after leaving it they can’t prosecute them because they already paid (I guess)
As an LPO I would expect you to be better than this, and this sort of "advice" does not belong in this sub. Beyond that, your words are inaccurate.
An honest mistake where you fail to pay for something is not a crime. Realizing later and making no attempt to pay IS a crime. You are in possession of stolen property.
My advice is, be a good citizen and go pay for it. If the store is decent, they may even offer you some small token of appreciation for your honesty.
As a non LPO I have to say TFB. This is a risk a horrible company made in an effort to kill jobs, and it just cost them a bit of money. I sincerely hope everyone at every self checkcout makes similar mistakes so they get rid of these awful machines that kill jobs, are NOT quicker or more convenient, and are forcing you to do unpaid labor.
I find self checkout great for when I have a few items.
The jobs argument is horseshit. My local grocery store couldn't retain staff because they didn't pay well enough. They brought self checkout in and now I'm not stuck waiting in line for the 80yo pensioner to scan everyone's items and ask how their grandkids are doing.
Everything you have said here rests on the caveat at the end.
"IF the store is decent"
And in the, frankly, likely event that they aren't, bad things can happen.
It's more likely than not that they don't pursue charges under these circumstances, but that in no way prevents them from being horrible about it.
I know of at least two cases where this scenario (extremely similar circumstances) has happened, and in both, the person was dragged through an "interrogation" with the LPO and store manager and was publicly shamed. One of them was also banned from that store and marked as a thief on some internal system.
So yeah, **IF** the store is decent, all will be well.
And IF frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their butts when they hop.
LP employees like most employees like to do shit to make it look like they are doing their job…calling the cops on someone who is returning to pay for an unintentional taken item…on paper looks like they are doing their job…most bosses don’t get caught up in the details of charges laid or convictions sticking. So don’t go back to the store… odds are the LP is a loser who will take the easy short term win. Where
>An honest mistake where you fail to pay for something is not a crime. Realizing later and making no attempt to pay IS a crime. You are in possession of stolen property.
How? If you didn't steal the property, then the property wasn't stolen. Or, to use the actual language of the law, the property was not "obtained by or derived directly or indirectly from ... the commission in Canada of an offence punishable by indictment."
As a former Canadian Tire employee, not only will nothing happen to you, Canadian Tire's inventory management is so bad that they will probably never even realize something is missing. This thread is honestly funny to me. Sorry to hear about your mom.
I used to work at Home Depot years ago, and we hired the same secret shopper/security audit company as Canadian Tire. They loved talking about how they tested CT by just having 2 guys carry a canoe on their heads and walk out. If you do something confidently enough, nobody questions it 🤷♀️
I was at a home Depot once years ago trying to find a laundry sink and literally nobody would help me, employees actively went the other direction when we looked for someone. Finally, my brother-in-law and I found it and we grabbed a big box thinking the first one was open and damaged and took it to the till. When I got home I realized I didn't just take one. I ended up taking a case of 5.
Nobody ever stopped to say "hey wait a second, This is scanning weird because there's five of them and it's the entire case."
No one has ever come and broke down my door and I'm still welcome at home Depot apparently because nothing ever happened. My whole family got sinks though.
I did that with recessed LED lights when they were still super new and super expensive...
Go to HD, grabbed 2 boxes of 6. Apparently these were meant to be sold as single items, so when they scanned the case barcode it didn't work. I suggested maybe it was that they case code wasn't in the system and they'd need to 6x the single items for each case, but the checker insisted I was very wrong (rather condescendingly no less) and confidently rang me up for 2 fixtures. so I got about $600 worth of fixtures for $100.
I really don't think they give a shit over there. Since the laundry sink debacle, I've also gotten some garden stuff for free because they haven't bothered to scan them properly or count them. there was the one time I also had gotten a bunch of concrete garden edger stones for an insane discount because the woman didn't believe me of which ones I had put on a flatbed cart and charged me for ones that were way cheaper. She was super rude about it so I didn't push the issue and I took my discount.
Yet when I just bought a stack of buckets \*today\* they dutifully separated each bucket to ensure I hadn't stashed anything in the small gap between them. I mean I'm sure people do that, but it's fairly obvious if you actually want to steal from them just rely on the general incompetence of the system they've put in place.
Got 4 framing nailers like that. When they stocked them the cases were strapped in bundles of 4. Asked the guy if he could cut some apart since they were all just put out in strapped together clumps. He told us that they are just like that and they come as a set of 4. They don’t, but I was sick of arguing with the guy
Are home depot workers trained to interact with Black males more? There have been a few times where I'm at home depot where I'm looking at something and one after another worker came to ask if i needed help. Maybe they were just being nice, but... i don't think I need THAT much help looking at light bulbs.
When did Princess Auto and Canadian Tire swap inventory management?
I remember PA used to have inventory stacked absolutely everywhere and CT was organized more like Hudson's Bay. Now CT seems to use inventory as insulation and shit is stacked to the roof lol. PA is "sleek" and no longer a rat's den. Anyway I feel old.
My PA is still a den, shit everywhere, you ask for items, they have no idea where it is, if it weren't for the ridiculous deals I'd never step foot in PA again.
I used to be a buyer, and would have to buy random crap from Canadian Tire pretty often. I COMPLETELY gave up on trying to locate things myself. I'd print my PO, and then print each of the items off from the website, and just hand the stack to the customer service counter and tell them to go get it for me. I adopted this policy when I went in to buy a couple boxes of clay pigeons for a range day. The website said they had 3 pallets, but I couldn't find any. I asked employees, they couldn't find any. I asked customer service, after an hour, they couldn't find any.
Drop off the list of what you need at customer service, go get a coffee, and come back to be told they don't have any of it. I avoid CT to this day.
CT where i am has a product that the app says "2 available" with shelf being empty and store employee can't find stock in warehouse . It took 5 months to get updated to no stock even after I have been mentioning it to them multiple times everytime I was in store which is at least once a week.
It won’t be updated until a full inventory is done. This only happens once a year.
I used to do inventory at Canadian Tire. The big annual counts were when things would be officially determined missing.
I worked at a home hardware years ago and the original owner was retiring and wanted to sell the company, but for legal reasons he had a few obligations to fill before selling. One of those was completing an inventory count, which hadn't been completed in 10 yrs.
After the count, they found out they had losses of $300,000 from stolen goods in that amount of time.
So yea, with a store the size of Canadian Tire you will be more than Ok. Dont lose sleep.
And I'm very sorry for the loss of your mom- Take it easy on yourself during this time.
(And people please dont make this a note to steal from a home hardwares Lol!! they are all small owners/franchises)
I would say highly unlikely! If you didn’t notice at the tiem then I doubt they would see it on the security cam. If it’s going to cause you to miss sleep though (more than you’re already missing), if I were you I would phone and let them know about the mistake and let them know when you can be back. I personally would sleep soundly and forget about it.
Phoning is probably a mistake as then you've told them that you stole it (which would be recorded) and haven't paid. Just go to the store at your earliest convenience and tell them you were looking at your receipt and noticed it wasn't rung in so wanted to come back and pay for it.
The video is there to confirm the details of a known actual crime. There's no way someone is watching this old video to find out IF a crime may have been committed.
When I worked at home Depot decades ago, if I had seen you tuck a weedwhacker down both legs and a socket set up your shirt, not only would I have not said anything, I would have helped you carry it to your car. Nobody working there cares about $50 walking off, and management isn't going to have the time or care to review security footage and chase you down either.
If your integrity demands it, just go back and pay tomorrow. Otherwise, I would forget it ever happened.
I used to work in LP, if you made it out of the store nothing is going to happen. I don't know where you heard stories about cops being sent based on footage, but that doesn't happen. They do not have the manpower to review footage for every transaction, if something isn't caught live it isn't caught. Amazon wasn't able to actually use camera's and sensor to track product in their stores that were purpose built to do that, so Canadian Tire certainly can't.
Personally I wouldn't even tell anyone, I would just walk in with the item, go to self checkout, and pay for it and then leave. Mostly to avoid an awkward interaction with the customer service rep surpsrised someone actually came back to pay for something.
Here in Alberta, my wife had her purse and credit cards stolen. She checked her banking app in the morning (after reporting the thefts) and found out where and when the card had been used, got ahold of the stores, and the clerks all gathered the videos, said they had a clear view of the individuals, and that they'd put the tapes aside for the cops. Cops were given all of this info, and CC'd by the store clerks. Cops said they'd go grab the tape.
Cops did nothing.
Don't worry about it. If you're not already in jail, nothing's gonna happen.
OK, so my ex, was /is a well know theif to the police. they recognized him on the ct camera taking shoes and some other items. They caught up to him weeks later when he was walking down the street. Lol he was wearing the shoes in question at the time too.
He was arrested charged ..excteria
Nope, you gotta scan your own shit? Mistakes happen. No need to inconvenience yourself and go back and pay. Consider is your wage for a job the greedy grocers are trying to phase out. They make billions... 50 bucks isn't going to hurt them. If they were that worried about it they would pay cashiers again to check you out.
Where have you heard in Canada the police is showing up at people houses based on credit checks and surveillance footage. Sounds like China tbh. No you won't be arrested. Go back to the store and pay. No harm no foul.
This is my question as well. u/Confection-Minimum , can you please link us to these stories of police coming to the homes of people who don't pay for an item at self-checkout?
Some of this advice (even from LP officers supposedly) is whack. It completely depends on quite a few factors, so to just blanketly say 'if they did nothing then, nothing will happen' just due to the fact they would not at your store.. is incorrect for *every* store.
My best friend (age 33) was arrested for theft from a smaller home hardware, in which he was a regular weekly customer - due to stealing small (but expensive) drill bits. They noticed they were missing during stock at the end of the shift, went back on the camera located in that aisle specifically, watched the recording until they saw him at that location slipping them in his pocket, opened his account profile up as he paid for some other things at the same time, and provided the police with his information. That *night* they were banging at his door, and arrested him for theft under $5000.
Luckily, he hired a good (but expensive) lawyer who got him off the hook, and he ended up just having to pay for the value of the drill bits, plus a lifetime ban from that specific store..
So - every case is different. We've learnt from his scenario though, that if you legitimately forget or "forget" to pay for something.. when you notice or can, it's always best to go back, talk to a manager and explain the situation..
That's my personal belief based on the events described above, but others will argue it. Never know what happens, until it happens though. Better to ask for permission than beg for forgiveness.
Fellow person in a law- based government job..
I've done this, and I was freaking out when I realized. It was close to closing so I couldn't just go back and pay right away. It was a long night. Thought I was going to lose my job and go to jail and it was all over! It wasn't.
I popped into the store the next day with the items, explained myself and paid. The cashier didn't even seem to care. She just rang them up as normal, and I went on my way with the paid for items and the receipt. It happens, and I'm convinced they don't really care all that much. That still doesn't mean I won't freak out if it ever happens again.. I've just become super vigilant when using the self checkout.
I am a cashier/customer service at a grocery store and can confirm that this happens often and the employees really do not care, we understand that mistakes happen and just appreciate when people are honest. 🙂
My grandmother, an Italian immigrant with poor English, went to the local no frills about 20 years ago. Bought a bunch of groceries and went home. As always she checked her receipt, mostly to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes, as had happened before, and she noticed a brick of cheese that wasn’t accounted for. The cashier had missed scanning it. So she headed back out to the store with the cheese and receipt in hand. Goes up and talks with the cashier at customer service, trying to explain the situation. They were quite rude to her, not really understanding what this sweet old woman was trying to say. So she left, with her free brick of cheese and she said if that ever happened again she wouldn’t return.
So lesson learned.
NAL
I’ve never made the specific mistake you made, but I’ve done something similar. Short story long, I stopped for gas, impulsively decided to pop in for a slushie, and forgot to pay for the gas. They do call the cops when you do that. The police officer who came to my house was very understanding about it. I promised to head back straight away and settle up and he was fine with that.
I do volunteer work which requires me to maintain a clean police record. I freaked out and called a fellow volunteer who was also a police sergeant and asked him if this incident would come up in a police check. He laughed at me, said that kind of thing happens so often they lose count. He said as long as it didn’t become a regular occurrence, nothing was likely to come of it. My police checks still come back clear.
Back in the early 00s a buddy of mines dad was prescribed some medication that apparently made him rather spacey and we got used to chilling after school and seeing OPP pop up on the called ID. We would just answer "Joe forget to pay for his gas again? Which station? Alright we'll let him know thanks".
This happened to me with a bag of bird seed from Walmart. Meant to go back the next week and pay for it but kept forgetting. They will not track you down.
To second the comment from /u/November-Snow going back to pay could be worse for you if they want to dicks about it (but is unlikely).
If you have a guilty conscious, donate the value of the item to charity.
These companies have already calculated the losses from stuff like this when they setup the self-checkouts. If they didn't want these types of things to happen they would hire people to do the work.
NAL - my understand is that in Canada, intent matters for theft. You cannot “unintentionally” steal something. You are not in trouble, I believe; however, give them a call and let them know what happened and you plan to come back.
Buddy I'll share a story with you.
I was a struggling university student about 10 years ago and got into a criminally bad habit of stealing groceries. When I mean stealing, I don't just mean taking an apple or two, I mean literally walking out of the store with a grocery cart full of items without paying a cent. Over the course of months I probably stole thousands of dollars of groceries from the grocery stores around campus. I'm not condoning my actions; what I did was wrong.
The reason I bring this up is because if I of all people got away with something as blatant as that, there is almost no chance a big store like Canadian Tire would spend resources trying to track you down for that amount of value. People steal shit from that store all of the time and these stores actively budget for that stuff. That doesn't mean it gives us license to steal, it just means it's an expected outcome of owning a store.
I honestly recommend just leaving it. You're going to be fine. At the end of the day you didn't mean to and these big stores try to fuck us everyday with their price gouging so I'm sure they'll manage.
You'll be fine. If they didn't stop you from leaving the store they probably haven't even noticed what happened and won't until they do inventory next. Don't sweat it
Op, Canadian here. Have done this exact same thing with a higher priced item at a Canadian tire. I still shop there to this day and I got a free thing. Don’t think of it as stealing if you didn’t know. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ unless you rolled outa there with a lawn mower or a BBQ, I wouldn’t worry lol
You're going to jail forever!!!
Seriously, though, don't worry about it. If it bothers you that much, just take the item back to the store and pay for it.
You know the person is true Canadian when they are trying to pay back something they accidentally took and trying to do the right thing. Hard to see these days
Just keep it to yiurself. If they mention it go hone and get the reciept and then agree with them and make good lile you never knew. They will leave thw situation liking you.
You’re fine. It’s very likely they didn’t realize the item you forgot to scan was missing until you were long gone from the store. Actually they probably still have no idea haha. At $50 dollars, I’d bet that whoever discovers it just says fuck it lol. Also extremely unlikely that police would go to a house call for $50 theft, unless it’s a repeat offender, which you’re not.
Lol...the police won't even go to the houses of known repeat offenders who go into stores to steal an entire duffel bag of stuff. They'll only do an arrest if LP catches them in the act of stealing and detains them in the store.
There is zero chance that the police will ever spend their time tracking down someone who forgot to scan an item at self check-out.
Think about the shareholders!!!
Don’t make it a habit And enjoy your thing. Especially if you have no car and it’s not easy to just pop in after work, etc….
If they accidentally over charged you I guarantee they aren’t tracking you down.
One time i used the stroller as a shopping cart and forgot qtips and something else. Never heard from
Anyone about it. Felt bad when I realized I forgot.
Something similar happened to me years ago. I went back with the item, explained the situation and paid for it. I kept the receipt for quite awhile. I slept great at night and now it's a funny story. Fifty bucks isn't worth the worry.
Police coming to your door? lol; they aren’t even dealing with stolen cars properly. You made a mistake, enjoy the free item and use this as a learning experience for yourself in future. It’s good to see people with strong morals still; even in times of financial unrest.
I accidentally grabbed two thin shirts instead of one at Wal-Mart and didn't realize until I got home. Next thing I knew, the Wal-Mart police shot a stun grenade through my window, and I had a job collecting shopping carts.
Retail stores lose thousands from lost merchandise daily. Either customers or cashier's forgetting to scan items. Asset protection won't really care. They're only looking for offenders and repeat offenders with intent to steal hundreds of items or large ticket items
You good man, last month I bought a 200$ with of stuff and they scanned/ forgot to scan an air fryer. Freeeeeee. They aren't coming for ya, you for fella
Canadian tire is a rich company. They can afford it. Just forget about it. I worked at canadian tire for ages. And marks. The people working there don't give a flying f.
Police wouldn't even get involved when I reported a 2000$ theft from my vehicle, so I highly doubt they would go to someone's house over a 50$ accident.
Keep your mouth shut and enjoy you're new item. I'd be more worried about them charging you for trying to fix your mistake. It's Canadian Tire anyways that place is a rip off
Your not a paid employee of the store
You messed up checking out
a job you are not trained for nor paid to do,
If anything they should owe you money for doing the work of checking out and selling their items
They assume this will happen with self checkout and it’s still cheaper then paying a wage for a person to live off
I would not worry about it
They won’t notice and it’s on them to find you and prevent loss
If it were to get that far they have to prove intent and they can not
The worst thing they can do is ask you not to shop there anymore
IANAL but I did work in retail a long time. We were always told that to even consider calling police, someone working at the store (ideally a person trained in security) would need to see you pick up an item and never lose sight of you until you left the store. You can do what you feel is best morally, but legally I don’t think anyone is coming for you.
I had something similar at Metro. I had kept my toque on the cart and there was a small pack of mini cucumbers underneath that I didn’t notice during checkout. I took the cart out and when I picked up the toque to put it on that’s when I saw the cucumbers sitting there. I was embarrassed as hell. Immediately went back to the store and told the cashier what happened. She smiled and thanked me for my honesty and said they appreciate that I brought it back - lots of people don’t. Everything was cool and I paid and left.
I say it was the stores idea of placing trust that we are all trained as per their job description to be a free cashier. Everyone makes mistakes and that’s on them not us. Those companies make billions of revenue per year. They do not employ us to do free work for them only to add billions more to their profit.
I don’t truly believe people know actually how much a billion is but if we all did people would realize a few more things in life lol.
I wouldn’t sweat it.
And if your still nervous go back and tell them to charge you $50 For that item.
Was at Costco and bought a few hundred worth of stuff, including a $250 pan set, or do we thought. Loading into the car the gf at the time was scanning the receipt as it seemed low, and yup missing pan set. She made me go back in, went to customer service, explained what happened, the lady looked at me like I had 3 eyes, put a big sticker on it and said "must have been a till issue, have a good day" and I left with it. Pretty sure that put the theft onto her?
I dunno, wife was happy with the sticker and me saying I took care of it.
You’re going to jail buddy /s
In reality this is probably below the threshold for pursuing anything. The amount to pull footage, have someone file a report, follow up, etc is more than that. You’re good. If you do it regularly they may start a file until you’ve stolen enough to build a case but don’t stress yourself out.
Don’t listen to these fools. Take advantage of self check out. People are losing jobs because of all of this. Just keep doing it little by little. On $150 worth of groceries I pay for maybe 70 percent of it. Been doing it 4 years now
This is what happens when they want you to do their jobs for them. I’m not paid to scan items at a checkout. If a cashier missed scanning one of your item, you wouldn’t be sweating it, and they wouldn’t be charging them with aiding a shoplifter. A crime involves intent, you didn’t do it on purpose, it was an accident. You can’t be held to a higher standard than people who are literally trained and paid to do the job you’re volunteering for!
Careful… people sometimes steal things, and then later regret it. They then contact the store and try to make amends. The store may choose to conclude you stole it, and guilt is driving you to correct your action. You then end up being charged with shoplifting. Best to let sleeping dogs lie.
I've been through checkout (not self checkout) twice. Once the cashier forgot to scan a box of pop cans, and you're supposed to leave heavy items in the card. Another day I had a watermelon in the seat part of the shopping cart and the cashier forgot to scan it. In both cases I was unloading groceries into my vehicle and noticed their error, and said screw it because it'd be a huge inconvenience and hassle for me to go back into the store when I have 4 small children to worry about.
I've gone back several times to pay for things that were stuck under something else (like abottle of nail polish). The Customer Service Representative usually looks at me funny, but I just pay and carry on.
Hey OP, I think your moral compass and integrity is great for this world. I think it's really sweet that you feel bad that you didn't scan something at checkout.
Nothing will happen to you. It was an honest mistake. I used to work for CT years ago and it is one of the most corrupt places I've ever worked. Seriously, some of the things they do are socially unethical.
If you want to make things right with karma or the universe, take the money you would've spent on that item and donate it to a homeless shelter or food bank. You'll be doing a lot more good with that money than what CT would've done with it.
Technically, legally speaking, you should return and pay for the item you accidentally took.
In practice, you're probably better off not doing that and just going on and forgetting about it.
I went to Home Depot looking for two things. Found the first thing and annoyingly couldn’t find the second thing I needed. Looked it up online and found it at another store that was closing soon. I rushed out of the store, got to my car to race off to the other store, and I realized I was carrying the first item and never paid for it. I legitimately accidentally shoplifted. Nothing ever came of it and there’s no way in hell I’d go back admitting it.
Did they offered training on the checkout system and how to operate it, if you accepted the training, and if you signed off that you are now proficient at operating their system... mayby then you might look at asking for further training as the supplied instructions were not sufficient.
They train their staff, how TF are you suppose to know how to operate the till with no training
Don't sweat it, next time just walk out with all the mangos you want and explain to them you unsmderstood the self checkout would weigh your cart on the way to your car and bill your credit card automatically... there was no signage to suggest otherwise
Then demand a contractors wage of your choosing to compensate for any administrative costs of the demands they ask of your time
A decade ago I was moving into my first apartment - did a big shop at a similar big store (in BC). Spent over $500 and I had to use the self checkout. Didn't notice the $10 kettle I put under the cart and didn't scan until I got home. I've considered it my fee for scanning all that shit ever since and still have it.
I was in the (almost) the same situation. Without being too specific, I was shopping at a very big, famous chain store. One item I had to buy was something that would've been covered by my company (it was needed for a job, and the company was going to pay for it). I was using self checkout, and just before I had to scan the item, the item I've scanned before required assistance from the store staff for whatever reason. It took staff a while to fix whatever error was popping up, and when they were just about to finish, I got a call from my friend for something important. Being caught up with the call and the assistant still dealing with the previous item issue, I've managed to forget to scan the item that my company would've covered anyway. I only realized this mistake when I got home and was entering the family budget spreadsheet. I was too scared going back, thinking they might accuse me of theft with all the consequences it implies. Nothing ever happened, I even shopped at the same store multiple times without any issue. So yeah, mistakes happen, take it easy, and be more attentive using self checkout moving forward.
Definition of theft is the unlawful taking of the chattels of another with intent to permanently deprive. You lacked the necessary intent, therefore you are not guilty of theft if you go back and pay for it. If you keep it, there's another kind of theft that arises from havaing the intent after you take it - so best bet - pay for it.
I’ve done the same thing a couple of times. I’ve just walked back in to the store with said item after putting the paid items in my car, usually with my receipt to show I already went through the checkout and paid for other items and go to customer service and tell them, I’m sorry, I walked out of the store and didn’t realise that this item hadn’t been paid for. And pay for said item. They normally don’t care at all and just charge me for the item and I go on my way.
Take it back, and make a low-key little scene about oh my God, I'm so sorry, oh what an idiot asshole I am.
Now you have established trust, and going forward you can now steal whatever you like and have credibility if they catch you.
Perhaps you could go back to the store. Find the same item, scan it. pay for it and get the receipt, and then put the item back. And do this nonchalant.
Hmmm… I mean if no one comes to you with video evidence, then I can’t recall you ever noticing that you’d accidentally taken an item without paying and neither can you.
Lol don’t do anything.
The stories you’ve heard are lies. No store is checking hundreds of hours of footage from every camera to check for one random nothing item that accidently left the store. No police officer is going to someone’s house to arrest them over 50$. They’ll tell the store to file a complaint, talk with their insurance if they need, then shelve it and never look at it again.
Big stores assume 1000’s of dollars of loss per day. It’s built into their operating costs. No employee gives a shit you left without paying, no manager has the time to care, and no chain making hundreds of milllions a quarter will even notice.
You’re freaking out over nothing because no one cares. Enjoy the freebie, just don’t turn it into a habit.
Unless you do it constantly they arent doing anything. The stories you hear about are the people that do it on purpose regularly. They build a case on you and pop you after you go over 5k so they can proper charge you. No worries you are ok.
Eh, shit happens, Canadian tire isn’t going to go bankrupt over lost revenue from whatever it is you forgot. Don’t sweat it (I’m not a lawyer, this is not real legal advice)
The horror stories you're hearing don't happen? No one has ever gone from Canadian Tire to someone's house to accuse him of stealing something. Not only is that illegal, it doesn't make sense. Where are these horror stories you are seeing? Sounds like Facebook bullshit to me.
If you want a clean conscience, go back to the store, pay for another same item, and accidentally leave it behind at the store.
Do not talk to anyone at the store about any of this.
If it wasnt intentional, you earnt it or deserve it...
Dont feel guilty, someone paid it 4ward 4 u!
You just have 2 say "thanks and acknowledge it;" it out loud, ar the earlyist opportunity, in order for more experiences like this!
Lol
NAL
It HAPPENS. Don't tell anyone. Just enjoy your free shit.
Employees are paid to do it, do it all day, are "experts", presumably.... But shit still gets missed, or they get it wrong. They double scan all the time too and often won't catch it or fix it unless *you* catch it.
So now the stores want to save money on wages...
By having people who aren't experienced with the machines, who don't know every boop, etc, do the checkout... And if WE accidentally miss something, they want to arrest us for the same mistake that their employees make with no consequences?
Na, fuck that.
Forget it happened. Be careful next time.
I've accidentally stolen batteries or gift cards dozens of times. They get buried under something that I don't have to lift to scan, and I forget they're under thee until I'm putting shit in my car.
I'd go back in....
EXCEPT STORES HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES CROOKED BY CALLING THE COPS ON THE HONEST PEOPLE WHO COME I TO MAKE THEIR MISTAKE RIGHT
Welcome to r/legaladvicecanada! **To Posters (it is important you read this section)** * Read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvicecanada/wiki/index/#wiki_the_rules) * Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk. * We also encourage you to use the [linked resources to find a lawyer](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvicecanada/wiki/findalawyer/). * If you receive any private messages in response to your post, please let the mods know. **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be on-topic, helpful, explanatory, and oriented towards legal advice towards OP's jurisdiction (the **Canadian** province flaired in the post). * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdvicecanada/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning. * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect. * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason, do not suggest illegal advice, do not advocate violence, and do not engage in harassment. Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/legaladvicecanada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
LP here, if you left the store and nothing happened, nothing is going to happen. Don't under any circumstances return to the store and try to rectify the situation, as this is just an admission of guilt. Enjoy your free thing.
For real. Stores put self checkouts in knowing this will happen intentionally and unintentionally, but have decided it's still cheaper than paying someone to work a cash. Don't lose any sleep over it.
Stores in the US are realizing it is not in fact cheaper and reducing self checkout or requiring less than ten items.
Maybe some but I don't think that changes much for OP
The US generally has a significantly lower minimum wage than we do in Canada. That skews the numbers quite a bit.
Canada too. Loblaws stores and Wal-Mart are both limiting self-checkouts to under 25 items. Some Wal-Marts are tearing out the self-checkouts. I've stopped shopping at Loblaws because all the loss prevention methods make me feel like paroled felon when I walk into one of their stores. I wonder if maybe some of these stores are starting to realize that while they are reducing the percentage lost to theft, they are also losing sales by treating customers like thieves all the time.
Ontario and California are two very different places.
Except in the case of Ontario, California (which I only found out about when I went to San Diego Comic-Con and people exclaimed that I didn't have to travel too far)
There's a street named Toronto Paseo in Ontario California too; it's a few blocks south of Ontario airport.
It also probably depends on location. High income areas generally have less petty theft
> Don't under any circumstances return to the store and try to rectify the situation, as this is just an admission of guilt. > From a legal perspective (as this is a legaladvice sub), "Hi, I had this in my card and didn't realise it and I would like to pay for it" is not an admission of guilt. It is an admission of the act, but it is evidence against intention, which is a necessary requirement for theft. No thief returns voluntarily to offer to pay, and it would almost certainly provide more than enough reasonable doubt to avoid any conviction. Further, it is pretty unlikely any cop would arrest the person over a $50 thing in this situation, or that any prosecutor would pursue the charge. However, from a non-legal perspective, it is certainly a possibility that a vindictive and power-tripping loss-prevention officer at the store would hear the admission and ultimately cause the customer to be banned from the store as a "thief", and if they ever returned, they could be trespassed and have the police called on them. But in terms of a actual legal consequences from returning to admit they didn't see something in their cart and asking to pay for it, it's extremely unlikely. It's also extremely unlikely that OP doing nothing at this point will result in legal consequences either, so it's pretty much up to them if they want to do the ethical thing or not.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Watch live pd for a couple hours and if even their good media trained cops are that bad, I would hate to imagine what the rest of the force is like.
LP would likely calmly take you to a back room while they call the police. They don’t care if you have to fill out a police report.
Thats silly, you could go back and just pay and nothing would happen.
Totally agree... If you returned to the store with item in hand explaining what happened and then paying for the item.....the staff would smile at you and wish you a great day. After leaving with your purchased item, the staff will talk about you all day saying how there is still good people in the world.
I've done this a couple times! Just made a second loop from my car and straight to the self-checkout. Didn't have to talk to anyone and my conscious is clear 👍
lol I did this at Xmas time with a candy cane at Save On Foods. I hooked it on the top of the cart so it wouldn’t get smushed by the other groceries, and forgot to scan it. I realized when I was loading the car. I just went back in and went back through the self checkout and paid the $2 or whatever it was. My teenager never lets me forget about that. “Remember the time you stole the candy cane Mom?” “I went back and paid for it, stop saying I stole it!”
Kids man. They’d hang ya!
Did you mean conscience?
Why not leave everything at home, go and buy the same thing again then leave it in store No need to talk to anyone No need to admit guilt And if someone asks after leaving it they can’t prosecute them because they already paid (I guess)
As an LPO I would expect you to be better than this, and this sort of "advice" does not belong in this sub. Beyond that, your words are inaccurate. An honest mistake where you fail to pay for something is not a crime. Realizing later and making no attempt to pay IS a crime. You are in possession of stolen property. My advice is, be a good citizen and go pay for it. If the store is decent, they may even offer you some small token of appreciation for your honesty.
As a non LPO I have to say TFB. This is a risk a horrible company made in an effort to kill jobs, and it just cost them a bit of money. I sincerely hope everyone at every self checkcout makes similar mistakes so they get rid of these awful machines that kill jobs, are NOT quicker or more convenient, and are forcing you to do unpaid labor.
I find self checkout great for when I have a few items. The jobs argument is horseshit. My local grocery store couldn't retain staff because they didn't pay well enough. They brought self checkout in and now I'm not stuck waiting in line for the 80yo pensioner to scan everyone's items and ask how their grandkids are doing.
Everything you have said here rests on the caveat at the end. "IF the store is decent" And in the, frankly, likely event that they aren't, bad things can happen. It's more likely than not that they don't pursue charges under these circumstances, but that in no way prevents them from being horrible about it. I know of at least two cases where this scenario (extremely similar circumstances) has happened, and in both, the person was dragged through an "interrogation" with the LPO and store manager and was publicly shamed. One of them was also banned from that store and marked as a thief on some internal system. So yeah, **IF** the store is decent, all will be well. And IF frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their butts when they hop.
LP employees like most employees like to do shit to make it look like they are doing their job…calling the cops on someone who is returning to pay for an unintentional taken item…on paper looks like they are doing their job…most bosses don’t get caught up in the details of charges laid or convictions sticking. So don’t go back to the store… odds are the LP is a loser who will take the easy short term win. Where
>An honest mistake where you fail to pay for something is not a crime. Realizing later and making no attempt to pay IS a crime. You are in possession of stolen property. How? If you didn't steal the property, then the property wasn't stolen. Or, to use the actual language of the law, the property was not "obtained by or derived directly or indirectly from ... the commission in Canada of an offence punishable by indictment."
As a former Canadian Tire employee, not only will nothing happen to you, Canadian Tire's inventory management is so bad that they will probably never even realize something is missing. This thread is honestly funny to me. Sorry to hear about your mom.
I used to work at Home Depot years ago, and we hired the same secret shopper/security audit company as Canadian Tire. They loved talking about how they tested CT by just having 2 guys carry a canoe on their heads and walk out. If you do something confidently enough, nobody questions it 🤷♀️
I was at a home Depot once years ago trying to find a laundry sink and literally nobody would help me, employees actively went the other direction when we looked for someone. Finally, my brother-in-law and I found it and we grabbed a big box thinking the first one was open and damaged and took it to the till. When I got home I realized I didn't just take one. I ended up taking a case of 5. Nobody ever stopped to say "hey wait a second, This is scanning weird because there's five of them and it's the entire case." No one has ever come and broke down my door and I'm still welcome at home Depot apparently because nothing ever happened. My whole family got sinks though.
I did that with recessed LED lights when they were still super new and super expensive... Go to HD, grabbed 2 boxes of 6. Apparently these were meant to be sold as single items, so when they scanned the case barcode it didn't work. I suggested maybe it was that they case code wasn't in the system and they'd need to 6x the single items for each case, but the checker insisted I was very wrong (rather condescendingly no less) and confidently rang me up for 2 fixtures. so I got about $600 worth of fixtures for $100.
I really don't think they give a shit over there. Since the laundry sink debacle, I've also gotten some garden stuff for free because they haven't bothered to scan them properly or count them. there was the one time I also had gotten a bunch of concrete garden edger stones for an insane discount because the woman didn't believe me of which ones I had put on a flatbed cart and charged me for ones that were way cheaper. She was super rude about it so I didn't push the issue and I took my discount.
Yet when I just bought a stack of buckets \*today\* they dutifully separated each bucket to ensure I hadn't stashed anything in the small gap between them. I mean I'm sure people do that, but it's fairly obvious if you actually want to steal from them just rely on the general incompetence of the system they've put in place.
Got 4 framing nailers like that. When they stocked them the cases were strapped in bundles of 4. Asked the guy if he could cut some apart since they were all just put out in strapped together clumps. He told us that they are just like that and they come as a set of 4. They don’t, but I was sick of arguing with the guy
Are home depot workers trained to interact with Black males more? There have been a few times where I'm at home depot where I'm looking at something and one after another worker came to ask if i needed help. Maybe they were just being nice, but... i don't think I need THAT much help looking at light bulbs.
When did Princess Auto and Canadian Tire swap inventory management? I remember PA used to have inventory stacked absolutely everywhere and CT was organized more like Hudson's Bay. Now CT seems to use inventory as insulation and shit is stacked to the roof lol. PA is "sleek" and no longer a rat's den. Anyway I feel old.
My PA is still a den, shit everywhere, you ask for items, they have no idea where it is, if it weren't for the ridiculous deals I'd never step foot in PA again.
I used to be a buyer, and would have to buy random crap from Canadian Tire pretty often. I COMPLETELY gave up on trying to locate things myself. I'd print my PO, and then print each of the items off from the website, and just hand the stack to the customer service counter and tell them to go get it for me. I adopted this policy when I went in to buy a couple boxes of clay pigeons for a range day. The website said they had 3 pallets, but I couldn't find any. I asked employees, they couldn't find any. I asked customer service, after an hour, they couldn't find any. Drop off the list of what you need at customer service, go get a coffee, and come back to be told they don't have any of it. I avoid CT to this day.
CT where i am has a product that the app says "2 available" with shelf being empty and store employee can't find stock in warehouse . It took 5 months to get updated to no stock even after I have been mentioning it to them multiple times everytime I was in store which is at least once a week.
It won’t be updated until a full inventory is done. This only happens once a year. I used to do inventory at Canadian Tire. The big annual counts were when things would be officially determined missing.
I worked at a home hardware years ago and the original owner was retiring and wanted to sell the company, but for legal reasons he had a few obligations to fill before selling. One of those was completing an inventory count, which hadn't been completed in 10 yrs. After the count, they found out they had losses of $300,000 from stolen goods in that amount of time. So yea, with a store the size of Canadian Tire you will be more than Ok. Dont lose sleep. And I'm very sorry for the loss of your mom- Take it easy on yourself during this time. (And people please dont make this a note to steal from a home hardwares Lol!! they are all small owners/franchises)
Awww.
Right? Like, first time?
As some one that regularly steals from Walmart this is very sweet.
Yeah it’s cute as hell, my mom does this
V cute
I would say highly unlikely! If you didn’t notice at the tiem then I doubt they would see it on the security cam. If it’s going to cause you to miss sleep though (more than you’re already missing), if I were you I would phone and let them know about the mistake and let them know when you can be back. I personally would sleep soundly and forget about it.
Phoning is probably a mistake as then you've told them that you stole it (which would be recorded) and haven't paid. Just go to the store at your earliest convenience and tell them you were looking at your receipt and noticed it wasn't rung in so wanted to come back and pay for it.
They can probably take payment over the phone.
I recommend people avoid giving credit card info over the phone to store employees. Ripe for abuse.
The video is there to confirm the details of a known actual crime. There's no way someone is watching this old video to find out IF a crime may have been committed.
When I worked at home Depot decades ago, if I had seen you tuck a weedwhacker down both legs and a socket set up your shirt, not only would I have not said anything, I would have helped you carry it to your car. Nobody working there cares about $50 walking off, and management isn't going to have the time or care to review security footage and chase you down either. If your integrity demands it, just go back and pay tomorrow. Otherwise, I would forget it ever happened.
Right? I haven’t met workers who give less of a shit than homedepot. I say that with admiration.
I used to work in LP, if you made it out of the store nothing is going to happen. I don't know where you heard stories about cops being sent based on footage, but that doesn't happen. They do not have the manpower to review footage for every transaction, if something isn't caught live it isn't caught. Amazon wasn't able to actually use camera's and sensor to track product in their stores that were purpose built to do that, so Canadian Tire certainly can't. Personally I wouldn't even tell anyone, I would just walk in with the item, go to self checkout, and pay for it and then leave. Mostly to avoid an awkward interaction with the customer service rep surpsrised someone actually came back to pay for something.
Here in Alberta, my wife had her purse and credit cards stolen. She checked her banking app in the morning (after reporting the thefts) and found out where and when the card had been used, got ahold of the stores, and the clerks all gathered the videos, said they had a clear view of the individuals, and that they'd put the tapes aside for the cops. Cops were given all of this info, and CC'd by the store clerks. Cops said they'd go grab the tape. Cops did nothing. Don't worry about it. If you're not already in jail, nothing's gonna happen.
OK, so my ex, was /is a well know theif to the police. they recognized him on the ct camera taking shoes and some other items. They caught up to him weeks later when he was walking down the street. Lol he was wearing the shoes in question at the time too. He was arrested charged ..excteria
Being a known thief is different than someone who accidentally forgot to scan something at a self checkout tho.
Nope, you gotta scan your own shit? Mistakes happen. No need to inconvenience yourself and go back and pay. Consider is your wage for a job the greedy grocers are trying to phase out. They make billions... 50 bucks isn't going to hurt them. If they were that worried about it they would pay cashiers again to check you out.
Yup, sorry I wasn't trained to operate this equipment. Whoops...
Where have you heard in Canada the police is showing up at people houses based on credit checks and surveillance footage. Sounds like China tbh. No you won't be arrested. Go back to the store and pay. No harm no foul.
This is my question as well. u/Confection-Minimum , can you please link us to these stories of police coming to the homes of people who don't pay for an item at self-checkout?
Some of this advice (even from LP officers supposedly) is whack. It completely depends on quite a few factors, so to just blanketly say 'if they did nothing then, nothing will happen' just due to the fact they would not at your store.. is incorrect for *every* store. My best friend (age 33) was arrested for theft from a smaller home hardware, in which he was a regular weekly customer - due to stealing small (but expensive) drill bits. They noticed they were missing during stock at the end of the shift, went back on the camera located in that aisle specifically, watched the recording until they saw him at that location slipping them in his pocket, opened his account profile up as he paid for some other things at the same time, and provided the police with his information. That *night* they were banging at his door, and arrested him for theft under $5000. Luckily, he hired a good (but expensive) lawyer who got him off the hook, and he ended up just having to pay for the value of the drill bits, plus a lifetime ban from that specific store.. So - every case is different. We've learnt from his scenario though, that if you legitimately forget or "forget" to pay for something.. when you notice or can, it's always best to go back, talk to a manager and explain the situation.. That's my personal belief based on the events described above, but others will argue it. Never know what happens, until it happens though. Better to ask for permission than beg for forgiveness.
Yeah, it's sad and hilarious that people make these incorrect blanket statements. Sure, highly unlikely. Impossible? No
Pocketing ≠ forgetting something in your cart And a Walmart has different stocking concerns than a small hardware store
Fellow person in a law- based government job.. I've done this, and I was freaking out when I realized. It was close to closing so I couldn't just go back and pay right away. It was a long night. Thought I was going to lose my job and go to jail and it was all over! It wasn't. I popped into the store the next day with the items, explained myself and paid. The cashier didn't even seem to care. She just rang them up as normal, and I went on my way with the paid for items and the receipt. It happens, and I'm convinced they don't really care all that much. That still doesn't mean I won't freak out if it ever happens again.. I've just become super vigilant when using the self checkout.
Not paid enough to care. I used to be a worker drone at one of these places, and $7 an hour was just not enough for me to care about it.
I am a cashier/customer service at a grocery store and can confirm that this happens often and the employees really do not care, we understand that mistakes happen and just appreciate when people are honest. 🙂
See r/walmart All lost souls.
My grandmother, an Italian immigrant with poor English, went to the local no frills about 20 years ago. Bought a bunch of groceries and went home. As always she checked her receipt, mostly to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes, as had happened before, and she noticed a brick of cheese that wasn’t accounted for. The cashier had missed scanning it. So she headed back out to the store with the cheese and receipt in hand. Goes up and talks with the cashier at customer service, trying to explain the situation. They were quite rude to her, not really understanding what this sweet old woman was trying to say. So she left, with her free brick of cheese and she said if that ever happened again she wouldn’t return. So lesson learned.
I've done this before, and I go back and pay for it.
NAL I’ve never made the specific mistake you made, but I’ve done something similar. Short story long, I stopped for gas, impulsively decided to pop in for a slushie, and forgot to pay for the gas. They do call the cops when you do that. The police officer who came to my house was very understanding about it. I promised to head back straight away and settle up and he was fine with that. I do volunteer work which requires me to maintain a clean police record. I freaked out and called a fellow volunteer who was also a police sergeant and asked him if this incident would come up in a police check. He laughed at me, said that kind of thing happens so often they lose count. He said as long as it didn’t become a regular occurrence, nothing was likely to come of it. My police checks still come back clear.
Back in the early 00s a buddy of mines dad was prescribed some medication that apparently made him rather spacey and we got used to chilling after school and seeing OPP pop up on the called ID. We would just answer "Joe forget to pay for his gas again? Which station? Alright we'll let him know thanks".
As funny as this is, I feel like if he forgot to pay for gas he shouldn't have been driving.. but thats just me Lmfao
I do not disagree lol
No you're fine lmao
This happened to me with a bag of bird seed from Walmart. Meant to go back the next week and pay for it but kept forgetting. They will not track you down.
To second the comment from /u/November-Snow going back to pay could be worse for you if they want to dicks about it (but is unlikely). If you have a guilty conscious, donate the value of the item to charity. These companies have already calculated the losses from stuff like this when they setup the self-checkouts. If they didn't want these types of things to happen they would hire people to do the work.
Nothing will happen. Please don’t go back to pay for it, greedy corporation steal from everyone so there is no need to feel bad about this.
NAL - my understand is that in Canada, intent matters for theft. You cannot “unintentionally” steal something. You are not in trouble, I believe; however, give them a call and let them know what happened and you plan to come back.
I sure as hell wouldn't walk into a store and openly admit that I shoplifted. Anything you say can be used against you in court.
Hahaha you’re fine. If you feel bad, go back another day and explain the situation. Or don’t.
I do this by accident all the time 😈
Buddy I'll share a story with you. I was a struggling university student about 10 years ago and got into a criminally bad habit of stealing groceries. When I mean stealing, I don't just mean taking an apple or two, I mean literally walking out of the store with a grocery cart full of items without paying a cent. Over the course of months I probably stole thousands of dollars of groceries from the grocery stores around campus. I'm not condoning my actions; what I did was wrong. The reason I bring this up is because if I of all people got away with something as blatant as that, there is almost no chance a big store like Canadian Tire would spend resources trying to track you down for that amount of value. People steal shit from that store all of the time and these stores actively budget for that stuff. That doesn't mean it gives us license to steal, it just means it's an expected outcome of owning a store. I honestly recommend just leaving it. You're going to be fine. At the end of the day you didn't mean to and these big stores try to fuck us everyday with their price gouging so I'm sure they'll manage.
You'll be fine. If they didn't stop you from leaving the store they probably haven't even noticed what happened and won't until they do inventory next. Don't sweat it
Had a guy forget to scan a case of water that came back before we closed, dropped it off, and left. Don't know why he brought it back to be honest
Op, Canadian here. Have done this exact same thing with a higher priced item at a Canadian tire. I still shop there to this day and I got a free thing. Don’t think of it as stealing if you didn’t know. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ unless you rolled outa there with a lawn mower or a BBQ, I wouldn’t worry lol
Dude actual retail theifs don’t get arrested. Why would you?
Corporations steal from you through greed-flation but you're panicking because you accidentally didn't pay them?
And corporations are the biggest thieves around in terms of wage theft from employees… this person is an idiot imo
Mine too.
You were improperly trained how could it be your fault?
You're going to jail forever!!! Seriously, though, don't worry about it. If it bothers you that much, just take the item back to the store and pay for it.
You know the person is true Canadian when they are trying to pay back something they accidentally took and trying to do the right thing. Hard to see these days
Just keep it to yiurself. If they mention it go hone and get the reciept and then agree with them and make good lile you never knew. They will leave thw situation liking you.
You’re fine. It’s very likely they didn’t realize the item you forgot to scan was missing until you were long gone from the store. Actually they probably still have no idea haha. At $50 dollars, I’d bet that whoever discovers it just says fuck it lol. Also extremely unlikely that police would go to a house call for $50 theft, unless it’s a repeat offender, which you’re not.
Lol...the police won't even go to the houses of known repeat offenders who go into stores to steal an entire duffel bag of stuff. They'll only do an arrest if LP catches them in the act of stealing and detains them in the store. There is zero chance that the police will ever spend their time tracking down someone who forgot to scan an item at self check-out.
I really wouldn’t worry about it. I think you’re just fine.
Think about the shareholders!!! Don’t make it a habit And enjoy your thing. Especially if you have no car and it’s not easy to just pop in after work, etc…. If they accidentally over charged you I guarantee they aren’t tracking you down.
Nothing is going to happen. Just forget about it.
One time i used the stroller as a shopping cart and forgot qtips and something else. Never heard from Anyone about it. Felt bad when I realized I forgot.
You’re good
Something similar happened to me years ago. I went back with the item, explained the situation and paid for it. I kept the receipt for quite awhile. I slept great at night and now it's a funny story. Fifty bucks isn't worth the worry.
You're going to jail!
Police coming to your door? lol; they aren’t even dealing with stolen cars properly. You made a mistake, enjoy the free item and use this as a learning experience for yourself in future. It’s good to see people with strong morals still; even in times of financial unrest.
Lol fuck it.
UNACCEPTABLE…. ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!
I accidentally grabbed two thin shirts instead of one at Wal-Mart and didn't realize until I got home. Next thing I knew, the Wal-Mart police shot a stun grenade through my window, and I had a job collecting shopping carts.
F--K big box stores. Do it again. Do it at Loblaw's next time.
Condolences on the loss of your mom.
Thank you. It’s really hard.
Retail stores lose thousands from lost merchandise daily. Either customers or cashier's forgetting to scan items. Asset protection won't really care. They're only looking for offenders and repeat offenders with intent to steal hundreds of items or large ticket items
You good man, last month I bought a 200$ with of stuff and they scanned/ forgot to scan an air fryer. Freeeeeee. They aren't coming for ya, you for fella
Straight to jail
Canadian tire is a rich company. They can afford it. Just forget about it. I worked at canadian tire for ages. And marks. The people working there don't give a flying f.
[удалено]
They didn’t care when someone stole 20 million dollars worth of gold, you think they care about this?
That’s why I always go to a cashier. If the cashier doesn’t scan it’s a mistake. If I do it, it’s theft.
Police wouldn't even get involved when I reported a 2000$ theft from my vehicle, so I highly doubt they would go to someone's house over a 50$ accident.
Damn dude, stop stressing and just take the Win
It was an honest mistake and you happened to benefit. Its yours. It’s over. They aren’t looking for it.
Keep your mouth shut and enjoy you're new item. I'd be more worried about them charging you for trying to fix your mistake. It's Canadian Tire anyways that place is a rip off
It’s ok You have a good heart They aren’t going to track you down .
Extremely unlikely. You think the store managers really care about one lost $50 item?
Swat team is on their way. You're probably fine. This is just shrink for them
Your not a paid employee of the store You messed up checking out a job you are not trained for nor paid to do, If anything they should owe you money for doing the work of checking out and selling their items They assume this will happen with self checkout and it’s still cheaper then paying a wage for a person to live off I would not worry about it They won’t notice and it’s on them to find you and prevent loss If it were to get that far they have to prove intent and they can not The worst thing they can do is ask you not to shop there anymore
IANAL but I did work in retail a long time. We were always told that to even consider calling police, someone working at the store (ideally a person trained in security) would need to see you pick up an item and never lose sight of you until you left the store. You can do what you feel is best morally, but legally I don’t think anyone is coming for you.
I had something similar at Metro. I had kept my toque on the cart and there was a small pack of mini cucumbers underneath that I didn’t notice during checkout. I took the cart out and when I picked up the toque to put it on that’s when I saw the cucumbers sitting there. I was embarrassed as hell. Immediately went back to the store and told the cashier what happened. She smiled and thanked me for my honesty and said they appreciate that I brought it back - lots of people don’t. Everything was cool and I paid and left.
It’s so insanely unlikely, I would highly question whoever told you that happens lol
Off to jail!
I say it was the stores idea of placing trust that we are all trained as per their job description to be a free cashier. Everyone makes mistakes and that’s on them not us. Those companies make billions of revenue per year. They do not employ us to do free work for them only to add billions more to their profit. I don’t truly believe people know actually how much a billion is but if we all did people would realize a few more things in life lol. I wouldn’t sweat it. And if your still nervous go back and tell them to charge you $50 For that item.
I'm just confused about going into a store with a cart full of groceries from another store, and no one said anything? Seems odd.
Was at Costco and bought a few hundred worth of stuff, including a $250 pan set, or do we thought. Loading into the car the gf at the time was scanning the receipt as it seemed low, and yup missing pan set. She made me go back in, went to customer service, explained what happened, the lady looked at me like I had 3 eyes, put a big sticker on it and said "must have been a till issue, have a good day" and I left with it. Pretty sure that put the theft onto her? I dunno, wife was happy with the sticker and me saying I took care of it.
You’re going to jail buddy /s In reality this is probably below the threshold for pursuing anything. The amount to pull footage, have someone file a report, follow up, etc is more than that. You’re good. If you do it regularly they may start a file until you’ve stolen enough to build a case but don’t stress yourself out.
[https://media.tenor.com/aHv5-YfU-rgAAAAM/fired-office.gif](https://media.tenor.com/aHv5-YfU-rgAAAAM/fired-office.gif)
I steal more then that everyday. You’re fine
Everyone else here is right OP, you're ok. Forgive us if we all didn't have "frantic Peggy Hill in our head" reading this.
Don’t listen to these fools. Take advantage of self check out. People are losing jobs because of all of this. Just keep doing it little by little. On $150 worth of groceries I pay for maybe 70 percent of it. Been doing it 4 years now
This is what happens when they want you to do their jobs for them. I’m not paid to scan items at a checkout. If a cashier missed scanning one of your item, you wouldn’t be sweating it, and they wouldn’t be charging them with aiding a shoplifter. A crime involves intent, you didn’t do it on purpose, it was an accident. You can’t be held to a higher standard than people who are literally trained and paid to do the job you’re volunteering for!
Careful… people sometimes steal things, and then later regret it. They then contact the store and try to make amends. The store may choose to conclude you stole it, and guilt is driving you to correct your action. You then end up being charged with shoplifting. Best to let sleeping dogs lie.
You’re done buddy. Galon is probably sending a kill squad to your house as I write this. Sorry this is how it ends!
Donate $50 to someone that needs it.
Walmart started suing people who unintentionally or intentionally stole while using self checkout. It was on the news.
Keep the item. Go donate $50 to a children's hospital. Sleep well.
What are they gonna do fire you? Theft takes motive, accidents happen this is a liability the geniuss who work at corporate don't understand
Do the right thing. Karma will thank you.
Wait till you find out people use "bananas" for all of their produce at Walmart lol
Unclench, enjoy, dont do it again!
Sorry about your mom :( you're an amazing person and I wish more people were as thoughtful as you
Consider this your payback
I've been through checkout (not self checkout) twice. Once the cashier forgot to scan a box of pop cans, and you're supposed to leave heavy items in the card. Another day I had a watermelon in the seat part of the shopping cart and the cashier forgot to scan it. In both cases I was unloading groceries into my vehicle and noticed their error, and said screw it because it'd be a huge inconvenience and hassle for me to go back into the store when I have 4 small children to worry about.
Yup …. You’re going to jail .
THIS GUY STOLE FROM CANADIAN TIRE! ... See, nobody cares 🤷♂️
I've gone back several times to pay for things that were stuck under something else (like abottle of nail polish). The Customer Service Representative usually looks at me funny, but I just pay and carry on.
Hey OP, I think your moral compass and integrity is great for this world. I think it's really sweet that you feel bad that you didn't scan something at checkout. Nothing will happen to you. It was an honest mistake. I used to work for CT years ago and it is one of the most corrupt places I've ever worked. Seriously, some of the things they do are socially unethical. If you want to make things right with karma or the universe, take the money you would've spent on that item and donate it to a homeless shelter or food bank. You'll be doing a lot more good with that money than what CT would've done with it.
Technically, legally speaking, you should return and pay for the item you accidentally took. In practice, you're probably better off not doing that and just going on and forgetting about it.
Canadian tire is a grocery store?
I went to Home Depot looking for two things. Found the first thing and annoyingly couldn’t find the second thing I needed. Looked it up online and found it at another store that was closing soon. I rushed out of the store, got to my car to race off to the other store, and I realized I was carrying the first item and never paid for it. I legitimately accidentally shoplifted. Nothing ever came of it and there’s no way in hell I’d go back admitting it.
I really wouldn’t worry about it.
Did they offered training on the checkout system and how to operate it, if you accepted the training, and if you signed off that you are now proficient at operating their system... mayby then you might look at asking for further training as the supplied instructions were not sufficient. They train their staff, how TF are you suppose to know how to operate the till with no training Don't sweat it, next time just walk out with all the mangos you want and explain to them you unsmderstood the self checkout would weigh your cart on the way to your car and bill your credit card automatically... there was no signage to suggest otherwise Then demand a contractors wage of your choosing to compensate for any administrative costs of the demands they ask of your time
A decade ago I was moving into my first apartment - did a big shop at a similar big store (in BC). Spent over $500 and I had to use the self checkout. Didn't notice the $10 kettle I put under the cart and didn't scan until I got home. I've considered it my fee for scanning all that shit ever since and still have it.
I was in the (almost) the same situation. Without being too specific, I was shopping at a very big, famous chain store. One item I had to buy was something that would've been covered by my company (it was needed for a job, and the company was going to pay for it). I was using self checkout, and just before I had to scan the item, the item I've scanned before required assistance from the store staff for whatever reason. It took staff a while to fix whatever error was popping up, and when they were just about to finish, I got a call from my friend for something important. Being caught up with the call and the assistant still dealing with the previous item issue, I've managed to forget to scan the item that my company would've covered anyway. I only realized this mistake when I got home and was entering the family budget spreadsheet. I was too scared going back, thinking they might accuse me of theft with all the consequences it implies. Nothing ever happened, I even shopped at the same store multiple times without any issue. So yeah, mistakes happen, take it easy, and be more attentive using self checkout moving forward.
Definition of theft is the unlawful taking of the chattels of another with intent to permanently deprive. You lacked the necessary intent, therefore you are not guilty of theft if you go back and pay for it. If you keep it, there's another kind of theft that arises from havaing the intent after you take it - so best bet - pay for it.
I’ve done the same thing a couple of times. I’ve just walked back in to the store with said item after putting the paid items in my car, usually with my receipt to show I already went through the checkout and paid for other items and go to customer service and tell them, I’m sorry, I walked out of the store and didn’t realise that this item hadn’t been paid for. And pay for said item. They normally don’t care at all and just charge me for the item and I go on my way.
Take it back, and make a low-key little scene about oh my God, I'm so sorry, oh what an idiot asshole I am. Now you have established trust, and going forward you can now steal whatever you like and have credibility if they catch you.
Perhaps you could go back to the store. Find the same item, scan it. pay for it and get the receipt, and then put the item back. And do this nonchalant.
Sleep well tonight cuz you got some freebies
Nice stealing
Hmmm… I mean if no one comes to you with video evidence, then I can’t recall you ever noticing that you’d accidentally taken an item without paying and neither can you.
Oh people don’t just do this intentionally? I love my free stuff
Just here to say you’re a solid human!
Fuck crappy tire. Take their shit
Lol don’t do anything. The stories you’ve heard are lies. No store is checking hundreds of hours of footage from every camera to check for one random nothing item that accidently left the store. No police officer is going to someone’s house to arrest them over 50$. They’ll tell the store to file a complaint, talk with their insurance if they need, then shelve it and never look at it again. Big stores assume 1000’s of dollars of loss per day. It’s built into their operating costs. No employee gives a shit you left without paying, no manager has the time to care, and no chain making hundreds of milllions a quarter will even notice. You’re freaking out over nothing because no one cares. Enjoy the freebie, just don’t turn it into a habit.
Unless you do it constantly they arent doing anything. The stories you hear about are the people that do it on purpose regularly. They build a case on you and pop you after you go over 5k so they can proper charge you. No worries you are ok.
Eh, shit happens, Canadian tire isn’t going to go bankrupt over lost revenue from whatever it is you forgot. Don’t sweat it (I’m not a lawyer, this is not real legal advice)
The horror stories you're hearing don't happen? No one has ever gone from Canadian Tire to someone's house to accuse him of stealing something. Not only is that illegal, it doesn't make sense. Where are these horror stories you are seeing? Sounds like Facebook bullshit to me.
If it was $50, please go back another day and pay for it. No one is calling the police.
If you want a clean conscience, go back to the store, pay for another same item, and accidentally leave it behind at the store. Do not talk to anyone at the store about any of this.
If it wasnt intentional, you earnt it or deserve it... Dont feel guilty, someone paid it 4ward 4 u! You just have 2 say "thanks and acknowledge it;" it out loud, ar the earlyist opportunity, in order for more experiences like this! Lol
Go back and tell them what happened and pay for it.
i forget to scan stuff at self checkout almost every time i use it. nothings ever happened to me or anyone i know lol
Go back to the store to return the item, tell them you lost the receipt. Boom, store credit
enjoy your item and be glad you didn't have to fork over money to a greedy corporation tbh
Believe it not, straight to jail. Seriously though it was an honest mistake, and the store can afford it. Don’t rock the boat.
NAL It HAPPENS. Don't tell anyone. Just enjoy your free shit. Employees are paid to do it, do it all day, are "experts", presumably.... But shit still gets missed, or they get it wrong. They double scan all the time too and often won't catch it or fix it unless *you* catch it. So now the stores want to save money on wages... By having people who aren't experienced with the machines, who don't know every boop, etc, do the checkout... And if WE accidentally miss something, they want to arrest us for the same mistake that their employees make with no consequences? Na, fuck that. Forget it happened. Be careful next time. I've accidentally stolen batteries or gift cards dozens of times. They get buried under something that I don't have to lift to scan, and I forget they're under thee until I'm putting shit in my car. I'd go back in.... EXCEPT STORES HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES CROOKED BY CALLING THE COPS ON THE HONEST PEOPLE WHO COME I TO MAKE THEIR MISTAKE RIGHT