Comment by dusty earth mother.

After grocery shopping with a twenty-month old, they should give her a lifetime supply of milk, Red Bull and Corona.

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Comment by Michelle Cain.

Since we can’t know for sure if she had really forgotten to pay or thought she could get away with it, I’m going to put up a different perspective. I worked retail for a few years and we had professional shoplifters who would come in with their kids in a stroller. We would have to watch them closely because they would use the stroller to steal the perfume testers (and other things). Some of them were extremely polite, dressed nice, etc. They were professionals and very difficult to catch. It’s so easy to say “Oh, my child must have put that there.” or “I completely forgot to pay for it.” While a lot of the time it is legitimately true, there are those people who make a living at it and want to see how much they can get away with.

Just because they didn’t arrest her doesn’t mean she didn’t do it on purpose – especially if the employees saw her reach down and ‘cover’ the stuff. Once they approached her about it she should have apologized and went back to pay for it, then she wouldn’t have been banned . . . wouldn’t you think? Or did she NOT pay for it even after it was found out?

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Comment by wendy @ mama one to three.

I have a heard time believing this woman was trying to do anything other than get out of the store with her kid and groceries. I have done this several times– usually I notice it but a couple of times the clerk asked about the milk at the bottom of the stroller. yikes.

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Comment by Christen.

Well, to me they could have just waited a moment to see what she did at her car when she found the unpaid for groceries in the bottom of her stroller. If she meant to pay for them, she would have gone back in to do it. If she chose to just throw them in her car, well, then, she shoplifted. But, now they’ll never know.

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Comment by StephanieG.

Our local Kroger has installed cameras that look at the bottom of the buggy as it comes through the line to verify that everything is indeed being scanned. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to put one thing or another on the conveyor while shopping with a fussy little one. They ought to cut this mom some slack, because I bet she’ll never make that mistake again!

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Comment by Kati.

Confession Time – I wasn’t always the fine, upstanding citizen I am today. Once when my kids were 3 and 18 months, I took them to the commissary by myself. I bought over $100 in groceries, I was sweaty, exhausted and covered in bodily fluids (not my own).
I put all the groceries in the car and discovered at the bottom of the basket a tiny 88 cent bottle of baby shampoo. Now, I KNOW the right thing to do would have been to go back into the store and apologize and pay for it. Or even just leave it in the cart so I wasn’t technically stealing it, just leaving it there for the next harried mother.
I did neither. I said “screw it” and threw it into the car and drove away.

Bad thing is, it’s been almost 10 years and I still feel bad about it. I would never do it again. But it was an honest mistake and did not lead me to a life of crime.
Now that my kids are older, we go back to the store for accidentally shoplifted items.

But with a toddler or two? I think the store should be a bit more understanding.

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Comment by Plano Mom.

One guarantee. Even if she did do it on purpose, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to try it again in the same store. Let her in, but make sure you check her stroller. How hard is it to notify employees about her?

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Comment by Marinka, TMH.

I’m on the other side of this and I think she’s lucky that she wasn’t arrested.

Shopping with kids is an absolute nightmare, no question about it. But so is shopping under a variety of other stressful situations– job loss, financial stress, partying too much the night before and OMFG the splitting headache and who the hell can remember to pay for all this stuff?!

As I see it, she was already given a pass when the store didn’t file charges.

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Comment by Marta.

I’ve totally done that. Gotten home and found something in the stroller that wasn’t on my receipt. Totally an accident! I swear.

I have to agree that it seems kind of extreme to ban her from the grocery store. They should offer child care facilities at grocery stores, like they do at Ikea. Drop them off in the ball pit and sit on some swedish couches while eating meatballs. Sounds like grocery shopping might become a new favorite activity.

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Comment by Allison Zapata.

This so could have been scatterbrain me. I think it’s pretty shitty they banned her from the store for slipping up one time. COME ON.

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Comment by Liz Lancs (@Lancs).

Without viewing the video, we can’t know whether she was deliberately trying to take the stuff without paying.

It is hard shopping with kids. It’s also hard living on a budget. And hard running a business.

It really could be either way. There must have been some doubt, or no evidence of intent, otherwise she’d have been handed over to the police, surely?

Maybe stores should offer help unloading the cart/buggy basket of people who seems like they’re struggling with dealing with everything, then this wouldn’t happen. Afterall, some stores help bagging the items afterthey’ve gone through the checkout.
Obvously, “Mum” would have to make sure she didn’t mind someone rummaging in her basket.

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Comment by Manic Mommy.

Raising my hand to admit to “stealing” Children’s Tylenol from Target.

It wasn’t on purpose but when I got to my car to unload my cart, it had never made it to the conveyor belt. It was raining, the kids were cranky, and there was NO WAY I was going back in there without back-up.

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Comment by christy.

I completely agree with you. And I love this line: Shopping with small kids is not ‘doing errands’; it’s an Olympic sport! TRU DAT!!!

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Comment by Megan.

I’ve nearly walked out with stuff underneath the cart (not even a stroller, my kid wasn’t even there) because the checkout belt was moving so quickly I was throwing stuff on it and completely forgot there was anything under there.

This is a tough question. It’s hard to say if it was a mistake or not. I get both sides.

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Comment by BOnnie.

I have teenagers, who I leave home on purpose, and so they call me 40,000,000,000,000 needing this or that and are fighting and arguing with their siblings. So I have forgotten things. I have now learned to turn off my phone, and jut tell them I forgot to charge it. lol. Give the poor woman a break, throw some chocolate on the top of that basket, and send her on her merry way.

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Comment by anymommy.

I guess there’s no way to know in this situation and if the store applies the policy evenly to all, well, then okay. But it sucks. I once walked out of a Safeway with a full basket of groceries. I got a cell phone call, got distracted and was at my car before I rejoined the real world. No kids. Just me being dumb. I hightailed it back in to pay, but I have no doubt that if I’d been “caught” I would have been treated like a shoplifter.

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Comment by Josette at Halushki.

People steal stupid crap all the time, and unfortunately, moms with kids in strollers steal things. We’ve caught people with books, with food, with $2.00 clearance items in the bottoms of strollers.

Guess what every one of them says?

Yup. “I didn’t mean to do it. I just forgot.”

It’s a tough economy for everyone – buyers and sellers. There are enough “whoops! I just forgot” customers out there that, really, tough luck. Don’t forget again next time you shop at another store. And yes, be happy we didn’t call the cops.

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Comment by Marinka, TMH.

By the way, I probably win America’s Dumbest Mom/Criminal. Because I often pay for groceries and then leave without them. Because I’m busy texting.

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Comment by Dave01568.

Where is bill cliton. The good times

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Comment by deborah l quinn.

If she were REALLY shoplifting, wouldn’t she aim higher, like, say, Sierra Nevada or something, rather than Corona? This banning: how will they enforce it? have her mug shot at every cashier station? It’s NEW YORK for crissake, where about a gazillion people shop at Fairway every day. Let her pay for the groceries and get on with it. If she’s caught a second time, then book ‘er, Dano, but otherwise? sheesh.

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Comment by Sarah.

Oh I feel for that mom. Been there…. 2 days after my 3rd son was born, we were released from hospital to find out that the diapers we had pre-purchased were the wrong size, so off to the store we ran, me, my newborn in a sling, my 2 year old, and 3 year old in the double monster size stroller and my ex nowhere to be found. I grabbed the correct size diapers, a fresh pack of pull-ups, some sensitive skin wipes and a new suckie for the baby. Well… the suckie got wedged in the flip down sun shade that was flipped up so I could monitor my grabby 2 year old while simultaneously nursing sling baby under my shirt and steering my monstrosity of a stroller….
Paid for wipes, pull-ups, diapers and a package of Nilla wafers (Don’t ask) and forgot ALL about the suckie. They arrested me in the parking lot waiting for a bus…. 3 hours, numerous offers to trade any one of my children to cover the cost or even just cash value and one extremely rank diaper later the police showed up, told off security for being such jerks and I was banned from the store for 3 years Frazzled moms forget, get over it! LOL

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Comment by Tonya.

I know this isn’t really adding to the discussion but I have to say this line: And if most of us moms were going to turn into Lindsay “sticky fingers” Lohan, we would not be trolling for free green beans at the local Stop & Shop.
is going to keep me laughing for the rest of the day.

And I agree I think they should give the mom another chance. If it happens again with her then call the cops.

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Comment by cyarbrough.

This is the response I got from a friend of mine that just read this blog today…

“no s%@t. clean the nastiness off of the cart, buy something to try and entertain him the whole time, try to keep him from eating the chips at 8:30 in the morning (i buy him a donut instead), try to get him to go pee before we leave the house, even if it’s in the front yard, so we don’t have to use the really nice and new bathroom that someone wiped their used tampon all over and then pay without him trying to grab every candy bar sitting there at the check out (nice product placement) as well as convincing him that he has to trust you, he DOES NOT need the cute bottle of 5-hour energy drink they have sitting at the counter where you pay and that is sitting at eye level with an already wild 3 year old. if i forgot to pay for something, consider it helping out with my expensive therapy i am going to need after all this. and all while my husband sits on his a&% watching the soccer channel and can’t multi-task even a slight bit by folding some laundry while watching men kick a ball.

i’m just sayin…………”

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Comment by GrandeMocha.

Been there, done that. The security guard stopped me at the door and asked me if I had the reciept for the gallon of milk under the cart. She escorted me to the customer service desk & watched me pay for it.

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Comment by statia.

I’ve done that more times than I care to admit. With two small kids, 26 months apart, it’s nearly impossible to shop. I never do it on purpose, and I used to feel guilty about it, but I feel like I’ve redeemed myself in other ways. Like the time the woman at Target almost forgot to ring up a cabana tent, after I told her three times it was there. I could have easily walked out with it, and no one would have been the wiser, but I was honest and reminded her a fourth time when she gave me the total sans tent. I’m always honest about what I have in my cart and do my best to make sure it’s emptied. Sometimes something stupid gets lost under a jacket, and I just don’t have the wherewithal to go back inside and make good on it.

I get that in this day and age, it’s harder to believe that people are inherently good and truly honest, when so many aren’t, but really, a mom with two small kids? At least give her the benefit of the doubt. Especially if she apologizes and tries to pay for it. She’s probably mortified enough with her children screaming things like, “MOMMY, MY PENIS IS HARD,” in public.

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Comment by Lisa.

It’s nice that everyone is identifying with this person but that’s just an assumption. Stores aren’t run by idiots and don’t make a point to persecute frazzled parents. As to why she would steal $10 and pay for $50? Good cover, isn’t it? Much easier than stealing small stuff and not pay for anything, right?

Look, I get the whole “no one understands how hard we work!” rallying cry, but maybe she isn’t one of us and she steals ten bucks worth on every trip.

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Comment by Karin.

I’ve stolen so much apple juice that was on the bottom of my basket that it’s almost comical. I’ve also left an unreasonable amt of paid for apple juice sitting in the bottom of my basket in the cart return as well. I have gone back to the store hours later (after feeding and napping the kids and waiting until hubby gets home) and talked to the manager. One manager laughed so hard that I came all the way back that he refused to let me pay and paid for it himself, another told me that it had already been written off and another just had me pay for it (b/c obviously who comes back to pay $2 if they actually meant to steal it).

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Comment by danielle.

I have to admit I have almost done the same except I had a grocery cart and my baby’s carseat was in top piece and I had set some cookies in the top so they wouldn’t get smashed when I got to the top of the line I didn’t notice it till everything was already paid for but since I was still there I grabbed them and paid but he had a look like i was trying to steal them.

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Comment by booger26.

I know of a lady in our area who has been banned from a number of stores here. She simply said, “I forgot about these things because my child started getting fussy.” Well I understand it being difficult to go shopping with children! I attempt it with a 2yo! Finally after the second time this happened with her the police caught on and sent her to prison. She also got out and did it again and again. So as an inside joke(which is bad, I’ll admit) we placed bets on to see how long it takes her to land back into prison! So unless you know her personally, don’t assume that the store is being harsh on her!

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Comment by Friday Funnies | Nouns and Violets.

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