Stealing shopping carts

I finally got my stitches out today so I can kind of type again without doing the one-finger-poke thing. It still hurts but at least now I don't have the stitches catching on things.

The day after I got my stitches I had planned on going shopping for work clothes. Since I'm a different size after having my son in June I've been wearing one set and washing them over and over thinking it won't take long to get into my old clothes. Oh well.

There's a strip mall that has several stores that sell clothing right next to each other. There's Fashion Bug, then Ross, then Shopko. I decided to check out Ross first because they're usually the cheapest. I had all my kids with me but had left the stroller at home so I was carrying my son in his carseat. I brought him into the store and tried to get him into one of the carts. They were all way too small. I've seen so many cart accidents involving carseats that are on top of the cart so I refuse to put my son in that situation. Their carts are something else. They're all different sizes, different colors, and they have metal poles welded onto them so they can't go out the door. Apparently they don't want you to buy enough of their merchandise to need a cart to take it all to your car.

So I finally find a cart that is big enough to wedge my son and his carseat in so I didn't have to carry him, then I start trying to push the cart and it feels like there's something stuck in the wheel, you know, like you run over a peanut or something and it gets stuck. So I look down and see that in addition to the beautiful poles they have attached to the cart, they have this metal plate that is welded on to the cart close enough to the wheel to put pressure on it. Nothing says "we appreciate your business" more than telling people that having to use a cart is an inconvenience to them.

So I slowly but surely push my special anti-theft cart to the ladies section. About halfway there, 2 of my children tell me they have to use the bathroom. This is just perfect because it is all the way in the back of the store. So after 20 minutes of pushing a cart that doesn't want to go we get to the bathrooms which happen to be next to the fitting rooms. We turn to go into the bathroom and the employee there tells me I can't take my cart into the bathroom, or even down the long hall to get to the bathroom.

I can understand not being able to take it into the bathroom, but the hallway? So I told her that I had injured my dominant hand, and my left wrist has problems lifting things and it is very painful to carry my son with or without his carseat. I told her that my cart was empty, offered her to check it, and asked if I could just wait outside the door so my kids didn't wet themselves.

She said no, the cart has to stay here. I told her that I wasn't stealing anything, she could see that my cart was empty, she would be watching me the whole damn time. I asked her what she was afraid I was going to do with the cart while I was standing in the hall.

I almost died laughing at her response. She looked at me straight faced and said "we have problems with people stealing the carts, not just merchandise." It took me a minute to realize she was serious. So I said "darn, you're on to me. I wore this sweater today for the simple fact that I could shove a whole cart underneath and nobody would notice, and I was planning on hiding the pole with a scarf." Then I looked at my kids dancing around and told them "go ahead and go in and go potty and try not to make a mess like you usually do. And make sure you don't clog the toilet with the whole roll of toilet paper since I won't be there to tell you how much you need." The look of horror on her face was priceless. But at least I wasn't given the opportunity to steal the cart. I'll have to find some other store that won't notice me shove a cart up my shirt.

While I was waiting for the kids to come back I was kind of looking around while watching the bathroom door. There were abandoned carts everywhere, probably about 6 of them. Then I noticed one of them didn't have a pole! It also looked a little bigger, and there was nothing screwing with the wheel. So I decided to switch carts and as I'm putting my son in it I notice that the cart is from Shopko. Which was perfect because I could just use it to push my son to the next store when I "returned" the cart to the correct store.

I pushed my old cart off to the side next to 2 other carts, assuming that since they were all lined up it wouldn't be in the way. The anti theft lady made this weird puff sound and went and took my cart (which was between the other two BTW) and pushed it to the end of the isle and into the way of customers. She marched herself back to her post in a "I showed you" type of way.

Finally my kids were done shoving toys in their clothes in the bathroom and we headed to the clothing. I don't know when the second anti theft lady started following us but she stood about 5 feet away and her only job seemed to be staring at me. There were a few shirts I found that I wanted to try on but since they don't allow carts back there either I decided to just put them on over my clothes to see if they fit. I had decided to get one and was trying to decide on another the best I could without a mirror and my creepy stalker said "you have to pay for that you know."

That was the breaking point. I took it off and said "Oh don't worry, I'm not going to pay for it but since you guys don't seem to want my business I'll find somewhere else to shop."

I threw both shirts on the ground and headed for the front. The lines were HUGE! Six people in one line, and more in the other, but I guess staring at someone who is trying to steal their shopping cart is more important. So as I'm heading out the door another employee stops me and tells me that I can't take the cart out of the store. I explained the cart didn't belong to their store and since I was going to be spending my money at shopko I would just return it for them. He tried to tell me that isn't how it works, I couldn't take the cart because it belonged to Ross.

I was so pissed off by this point I told him that he could call the police and explain to them that I'm not allowed to return a stolen cart to it's owner.

So at the end of the day I did steal a cart. But not really because I kind of did the Robin Hood thing, stole from the bad guy to give the good guy back what should have been theirs.

And in case you're wondering, my kids usually don't make huge messes in public bathrooms, I said that to ruffle some feathers. And I found an awesome sale at Shopko and was able to get several things for very cheap. I usually don't like shopping there because once an employee took my daughter out of the cart while my back was turned only long enough to pick up my other daughter and turn around. When I saw that she was gone I headed straight to the front of the store where I told TWO employees that my daughter was taken out of my shopping cart and I needed help. One was in the middle of returning a backpack, the other one was in the middle of organizing hangers. Both of course were more important than a missing one year old. The third person I told had to think about what to do. She told me that she knew there was something she needed to do but couldn't remember what. I finally was so frantic that I asked for a phone to call 911 when a manager came up holding my daughter. There was no page about a missing mommy, nothing. He was just standing there talking to her while she cried because she was being held by a stranger.

The employee that took her decided that she had been abandoned in a shopping cart. My purse was right next to her, strapped in with her. I was in front of the cart grabbing my older daughter. Yup, I was trying to get rid of one of them, they caught me. I didn't shop at that store for almost 4 years.

But maybe I will start shopping there more because apparently their carts are easy to steal and we all know how much we all want a shopping cart decorating our homes. Maybe I'll turn it into a planter and put it next to my toilet planter.