Feel safe when shopping? Not me. A scam has me checking out other shoppers, wondering if they are the ones who stole my purse.
It happened so fast - no more than ten seconds. That's the time I was away from my trolley, Tesco bags holding my purse hanging on the hook. Stupid yes - but as the whole shebang usually stays with me all the way to the tills I reckoned all was fine.
Then I reached out to get a swede, worth about a quid. In the time it took to return to the trolley ten feet away, someone snatched some of my stuff, put it in another trolley and taken off with mine along with my bags and purse.
At first I stood there like an idiot, wondering why my shopping did not look right. There was stuff in there that I didn't want. Then I knew. They had followed me, seen me move away, grabbed some of my stuff and shoved it into their trolley to make it look like mine. Then they were off, dumping the rest of the things before heading out of the store, all in two minutes, at most. Doubtless they got the £1 coin back at the reclaim. But that's all they got.
The trolley I was left with had a worthless token in it - and no bags. I had no cash in the purse and the cards were stopped within the hour. No great loss then. I also thought Tesco's would be able to catch them, since I knew exactly when and where they did it.
Yet it seems out of 50 or so cameras, only 16 are operational at one time. This bunch will do this again and maybe get away with a lot more. That's why I don't trust my fellow shoppers and why I keep my purse firmly in my hand. Lesson learned.
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