Well, trip to London tomorrow and weekend break. And I really do need it. This has been a slightly stressful week—and yesterday, I was almost copped!
It was innocent enough. I went into a local Superdrug to pick up some deodorant and whatever, and when I left a security guard nabbed me and accused me of shoplifting! (No, I hadn’t been!) So he took me back into the store and insisted on checking my bag and receipt, but that wasn’t enough for him. He said, ‘I’ll have to get a female assistant to…’ Suddenly, my mind raced with paranoia! I was thinking, ‘N-n-not a strip search?’ But he went on, ‘…search your pockets.’
Then I got annoyed, and emptied the pockets of my jacket myself, exclaiming the nature of each item aloud as I did so. Apparently, this still didn’t satisfy him. He asked, ‘Whose wallet is that?’ I was about to go apeshit at that point, but another security guard showed up and started apologising for the ‘mistake’ profusely. My accuser beat a hasty retreat, and I screamed, ‘So how do I complain about that asshole?’
The guard took me in the back with a female worker and they were making sure I was okay. The guard said, ‘He’s got to go! He’s got to go! He’s totally fucked it up!’ Apparently, the shoplifting suspect had been described as ‘woman with red top’—I had a red T-shirt on—so while the guard was harassing me, the real culprit had gotten away scot-free!
Then the guard took me to the store manager, saying, ‘So-and-so wrongly accused this lady of shoplifting.’ Manager also apologised profusely. Guard gave me a number where I could make a complaint if I wished, also took down my name and address, and I got the hell out of there quickly, citing an ‘urgent appointment,’ so I could catch my breath and recover!
Things like that are hard. Even if you’ve not done anything wrong, and I hadn’t, for a few moments you can’t help thinking you might somehow be in deep shit regardless. So it’s scary.
Like I said, I do need a break!!