At Dollar Tree, a person was trying out the room deodorizers, PLURAL!

She would spray one smell it, etc.

That's why I reach for the back to get my product.

I always grab an item from the back too. :)

I'm guilty of spritzing room freshener. There's no way to know what it will smell like otherwise. I do always take the one I spray though. :)

Since I retired I have taken up serious photography as an amateur/semi-pro and I don't go anywhere without my DSLR hanging on my shoulder.
A couple weeks ago Jan & I were browsing the grocery isles in Walmart when I saw a woman opening baby food jars and sticking her finger in to taste the product, then closing the jars and setting them back on the shelf.
Using a 70-300mm zoom lens I stayed back about 75 to 100 feet away and shot about a dozen pictures of the action, then I walked up to within about 15ft and snapped a closeup, using flash this time. Instantly the woman snapped her head up and looked at me as I said,,"BUSTED!"
Then I said, "My friend has gone to get store security and the manager. I suggest you use what time remains before they get here to find all the jars you opened and put them in your cart so you can pay for them!".
If looks could kill I would be a goner, but she instantly started to franticly grab jars and put them in her cart.
About 2 or 3 minutes later Jan returned with the store manager and a store security guy. The manager asked me whats going on here so I showed him the photos on the instant review on the camera. He then told the store security guy to take the woman and her cart to the security office, then he pulled out a cell phone and called to have a couple stock boys come out and check the shelves for more open containers. He then turned to me and asked how he could get copies of those photographs?
"That's simple", I replied, just follow me and I will show you. I then went to the store photography department, pulled the memory card out of my camera and inserted it in the kiosk machine to order prints. I selected all the photos of the woman tampering and had them printed in 8x10 and I had the photos put on a CD so they could make additional copies if they need them.
I then turned to the manager and said, "If you will pay for the printing cost, they are all yours free." I also gave him my name, address and phone number and said I could be available as a witness if he needed it.
About 45 minutes later, as Jan & I were leaving the store we saw the woman being led, in handcuffs, by a city cop to an awaiting police car outside the front door.
Should I have got involved? Maybe, maybe not, but I can't help but think it might have saved an infant from getting sick on tainted baby food.
Would I do it again? YOU BET, In a New York Minute.

Lazypup--I'm in awe! Great job!!!

It's not just women, though. Yesterday, I was in Wegman's and turned down the organic toiletries aisle (read EXPENSIVE STUFF). And what did I see, right by the shampoo I was going to look at? A man opening bottles to take a sniff. I've also caught a man grazing on the bulk aisle before--and told him to move along, that it wasn't a free buffet put out for his convenience.

I, too, am one who always reaches for the item at the back, you just never know.

Oh, and once I saw a woman switching eggs--putting larger ones into a box of 'medium', so she could get a few extra ounces.

Lazy, you did a WONDERFUL thing - what if some innocent little baby had eaten that food and gotten sick - there's NO TELLING where that woman had her fingers!

"Why do some women act so dumb" I got news for you...they are not acting. They are dumb and a few other things.
Way to go, lazypup!

Great story, lazypup! Good for you!

I'm proud of you lazypup!!!! I would do the same thing, BTW, are you the one who takes all the photo's of the way people dress at Walmart? It's amazing what people will do and how they dress in public. I've included a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: People of Walmart

"Dumb" ... maybe.

How about "irresponsible"?

Plus ...

... I doubt whether either classification should to be ascribed entirely to the female of the species.

ole joyful

You got that right Gazania - they are dumb.

Way to go lazypups - good for you!

I don't think they are dumb at all, they simply think that they are entitled to do this. Never give it a thought as to what is going to happen beyond themselves wanting to do it. If you want to try on makeup then you go to a department store and buy that make up, the testers are included in the $50 a bottle price tags.

Not dumb, just nasty and don't give a s___. This is why our food and cosmetics are so dang expensive.

Also in Walmart I was looking at bottles of nail polish
when a store employee came over and said "You can't do that!" I was startled and she said, "not you", she was talking to the girl behind me who was putting on some nail
polish to see how it looked. The employee explained that
using it was contaminating it. Later the same employee came
back and apologized again. I told her it was okay and we both laughed.

I didn't know baby food still came in jars. What I have seen lately is the new plastic tub type that are sealed and the top is covered with a cardboard cover. Thankfully that could not be tasted at the store!

I don't shop that isle much though! LOL!

Hmmm interesting about the makeup. Guess that's why I always buy so I can return it if I don't like it which is usually Mary Kay. It's really not that much more when you consider the price of cosmetics in the store. I really like it when they put out a sample bottle.

I can't imagine trying out baby food and I'm not sure why anyone would. There was stuff that my baby would eat that I would never have eaten. Can't imagine what that woman was thinking.

lazypup, you are my HERO!

Our Walmart does not support customers as well as where you live. They see it and say nothing. Fear and they don't care.
I was so excited when they came but we have the customers that push and walk to the front of the line and the employees snapping their gum and don't try and help.
I love what you did pups that would generally be me. I am scared of some of the customers. It's their world and we just stay quiet.

Just wanted to comment that those baby food jars would have been contaminated no matter how clean the woman's hands were. Once the seal is broken, the food will spoil. If someone hadn't noticed, a baby or babies could easily have died from eating it. I think the woman being led off in handcuffs was appropriate. What she did wasn't just dumb and self-serving, it was criminal!

Adding my congratulations and appreciation for busting that lady.

High-5 Lazypup! You should get a public recommendation of some sort.

We still have baby food jars here IowaGirl. Never thought of them coming in any other container. They are often put up on Freecycle and are a popular item for jams etc.

I wish I had saved some of the jars! They are a handy size.

I wonder what were the infractions that the police charged her with

probably stealing. It is like when I used to do Demos, mostly in Walmart. People would walk around grazing. They would give their child a banana to eat and then either lay the peel down some place or give it to the clerk when they checked out... meaning to pay for it, but it is sold by weight.... Strange. A lot of kids come into the grocery I work sometimes and I see them go to the service deli, get a bunch of food, fried chicken, fries, all kinds of cooked foods, then walk around the store eating it and then hide the baggies they came in with the price on them and then leave... hey! free lunch! I can't believe some of the nerve of some people.

LAZYPUP, nice "STORY"

...but, why did you warn her to put the jars in her basket? Any case against her probably won't hold up if she had the product in her cart and said she was purchasing it.

Also, the manager depended on stock boys to pull what they thought was the bad product? (You can't always confirm those jars are locked unless you open them and they pop). Those buttons are impossible to read. I assume a good manager probably would have cleared the shelves.

Carla,, to answer your first question,"why did I warn her to pull the jars she had opened?",

At the time I was not feeling particularly vindictive. I figured just the public embarassment of being caught in the act and facing both the store manager and their security probably would have been sufficient to convince her not to repeat the act in future, and if she was to actually pay for the items she opened it would be sufficient restitution...

Now in regards to how much of the product that was removed from the shelves, I have no way of knowing because that took place after Jan & I left the store.

Our Walmart store is less than 2 miles from our house and sad as I am to admit it, Jan & I probably go there 3 to 4 times a week, sometimes just to browse the store and basically duck the heat for a bit...LOL.

On one of our subsequent trips to the store I once again ran into the manager, who tossed me a quick thumbs up when he saw me,,,LOL..

He and I talked a moment and I asked him what legal action they could have taken? I said that since she did not leave the store with any unpaid items it was not shoplifting or petite theft so what action could they take?

He said, "you may remember a few years ago when they had a lot of problem with ppl tampering with over the counter meds by putting poison in some of them?"

"Yes, I remember there was a problem with Tylenol and a couple other products"

He said that as a result of that activity nearly all states have passed very strict laws about "Product Tampering".

According to the manager when that womans case went to araignment court the next morning she fooishly pled guilty, no doubt thinking it is not a big deal.

But the Judge took it real serious. He sentenced her to 5 yrs, suspended but she has to participate in a probation program for that 5 yrs and if she doesn't meet the probation rules she will have to serve the remaining sentence. In addition, she was ordered to pay a restitution to the store equal to the cost of all products that were subsequently removed from the shelf and she has a permanent restraining order prohibiting her from entering that Walmart store.

Good for you, Lazypup.

Wow--amazing update. Thanks for letting us know 'the rest of the story'.