(The story makes a lot of more sense if you read part one first!)
“YOU STAY IN THERE! WE CALLED THE POLICE!” one of the guys shouted.
“Be my guest. In fact, I’m going to call the police as well,” I retorted. “What the fuck is wrong with you guys?”
“We checked! You didn’t pay for ANYTHING! Shoplifting, eh?”
I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. First, I did pay. I clearly remember inserting two ten-euro bills plus all my cents and pennies, and I got one euro back in change. Second, ask the supervisor. She helped me because the terminal kept on freezing on me. Third, you were standing right there—if I had scanned all my items and left without paying, wouldn’t it show as an incomplete transaction or something?”
“We checked the central computer. You didn’t pay. NOW YOU GET IN THERE AND WAIT FOR THE POLICE!”
“No fucking way.”
I took my phone out of my bag. My finger hovered over the keypad. This is when I realize that not only I didn’t know the non-emergency number but I didn’t have any ID with me—I don’t carry my passport around. Would it be a problem? Although technically not illegal, not having ID wasn’t going to help my case.
I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. Yet, arguably, it was my fault for not making sure I had a receipt and it was my fault for not having ID.
I called my little brother. Probably not the most logical move considering he isn’t a cop nor a lawyer but I needed to let someone know what was going on—I’ll deal with it myself but not before telling where I was and why.
“This is crazy!” my brother said when I explained the situation briefly. “Do you want me to come?”
“No, I’ve got this.”
“Can you leave?”
“I’m not handcuffed to a wall but there’s one of the guys blocking the door,” I replied, looking at said guy straight in the eyes. “And they have my bag.”
“I don’t know what to say, this is just completely—”
“Boss, boss, we checked the wrong terminal!” I heard behind me. “Let her go, she paid. It’s right there, we checked terminal one instead of two!”
I turned around.
My shopping bag was handed out to me.
“Wait a sec,” I told my brother who was still on the line. “Are you fucking serious guys?”
“You should have taken your receipt,” he shrugged. “Leave.”
“They checked the wrong terminal,” I explained my brother. “They’re telling me to leave. What should I do? Make a scene…?”
“I… I really don’t know.”
But you need a manager or the public to make a scene and I was still in this weird hallway, behind the door opening onto the supermarket. I stepped out and the door closed behind me. The “loss prevention team” stayed in there.
I blinked and kept on walking, still talking to my brother.
“I’m actually a bit shaken up,” I admitted. “I need some fresh air.”
“Just leave, then. Come home, we’ll figure it out once you get there.”
And once I was home and after the story was shared with my mom, I still wasn’t sure what to do. “Write to the manager! Hell, let’s go to the police!” my mom advised. “They can’t do that! And Carrefour is infamous for these kinds of practices—plenty of my students get into trouble, usually for no reason like you.”
I spare you the long conversation we had—I didn’t go to the police, I just avoided the store.
But the experience stayed with me. This is how easily you can be accused of something you didn’t do. This is how easily you can end up making decisions uncharacteristic of you—come on, I’m 37, I can speak up and stand up for myself!
I’m still not sure what I should have done.
But yeah, I can see how innocent people can end up in trouble and how routine situations can get out of hand very quickly—probably even more so if you’re a visible minority.
So, how would you have reacted? Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do?
Ouch. Je me souviendrai toujours de l’histoire sordide du jeune qui s’était fait tuer par Carrefour (?) dans l’une de ces fameuses salles illégales de détention. Et ça m’étonnerait même que ça ne soit arrivé qu’une fois… Je trouve ça incroyable que personne ne s’indigne contre ces dangereux caïds, là… Tu as bien fait de partir au plus vite, sans aucun doute ! Safety first ! 🙁
Ah ouais, quand même. Je n’étais pas au courant de l’histoire.
Ma petite histoire m’a laissée assez perplexe, tant mon propre comportement que le procédé. C’est là qu’on se rend compte qu’il y a un fossé entre la théorie et la pratique. En théorie, je connais mes droits. En pratique, tu fais quoi quand tu est encerlée par trois molosses au milieu d’un supermarché?? Tu crois qu’on est entre gens raisonnables, surtout que je savais que je n’avais rien fait. Mais, à un moment, je me suis dit qu’ils allaient carrément déraper… et encore une fois, j’étais assez démunie.
What an awful story. I hope you followed up on it, so that it is brought to light.
The sad part is, I didn’t. Once home, what could I have done? It was my word against theirs.
Franchement… ça m’aurait chamboulée à ta place. Je déteste cette idée de faire les choses correctement, et que ça puisse quand même mal tourner…
Bon, chui pas traumatisée, hein. But it made me realize how easy it is to be accused and how fast things can get out of control. And what if it had been Feng, who doesn’t really speak French? Or a young kid (insert typical “banlieue” stereotype here) who puts up a fight?
I would feel so bad if it had happened to me…
The fact that they didn’t say sorry or anything is unacceptable, and I’m not even talking about the way they treated you. I’ve been living for 11 years with someone who would always try and blame someone else (generally : me) for the mistakes he made, so this kind of behaviour (““You should have taken your receipt,” he shrugged.”) drives me mad. THEY are the ones who did something wrong, THEY should feel bad about it, not you. But of course it’s easier said than done.
I don’t think I would have reacted any differently though. Writing a letter to the manager might have been a good idea… but it might have ended up in the shredder anyway.
Oh, boy… I can relate! To me, the world is divided between people who *can* understand another perspective (even if it’s not theirs) and people who think you’re wrong if you think differently or simply don’t react or act like they do. Like, obviously I wasn’t living with you but I understand what you said. I’m not telling you “oh, you must have misunderstood him, he was simply trying to put you in charge” or other BS.
Feng is like that sometimes. He blames. When I told him the story, the first thing he said was “why didn’t you just offered to pay twice to get out of it?” Dude, that’s… screwed up!
You hav all my sympathy. The problem is, with this blame culture, is that it kills your confidence. I hope you can find yours again now that you’re “free”.
Funny story somewhat related.
After buying a few things in a Walmart, I went back to my truck and throw my bag in the cab. But when sorting my stuff, I found one box of granola is missing. I couldn’t find it, so I went back to the store to see if I dropped it somewhere.
At the cash booth, I asked the attendant if he saw a box like the one mais on my ticket. He didn’t, but there was some kind of manager here, who told to just go back in store and grab another box.
I spend the night on the parking lot, and the next morning, before leaving, I discovered where the box I thought lost was.
It’s Walmart, so I kept the extra box, and I enjoyed it very much.
I was going to joke about you shopping at Walmart (vous venez d’entrer dans le paradis de l’exploitation et du capitalisme, laissez vos rêves à la porte…) but I fully realize you probably don’t have many unionized shops with fair-traded products in your neck of the wood.
So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the extra granola bars.
That’s a real problem. Habitually, Walmart allow trucks to park for the night, they are open all night and they have item that are far less expensive than in truck stops.
Do Canadian Walmart also welcome trucks overnight? And down South, do they all let you stay or some are more welcoming than others? I have no idea if big French supermarkets would, like Leclerc for instance…?
In Canada, like in the US, it depends. Sometimes it’s clearly signaled that Truck are forbidden to park. And in Willingston, ND, they actively prevent trucks to park for the night, but the situation is special there.
In France, there are supermarkets with designated truck parking spots, but habitually, you can’t even go to the car parking spots because their are low clearances portals.
Aaah, Leclercq. Story time !
Just before I got my CSQ to come in Québec, I worked as an interim truck driver. And I was working for a couple of monthes for the carrier Samat, big company specialized in hazardous material hauling. Thing is, they had a contract with Leclercq to deliver tanks of propane and butane in supermarkets, tanks that were of the Leclercq’s own brand, Clairgaz. In a week, I did 2 trips, the first delivering Leclercqs around Nord and Pas-Calais, and going to Gand in Belgium to switch racks of empty bottles with racks of filled bottles, and start the second trip, delivering Leclercqs around Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme and Aisne, and going back to Gand on Friday to switch the racks, ready to restart monday.
Important point: the truck, despite being operated by Samat, harbored Clairgaz name and colors.
One day, on the second trip, after delivery bottles (all by hand, I moved the filled bottles — each time between 5 and 40, from the racks to the station display and brought the empty ones), I moved away of the station (I needed to go to the restrooms and had to do a rest break to respect legislation) because I didn’t want to leave a hazmat loaded truck next to a fuel station, and parked at the back of the parking lot, which was always empty.
I then went to the restrooms. I was just washing my hands, so barely 10 minutes after I left the truck, when I heard that the driver of the truck had to see the entrance staff. I went there, and I was asked to leave on the spot.
The reason was that A FUCKING ASSHOLE in the top office upstair didn’t like to see a truck on the parking. I told them that I had to finish my rest break, and went to grab some stuff to eat. I went back to my truck, still having to wait a little bit, and one of the guard came at me urging me to leave. He was nice, just forced to do what the petty jerk upstair wanted. Told him he’ll have to wait, and complains to the company if they wanted.
I reported the incident to the dispatch, but never heard of it again. However, it was a rude display of classism by an asshole who didn’t dare to come to complain to my face. If it happened today, I would have flipped the bird toward the window. Funny thing, the jerk didn’t have any power over me, because either the company I worked for took my side, and it was good, or the company fired me over this petty and obnoxious complain, and I wouldn’t want to work for them. Plus the fact that it was less than one year before I emigrated.
Well, duh. I wouldn’t accept a truck on a parking lot either as a big-dick boss. I mean, customers need to LIVE the EXPERIENCE and assume it’s Santa who restock the shelves or bring propane/butane tanks. 😆 No, for real, where else where you supposed to go??? Park inside the store???
Supermarkets around me are still fairly small by North American standards so I never see any truck staying overnight, even at Walmart. But there seemed to be people *living* on the parking lot in Ogdensburg, NY, last time I crossed the border (i.e. before the Trump era).
It was just a petty jerk wanting to show his power, I guess.
In big towns, mall parking lots often have fancy green islands, which make it difficult to go there with a truck. And yes, there are people living in their car because they can’t afford anything else.
Funny how some people just feel the need to show they have a bigger one. It shows insecurities more than anything else.
So, any bet on who will win the US elections? I know, if logic applies, the moron in chief should be out. But hey, it’s 2020… anything can happen.
Biden et Harris vont gagner, pas de doutes là-dessus. Par contre, ça ne veut pas dire que le collège électoral ou la cour suprême ne va pas choisir de remettre la présidence à Trump.
Cet abruti a déjà suggéré que le forçage de Barrett pour le poste vacant pourrait l’aider à rester en place. De plus, les républicains travaillent fort pour tordre les lois en leur faveur. Par exemple, les grands électeurs qui forment le collège électoral que chaque état doit envoyer sont choisis par vote populaire. Sauf que c’est juste ainsi que les états font, mais il n’y a aucune obligation que ce soit décidé de la sorte. Il semblerait que le congrès ou le sénat d’un état puisse choisir qui bon leur semble sans se préoccuper de l’avis du peuple.
Plus le fait que l’Agent Orange a déjà déclaré que si il perdait cela prouverait qu’il y a fraude électorale, incitant les néo-nazis et les suprémacistes blancs a commettre des violences.
Plus le fait qu’il incite ces mêmes déchets de l’Humanité à s’en prendre aux élus démocrates (voir ses commentaires au Michigan à propos de la gouverneure).
Plus le reste …
C’est pas vraiment la joie.
Est-ce que tu connais le podcast Trump 2020 de Slate (France)? C’est pas mal fait pour “les USA expliquées aux Français”.
Je suis assez d’accord avec ton analyse, même si j’ai du mal à me faire une idée de ce que pensent *vraiment* les Américains vu qu’une partie (combien, exactement?) semblent vivre sur une autre planète, plate, où tout est “fake news”. En toute logique, même les Républicains ne devraient pas être capables de voter pour Trump. Mais dans la partique… l’Amérique a tellement de visages…
Tu ressens cette ambiance bizarre quand tu vas aux USA?
Je lis les commentaires YouTube pour savoir 🙂
(Attention, ne faites pas ça chez vous). En fait, beaucoup d’États-uniens, une majorité probablement, se rendent compte de la catastrophe qu’est le parti républicain, mais leur vote est dilué dû aux magouilles politiciennes qui règnent en maître depuis plus de 200 ans.
Le problème aux États-Unis, c’est que les évangéliques chrétins ont pris les rênes du parti républicain, et nombre d’entre eux sont des dominionistes (pour plus d’infos, voir 7 mountains dominionism) dont le modèle politique rêvé est à mi-chemin entre la théocracie brutale d’Arabie Saoudite et la République islamique d’Iran (avec leur version de la chrétienté au lieu d’un islam politique, mais les différences sont seulement cosmétiques).
C’est la raison pour laquelle ils se foutent que Trump soit un bon chrétin ou la pire des ordures : il leur donne ce qu’ils veulent. Et on le voit en particulier dans la nomination de Barrett. Une fois cette dernière confirmée, 6 des 9 juges de la court suprême auront in fine été choisies par la “federalist society”, un groupe d’extrême droite, et nommés par des présidents qui PERDU le vote populaire (Bush et Trump).
Et ça, c’est la pointe de l’iceberg. Durant l’administration Obama, de nombreux postes dans les courts inférieures ont été laissés vacants du fait de l’obstruction systèmatique des républicains. Depuis que Trump est là, la majorité de ces postes ont été confiés à des gens qui ont été déclarés incompétents par l’association des juristes américains mais qui vont codifier leur religion dans la loi. Et la cour suprême ne fera qu’approuver.
2 juges de la court suprême ont déjà dit qu’ils allaient essayer d’interdire le mariage entre personnes de même sexe, et il est très probable que le droit de vote de nombreuses personnes soit sur la balance.
Les États-Unis sont là preuve qu’une démocratie ne peut pas fonctionner si une partie importante la population est sous-eduquée, résultats des coupures de budget depuis Reagan, et des ambitions de râclures comme Betsy DeVos.
C’est pas la joie.
Je me suis coupée de Twitter parce que je ne supporte plus l’ambiance toxique, je crois que je ne suis pas psychologiquement prête à lire les commentaires sur YouTube 😆 J’entrevois un pan de la société américaine sur Reddit, certains utilisateurs expliquent assez bien le pays de l’intérieur. Il y a tellement de choses qui me font halluciner aux États-Unis…
Effectivement, c’est pas la joie. Le gouvernement canadien a l’air de vraiment flipper pour les élections, quel que soit le résultat. L’ambiance est morose à Ottawa en tout cas.
That is infuriating!! For them to make such a big deal out of it and then dismiss it as if it wasn’t a big deal that THEY made a mistake and mistreated you. And this is over what, twenty euros of groceries… Talk about misplacing throwing around of one’s power. Totally unwarranted.
You summed it up well.
To be honest, I just wanted to get out of there, I wouldn’t have appreciate excuses. What worries me the most is the somewhat casual way they dealt with the issue. I mean, what happens when someone actually steal something? Like do they beat them up???
Wow Quelle horreur! Je pense que tu devrais rendre l’histoire publique. L’écrire en français et la publier sur un site français.
Je crois que j’aurais réagi comme toi : penser que je suis avec des gens raisonnables, je n’ai rien fait, je suis dans un lieu public et je suis l’autorité pour prouver ma bonne foi. Tu as eu un bon réflexe tout de même de ne pas rentrer dans la petite salle. Et effectivement, je n’imagine même pas avec des minorités. Déjà en tant que femme, se faire enfermer d1ns une petite pièce avec 4 hommes, ce n’est vraiment pas confortable…
I have to say I felt intimidated as a person but not as a woman–I think they knew where to draw the line in the way that they never put their hands on me. Just saying for the sake of accuracy.
I’m super uncomfortable making this public because, well, how can I prove it? I mean, it’s easy to write here because presumably, readers are more likely to be partial and be on my side. But I have literally no proof of what happened. This is also why I called my brother and I’m glad he overheard the end of it because at least, someone knew about it.
I would like to believe that I would NOT have followed the four guys and stayed where everyone can see, waiting for them to give my groceries bag back to me. But in real life I have a slower reaction time… (I keep replaying scenes in my mind thinking of all the things I should have said or done). I also ALWAYS take the receipt, even if it’s not the “eco-friendliest” option. When I was younger my mom once had a problem at the ATM machine, it gave her the receipt but not the cash! So she went to complain receipt in hand… “Always keep the receipt!”, she said. It kind of stuck with me. 🙂
I’m really, really not the kind of person who just obey blindly. I mean, I’m 37 for fuck’s sake, I have a voice and I know how to use it. Yet, when you have no idea what’s going on… I didn’t react the way I thought I would.