What do you do with shoplifters?
The first day I opened a young woman with a toddler asked to use the toilet for the little one. I acquiesced and as soon as she left the shop I noticed that some new books by Tess Gerritsen that she has been looking at were also gone. They had nice shiny white covers and were conspicuous by their absence. The visit out the back was a ploy to hide them in the stroller. I vowed to keep an eye out for her but she never came back. I think in hindsight she must have known I would notice they were missing as we had talked about the author.
Then there was the gentleman with a newspaper tucked under his arm; Friday afteroon without a word he strides purposefully down to the classics, pausing only for a moment then striding just as purposefully back out of the shop. Just long enough to tuck a book in with the newspaper under his arm. The next Friday he does the same, the Friday after that as he leaves I stand at the door and with baleful eye watch him cross the street to his bus. He doesn’t come back.
A young man is obviously drunk and tucking books under his denim jacket. As he leaves I say “Excuse me, excuse me” in an embarrassed tone. He is so obvious not even I could miss him. He immediately turns around with a sheepish grin and hands me back the books he has taken. “Please don’t come back” I say.
A young couple come in; they have the look of the drug users who come to the local pharmacy to get their methadone. They have been in before looking for true crime, last time they ended up spending $2 on a couple of magazines. My 15 year old son is helping me this day and pulls out eight books from a series they were looking for. As they leave ‘empty handed’ he says “Mum, I gave them eight books and they only gave me back five”.
