18 Year Olds Tried To Take From Boots, Got Caught And No Police Involved - Whats The Next Steps?

[Anonymous1]

Me and my friend are 18 years old and we stupidly tried to take some things from Boots like makeup and probiotic but we took the wrapper off which makes it look suspicious. As we left the store we got caught by the security guard and dragged into the store. He took pictures of us, the items and our provisional driving licenses. He didn’t say much at all to us and seemed very *** off. Then he told us to leave without calling the police but will the police be informed about it now?

We fully regret our decisions and are willing to pay for our consequences. However we are unsure of what these consequences will be. From what we have read online, we think that we will be sent a letter home for us to pay a fine but who will send this letter? Will it be the police or Boots? Also, what will the envelope look like because we don’t want our parents finding and opening it. What are the next steps?

If anyone could help us with these details, we would be grateful.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh yeah I see
you are at uni - and they 'may' write to you at your parents address.

well you can do very little about that.... and saying to Mum, the letter than has a striped purple edge and is from the Fraud and Theft Dept, Dont open it
will just make her search more... diligently

wait and see

[Peter Pedant]

// a parent opening their adult child's post// BN
Lordy - wind back to 1980
I get a letter - er unopened from HMRC saying I was working in Egypt and wishing to have details of my income so I cd pay English tax on it

and I whined: "dirt poor, paid nothing.... but how on earth did they find out I was at work in Egypt

and my mama said - oh I wrote and told them!
They wrote to you asking where you are , and I wrote back saying you were working in Egypt!

did you keep a copy of their letter and your reply? (nope)

so BN mummies can try to help and just make it......
(Big thing was persuading the Taxman I was working for nuthin'. No one works for nuthin' was their reasonable view)

[Peter Pedant]

sozza anon
intercepting letters at home - - - no n starter

[Khandro]

Anonymous1. Ignore this man ^^ Nothing further will happen.

[MWG14]

My wife is a former employee of four different branches of Boots. She tells me that your photos/descriptions will also be passed in to other stores nearby so that they can spot you and monitor you as soon as you enter them. It is a ring around system.

[Peter Pedant]

well done MWG - clear answer
khandro -calm yourself - people ignore me without your say so

[and since my advice is wait and see-- - er well I wdnt ignore... no no too detailed]

the last bit anon was about parents reading their dear children's mail

[New Judge]

Mostly been covered but no, you won't see a fine imposed by Boots. Only a court can impose a phone. What some retailers do is to try to recover their costs (of security, store detectives, etc. and any goods stolen but unrecovered or damaged) through the "Civil Recovery." This means they will send you a bill. Court rulings have made it clear that they cannot attempt to recover more than they have lost. That is, they cannot add a bit on to help with their overall bills for security. You are free to ignore their bill and let them take you to a civil court to recover it. Few do that and even fewer for the every low value involved here.

[New Judge]

^^^

Only a court can impose a **fine**...

[Barquentine]

The courts have enormous backlogs of cases. The police are totally overworked. The value of what you tried to take is de minimis. If you or your home address receive any communication (which seems very unlikely)- make sure you verify who sent it. My suspicions are raised by the security guard actions - getting your photo and address. Call the police yourselves (get a burner phone to call them anonymously) - explain what you did, what the security guard did and ask their advice. They will most likely tell you not to worry.