Plainly, the guy was a thief; and not a very smart one to pay for his
larcenous purchase with a credit card. I would not have confronted him and
give him a chance to correct the "mistake". Instead, after he left, I would
have called the store manager to the clerks location and explained the
situation in such a way as to not embarrass the clerk. The manager could
then do whatever store policy recommends when thievery is discovered on
credit card purchases.

Bob Swinney


"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...
Today I was in Home Depot, standing in line to pay for a couple rolls of
hardware cloth. In front of me was a gentleman, and I use that term
loosely, that had placed on the counter six one inch electrical PVC ells,
along with six couplings, each of which was attached to the ells. The
ells had their UPC stamped on them, but the connectors had a stick-on
label.
To a woman clerk, that may or may not be wise to how such things look and
are used, it was very easy for the items to be scanned by the label only,
considering the UPC on the ells blended well with the other data printed
thereon.

That's what happened. The buyer paid with a credit card, the total
coming
to under $3. It was obvious to me that he had placed the connectors on
the
ells intentionally, likely thinking they would get scanned just as they
did.
I did more than nothing, but I'm interested in hearing what others might
think would have been a good course of action to take. When I've heard
various opinions, I'll describe what I did, and why I did it.

Comments?

Harold