Sorry. One consolation is that your sons *did* learn a lesson here. I bet next time someone in authority falsely accuses them they’ll be less intimidated and realize that stating their case will pay off.

Bad situation though.

That is shit. Never mind, at some point in the future you can go to the store with your kid and publicly point at member of staff and tell your kid that they better work hard at school or they too will be stuck only being able to get a job as rubbish as that.

😆 @convert !

That is shit. Never mind, at some point in the future you can go to the store with your kid and publicly point at member of staff and tell your kid that they better work hard at school or they too will be stuck only being able to get a job as rubbish as that

That’s a bit harsh, someone has to work in the shops where you buy your shit. Shelves don’t stack themselves. Or do you expect grateful immigrants to do it for free?

Back to the OP, at the very least I’d be asking the manager for a letter of apology from the member of staff concerned, might teach them to think first next time.

Asda?

Surprised they didn’t give him a smack on the arse…

Ohh my.. This story makes me well up!!.

Your boys must have felt so sad and probably quite intimidated and scared too, especially the for the Autistic brother.

We have a 4ry old boy who is currently being diagnosed to fit somewhere on the Autism spectrum so I can relate.
I feel quite anxious for him when he gets older and how he will have to deal with these situations on his own, this story further worries me.

The world is hard and full of mistakes and this experience must be massively difficult for an Autistic sufferer to understand.

I hope they do learn from this and realise it was a big mistake.

Maybe take them both out to the shops again (probs not Asda) and repeat the process to show them it works 99.9% of the time.? Try to show them how the mistake happened? (if you can find any reason)

I’d be asking the manager to arrange some sort of complimentary behind the scenes visit to the store. It could be quite interesting and also help to restore your boy’s trust in shopping.

That’s a bit harsh, someone has to work in the shops where you buy your shit. Shelves don’t stack themselves.

+1. Doing such a useful job ought to be a source of pride.

I wasn’t exactly polite to the manager

Ah so you behaved like the scum behave.

Unfortunately people who routinely deal with scum end up treating people like that

Reminds me of when my sister was doing my grandfather’s weekly shop and was stopped on the way out, accused of shoplifting and given a pat-down search. She was 13. My father – who isn’t exactly small – marched into the shop, grabbed the offending Saturday boy by the scruff of the neck, grabbed the manager by his scruff and yelled at them about sexual abuse. The security guard managed to calm him down and move them into the manager’s office. I think the boy got sacked and my sister got a written apology.

Never mind, at some point in the future you can go to the store with your kid and publicly point at member of staff and tell your kid that they better work hard at school or they too will be stuck only being able to get a job as rubbish as that.

The problem with that is that there’s every chance that the person you’re mocking is a student working their way through further education.

I worked in a supermarket for 4 years and 75% of the staff were part timers and mostly students. The recruitment process for the part timers was more competitive than most professional jobs i’ve ever applied for because the supermarket  could afford to be choosy and only wanted intelligent hardworking kids who would consistently show up for the shifts.

In my limited,  entirely anecdotal experience, more than half of the supermarket staff that I worked with  subsequently went on to  have much, much better jobs.

So “You better work work hard at school, so you’re able to secure a rubbish job like this,  so you can go to University and need to take a rubbish job like this to pay for it” would probably be more accurate.

I got accused of shoplifting in Halfords once. Had to empty my bag out within the shop! Very upsetting.

I would go ballistic, accusing someone without any evidence of theft and then stealing their toy is utterly outrageous – shop worker should be fired.

*arrives to watch the fight begin*

Kicks mashr on the backside and blames Dez

‘runs off to get cake’

Can’t stand over-zealous power-crazy security guards. You are under no obligation to show anyone what you’ve bought, or a receipt. It is up to them to prove otherwise.

No doubt someone will be along to say that “they’re only doing their job”.

On a similar vein i was spotted driving in a M & S car park brand new shop so not used to it, i went 30 yards against the direction arrow polis gave me a ticking off. I argued its a private car park, there was no one else moving. Took me back to not the nine oclock news sketch trumped up charges, wearing a loud shirt, walking in town with an offensive wife and walking on the cracks of the pavement

They’re only doing their job.

In this case, badly.

When I worked in a supermarket, we had strict rules about challenging potential shoplifters.

You had to have seen then take an item and actually leave the store. Clearly, either Asda has different rules, which i very much doubt, or the staff member just didn’t follow those rules.

Was this the guy perchy?

Sounds like the shop made a mistake, the kids weren’t sure how to handle it but I’m sure my kids wouldn’t be sure either and then Dad made a mistake and got angry.

I argued its a private car park, there was no one else moving

A private car park for public use means it falls under a public area.

Yes we should point and laugh people who made different career choices it’s such a great thing to do. 🙄

How very boring. Things like this happen every day

I honestly thought that to start with. But then.. where’s the fun thread there!? 🙂