Yesterday I went grocery shopping with the wife and kids, which I do about half the time anyway. The day before we were discussing how dangerous it is for women to shop alone during the Christmas season and how this year would probably be worse due to the economy. We've all heard of people getting robbed at the mall or coming out of the grocery store. We walk into the parking lot and I bump into an old friend I haven't seen in a long time. We naturally start talking while the wife is putting the groceries into the car. When done, she pushes her cart over to the cart storage area and comes back to the car where she immediately realizes that she left her purse on the cart! We look over to that area and there are three Walmart employees standing there. Two of them are gathering carts and the other has a large trash can on wheels that he is using to empty all the cans in the parking lot into. She walks over and asks about her purse. I'm thinking everything is fine cause they're employees, right? She yells to me that it's not there. The three guys split up and start walking away. I run over to the closest one and ask if he had seen her purse. He says no. So I tell him to pull up his sweat-shirt. He does and the purse isn't there. I then turn and go after the guy with the trash can. I stop him and tell him I want to look through the trash can. He seems okay with that and begins throwing the garbage out on the ground. I start looking through it one bag at a time. Well before I can get done he starts picking the bags up and throwing them back into the trashcan. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I guess I though since he was willing to let me look that maybe he didn't have it. I turn my attention back towards the other two guys and they are up at the store pushing the carts inisde.
Right about then, I see a policeman driving through the parking lot so I run over to him and tell him what had happened. There are two of them in the car. One goes inside the store to look at the surveilence tape while the other one helps me search the parking lot. We check all the trashcans, back of pick-up trucks etc...Nothing. The guy with the trash can goes missing. I see the other two but can't find him. The cop inside and the manager come out and they're looking for this guy as well but he won't answer his radio. About twenty minutes later he finally comes up front along with the guy I had originally told to pull up his shirt. They both start proclaiming their innocence. "Man, you know I didn't do it. I let you look under my shirt." Yeah, the other guys says, "You know I didn't do it either. I let you look through the trashcan." To which I say, "You didn't let me look through all the bags though, did you?" Well, the cops take these guys to the back and spend the next hour talking with them. Eventually they come over to us and return my wifes purse with EVERYTHING in it! She had almost $400 dollars in there plus her drivers license, bank cards etc...
I couldn't believe it. The officer says that our story was exactly what he saw in the video. Step by step. He even told me I should look into police work and that he'd give me a recommendation for the way I handled the situation. LOL. Anway, because I had immediately questioned them and then stopped the police, the guys got scarred. They didn't have time to look through the purse. Instead, they stashed it in a trashcan in the womens bathroom at the back of the store and planned to get it later. The cops played the good cop bad cop routine and threatened to take them to jail immediately if they kept BS'ing about what had happened and it worked. One of them spilled the beans and in turn the other one confessed. The tall guy I had approached and checked under his shirt picked the purse up, wrapped it up in something and handed it to the guy with the trashcan who shoved it in the bottom of the trashcan. God he's so lucky I didnt' see it in there. I'd probably be in jail right now. The wife decided since we had gotten everything back that she wouldn't press charges. She felt it was the right thing to do. She reasons that, since they were both immediatley fired, and because of the difficulty in finding and job around our area, plus the fact they can't draw unemployement that would be lesson enough to them. I don't know but it was her decision so I'll respect it.
Lesson of the story...men keep a close eye on your wives during this season and women keep your purse on your shoulder or better yet, leave it at home and take your debit card or only the amount of cash you need with you to the store. They can't use your debit card without the pin and if you take only the cash you need you won't lose everything. This was a Thanksgiving/Christmas blessing to us. I am currently out of work and that money was very important to us though not as important as her identity etc...All I can say is Thank God it turned out the way it did!
Oh yeah, three of the mangers at Walmart came up to us when it was over and apologized and gave us a $50 gift card for our trouble. I thought that was pretty cool too. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(P.S. If you don't believe in miracles or you are in some way offended by Christmas or the mention of Christ in that name, don't go spreading your poison in this thread. Save it for later. This is meant to be a good news story, not a political debate. Thanks.)