Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!prls!gordon
From: gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Stock Control Tags and Theft
Message-ID: <46609@prls.UUCP>
Date: 31 Oct 90 18:14:36 GMT
References: <13911@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com> <2772@naucse.cse.nau.edu> <1990Oct30.181149.226@phri.nyu.edu>
Reply-To: gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers)
Organization: Philips Research Labs, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 36

In some previous article, somebody wrote:
>> the "security" guy said he saw me put something in my front pocket. I
>> did, a somewhat used Kleenex. The manager told me to empty my pocets and
>> I refused.
>
In article <1990Oct30.181149.226@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
>	What's your problem?  The security guy's job is to make sure that
>people don't walk out of the store without paying for stuff, a perfectly

[ WARNING: I'm not spelling worth a damn today. Save your flames.]    :-)
      One doesn't make accusations irresponsably.  There are alot of valid
   reasons why a customer may put something that they themselves own, into
   a pocket.  The guard had no reason to suspect that the object was store
   property.
      Wouldn't you feel several differant emotions if it were YOU the guard
   had stopped ?
      I had a similar experiance when I was a kid.  I was shopping for a
   small ("Tot") stapler.  The guard saw me looking at them, and he also
   saw some open packages with the staplers gone.  Rather than buy the
   stapler, I decided to just buy more staples for my old stapler.  Just
   as I was leaving the check-out, the guard stopped me, looked in the
   bag to see what I had bought, and then had me empty my pockets.
      It was a horriable experiance.  Lots of customers walking by, looking
   at me and many problably making the wrong conclusions.  It was humiliating,
   embarressing, and degrading.  I tried to rationalize it my telling myself
   that the guard was just doing his job. But, he wasn't !  My rights
   were violated and for years afterwards, I would get tense everytime
   I was leaving a store, wondering if some guard would stop me again.
      I think the gentalman above acted properly.  The guard will prehaps
   be more respectful of the rights of others, choosing to be more carefull
   and avoid wasting time on a conjucture.

Gordon Vickers 408/991-5370        {mips,pyramid|philabs}!prls!gordon  
Signetics in Sunnyvale,Ca (USA)
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