Reader wrote:

I was robbed at the checkout, and the store’s response was that it was not their problem: “Please call the police”! And this is not about the scale of the theft, but about the store’s conduct!

[...] I was shopping at Bricomarché. I bought puncture-repair patches and three drinks. A man was also shopping in front of me at the checkout. While the cashier was scanning my items, the man in front was collecting the products he had bought. Everything was on one small counter.

The cashiers do not wait for the customer to leave; they simply cram the purchases of the person in front and the person behind together, as long as it is quicker.

The man also took—stole—my patches, which had already been scanned and had ended up on the counter, formally on the other side of the checkout. While I was busy paying, the customer in front of me left the store with my goods.

After I paid for my goods, it turned out that the patches were gone. The woman claimed that she had put them on the counter and that it was no longer her concern! I thought they had fallen somewhere, but it turned out that they had not. I left the checkout, slightly surprised, and even walked out of the store, but after a moment I returned to speak to the cashier again. I said that I had been robbed at the checkout, before I had even left the counter, and that in such a situation the store should also accept some responsibility! At least that is how it seems to me! Ultimately, the fact that I had been robbed was confirmed by the cashier, who reviewed the CCTV footage. The store manager, who did not feel obliged to come out to me at all, stated through the cashier that if I had any complaints, I could call the police, and that they, as a store, did not feel responsible in any way.

And he added:

This is about a trivial matter, because the patches cost only PLN 5.49. However, the situation shows how we may be treated by the Bricomarché store. And this is not about the money, because I certainly would not bother officers over such a small amount, but about some—if unwritten—principle; ultimately, I was robbed in a store at the checkout! The way items are scanned in a crowded checkout is also partly to blame! I think that in the end the store will lose financially and in terms of its reputation. I dare say it will lose more than those unfortunate puncture-repair patches costing a few złoty are worth. However, this probably goes beyond the imagination of the management of this establishment…

It is worth adding that Reader returned to the store and bought… another set of puncture-repair patches.

We contacted the press office of the Muszkieterowie Group about the matter. Ewelina Weber, a PR specialist, replied to us yesterday:

Thank you for contacting us. We have addressed the situation described by you and are in the process of clarifying it.

As soon as we receive an official response from the press office, we will publish it on istotne.pl. What do you think about all this? Has anything similar ever happened to you?