SmartyPants
New Member
i am so glad i found this website. after the experience i had yesterday, i am full of questions as to how the situation was handled and whether or not i should take any action.
i get my prescriptions at a local hospital apothecary: our insurance makes this a desireable thing to do as it costs much less per prescription there than in a drug store, etc. i am , unfortunately, in there quite often as i have many prescriptions and chronic health conditions. every now and then, when i am told it will be a wait of close to an hour for the script to be filled, and i don't have a book with me, i will go to the gift shop to browse. that is what i decided to do yesterday. i had some specific people in my mind to try to find little "feel better " gifts for and i knew i had at least 45 minutes to kill, so i took my time looking at a good number of items and actually READING greeting cards!
i was text messaging with both of my children at the time too, so occasionally i would stop, step to the side of the aisle, and do my texting. my son lives in maryland and is having the same employment nightmare the rest of the nation is having and is really struggling, so we were "talking"; my daughter is in college in pittsburgh and has a badly broken heart...so WE were "talking"......as i said, i touched a LOT of items, carrying some with me for a length of time, then changing my mind and returning them.
well, it seems that a "citizen", according to the security guards, was eating lunch in the cafeteria next door, which is separated from the gift shop by a wall of windows. i am very familiar with this set up because i am in the hospital, the gift shop, the cafeteria, many times each month. i recalled seeing a woman sitting facing the windowed wall, thinking to myself "what an odd way to be sitting while eating lunch in there", then deciding that maybe it was a better view because she could at least look at the stuffed animals instead of other people chewing!
she is the "citizen" who decided that i was putting things into my purse....and she "decided" this based on the fact that i was in the store for "a very long time". well pardon me, i didn't know there was a time limit!!!
i DID buy some items, spending about fifteen dollars. i had a nice chat with the lady at the register and i left. i went to the cafeteria next door to get some yogurt for lunch before returnign to the apothecary for my prescription.
i came out of the cafeteria and as i was walking up the hallway to the main hallway i saw the woman from the gift shop register peering down the hallway towards me....she did NOT look happy; i smiled and waved because we had JUST been chatting, but she did NOT smile back.
i walked downstairs to the ground level and was met, to my shock , by four security guards. they were staring right at me and talking among themselves, right in front of the entrance to the apothecary, so i just kept walking to go in there. but i was stopped and told to "stand right there".....NO ONE would tell me what was going on. i definitely was in a state of shock as i sat there trying to think of why this might be happening. the thoughts that went through my head were frightening.....i was thinking maybe i looked like some murder suspect and someone thought they had recognized me.....then i was afraid that it was going to be about my husband: he is a physician, he works for the hospital, and he is in the ER more often than he would care to be! every now and then, when some family member goes berserk against a doctor while in there, mostly out of fear and/or grief, my husband will tell me about it and we discuss our concerns about how ANYTHING can happen in the ER....a disgruntled family member could harm a doctor and no one would be able to predict or control it until it was too late. so, THAT thought was going through my head, irrationally obviously, because how would they know who i was and that i was int he hospital.??? like i said, it was a stressful shocking situation as far as i was concerned.
finally the head of security came back and took me into his inner sanctum....he very politely said that he was not accusing me of stealing but that the "citizen" who was watching me, the entire time i was in there, which is even stranger than someone taking 45 minutes to peruse a store!, said she "had a feeling" i had stolen something. it turns out that her concern was based on teh fact that i was 'touching the earrings' for "a long time"......okaaaaaaay.
so i was asked to take off my jacket, the short jacket under it, i had to turn them inside out to prove that there were no inside pockets, i had to dump out my overflowing , embarrasing purse, and two guards pawed through everything....then they asked for my license "to make a copy of it'. again, i was a woman in shock.....i didn't even respond except to hand them the license. it occurred to me afterwards that ofcourse, they were checking me out to see if i "have a record"; i dont' even have a parking ticket.
they gave me a consolation prize of a parking validation ticket. wasn't that just SO nice.??? i then had to go into the apothecary to get my prescription....everyone in there knows me...as i said, i am in there quite often. they all wanted to know what had happened. so i told them. every one of them was shocked too, that something like that could happen.
my guess is that the "citizen" who was in the cafeteria is employed by the hospital through security. it has to be. what she saw was a woman who had 45 minutes on her hands and lots of thoughts in her head about what little gift to buy her son, her daughter and her sister. end of story.
i spent $15 in the store by the way.
the search produced NOTHING because there was nothing to produce.
what bothers me the most is how they initially handled the situation, humiliating me in front of everyone in the hallways, in the apothecary where i do lots of business, in the place that employs my husband.....making me sit there and wait while they "got their information together", not even telling me what it was about.......i guess they are lucky that i am such a weenie and i immediately just shut down and SAT down....i almost fainted i was so upset. no apology from them either.....just a short lecture about how the "citizen" was doing the right thing by reporting what she THOUGHT was a crime.....that more people should do what she did, that they had no choice but to investigate. just to get out of there at that point, so i could faint at my own discretion, i agreed.....why ofcourse, ms. citizen of the world did the right thing, sure, ofcourse. bully for her.
then i started to get angry, after i left. i dont' react when i'm in the middle of a conflict....i have to process what has happened and then i respond, internally.
so am i just stuck with my anger and residual fear from the situation or should i go back to the security department and tell them i think the way they handled it SUCKED? or do i have "legal rights' here that were in some way violated. i ask because i truly do not know.
and i'd love to know why "the citizen" decided i was so interesting that she sat in the cafeteria for 45 minutes to watch me?
thank you for your advice.
i get my prescriptions at a local hospital apothecary: our insurance makes this a desireable thing to do as it costs much less per prescription there than in a drug store, etc. i am , unfortunately, in there quite often as i have many prescriptions and chronic health conditions. every now and then, when i am told it will be a wait of close to an hour for the script to be filled, and i don't have a book with me, i will go to the gift shop to browse. that is what i decided to do yesterday. i had some specific people in my mind to try to find little "feel better " gifts for and i knew i had at least 45 minutes to kill, so i took my time looking at a good number of items and actually READING greeting cards!
i was text messaging with both of my children at the time too, so occasionally i would stop, step to the side of the aisle, and do my texting. my son lives in maryland and is having the same employment nightmare the rest of the nation is having and is really struggling, so we were "talking"; my daughter is in college in pittsburgh and has a badly broken heart...so WE were "talking"......as i said, i touched a LOT of items, carrying some with me for a length of time, then changing my mind and returning them.
well, it seems that a "citizen", according to the security guards, was eating lunch in the cafeteria next door, which is separated from the gift shop by a wall of windows. i am very familiar with this set up because i am in the hospital, the gift shop, the cafeteria, many times each month. i recalled seeing a woman sitting facing the windowed wall, thinking to myself "what an odd way to be sitting while eating lunch in there", then deciding that maybe it was a better view because she could at least look at the stuffed animals instead of other people chewing!
she is the "citizen" who decided that i was putting things into my purse....and she "decided" this based on the fact that i was in the store for "a very long time". well pardon me, i didn't know there was a time limit!!!
i DID buy some items, spending about fifteen dollars. i had a nice chat with the lady at the register and i left. i went to the cafeteria next door to get some yogurt for lunch before returnign to the apothecary for my prescription.
i came out of the cafeteria and as i was walking up the hallway to the main hallway i saw the woman from the gift shop register peering down the hallway towards me....she did NOT look happy; i smiled and waved because we had JUST been chatting, but she did NOT smile back.
i walked downstairs to the ground level and was met, to my shock , by four security guards. they were staring right at me and talking among themselves, right in front of the entrance to the apothecary, so i just kept walking to go in there. but i was stopped and told to "stand right there".....NO ONE would tell me what was going on. i definitely was in a state of shock as i sat there trying to think of why this might be happening. the thoughts that went through my head were frightening.....i was thinking maybe i looked like some murder suspect and someone thought they had recognized me.....then i was afraid that it was going to be about my husband: he is a physician, he works for the hospital, and he is in the ER more often than he would care to be! every now and then, when some family member goes berserk against a doctor while in there, mostly out of fear and/or grief, my husband will tell me about it and we discuss our concerns about how ANYTHING can happen in the ER....a disgruntled family member could harm a doctor and no one would be able to predict or control it until it was too late. so, THAT thought was going through my head, irrationally obviously, because how would they know who i was and that i was int he hospital.??? like i said, it was a stressful shocking situation as far as i was concerned.
finally the head of security came back and took me into his inner sanctum....he very politely said that he was not accusing me of stealing but that the "citizen" who was watching me, the entire time i was in there, which is even stranger than someone taking 45 minutes to peruse a store!, said she "had a feeling" i had stolen something. it turns out that her concern was based on teh fact that i was 'touching the earrings' for "a long time"......okaaaaaaay.
so i was asked to take off my jacket, the short jacket under it, i had to turn them inside out to prove that there were no inside pockets, i had to dump out my overflowing , embarrasing purse, and two guards pawed through everything....then they asked for my license "to make a copy of it'. again, i was a woman in shock.....i didn't even respond except to hand them the license. it occurred to me afterwards that ofcourse, they were checking me out to see if i "have a record"; i dont' even have a parking ticket.
they gave me a consolation prize of a parking validation ticket. wasn't that just SO nice.??? i then had to go into the apothecary to get my prescription....everyone in there knows me...as i said, i am in there quite often. they all wanted to know what had happened. so i told them. every one of them was shocked too, that something like that could happen.
my guess is that the "citizen" who was in the cafeteria is employed by the hospital through security. it has to be. what she saw was a woman who had 45 minutes on her hands and lots of thoughts in her head about what little gift to buy her son, her daughter and her sister. end of story.
i spent $15 in the store by the way.
the search produced NOTHING because there was nothing to produce.
what bothers me the most is how they initially handled the situation, humiliating me in front of everyone in the hallways, in the apothecary where i do lots of business, in the place that employs my husband.....making me sit there and wait while they "got their information together", not even telling me what it was about.......i guess they are lucky that i am such a weenie and i immediately just shut down and SAT down....i almost fainted i was so upset. no apology from them either.....just a short lecture about how the "citizen" was doing the right thing by reporting what she THOUGHT was a crime.....that more people should do what she did, that they had no choice but to investigate. just to get out of there at that point, so i could faint at my own discretion, i agreed.....why ofcourse, ms. citizen of the world did the right thing, sure, ofcourse. bully for her.
then i started to get angry, after i left. i dont' react when i'm in the middle of a conflict....i have to process what has happened and then i respond, internally.
so am i just stuck with my anger and residual fear from the situation or should i go back to the security department and tell them i think the way they handled it SUCKED? or do i have "legal rights' here that were in some way violated. i ask because i truly do not know.
and i'd love to know why "the citizen" decided i was so interesting that she sat in the cafeteria for 45 minutes to watch me?
thank you for your advice.
i agree that they responded lawfully, doing their job, but........something about the experience just doesn't feel "right"....like the whole first part of it, where i was APPREHENDED!!!
