I am a 37 year old mother of two homeschool children and last Thursday afternoon, my daughter and I went out to run a few quick errands. My son was in bed sick and his father was working from home so we were rushing and on the next to last of our stops at a grocery store. I went in through the south entrance of the store, grabbed a cart and proceeded to the customer service desk for a carton of cigarettes. My daughter (9) had been fussing since walking through the door to get into the cart because her legs were tired. I dropped the carton, and my very large purse into the top portion of the cart.
As we were going through the store I remembered a tablecloth that we had seen on our last visit and swung down the isle. I looked at the table cloth and even removed it partially from the package to check the fabric and get my daughters opinion on whether or not it would match the decor in our home. We decided against it, I put it back on the shelf, but we wandered if the placemats would look ok with the black table cloth we have. Not having the time to stand there and debate it, I got 6 mats, napkins and holders and placed them in the top of the basket on top of my purse to decide before we got to the register.
A few isles down, my cell phone started going off. I was receiving texts from my son and grabbing the items that I needed off the shelf, and I also realized that I had missed a few calls/texts. I remember that the mats were shifting all over when I was trying to get into my purse and I rolled them all up together. I also grabbed my wallet and day planner out of my purse so that I would have my card for the check out and could check my list because with rushing around I knew I would end up forgetting something.
We wrapped up the last few items, I stopped to get my daughter out of the cart so that I could go through check out. I went through the check out and as we were walking out the door to go to the car a man approached and asked about the mats. I immediately began searching for them through the top of the cart and told him that I had completely forgotten about them and apologized offering to turn around and pay for them, but he told me that I had my chance and took my daughter and I into a side room.
To make this story a bit less lengthy I will try to sum up the events that followed. The man accussed me of having done "This sort of thing often with my daughter" because I "had her trained well" he had her so terrified, and would not let me cross the room to comfort her. When I attempted to use my cell phone to call my husband to come get her, he physically restrained my hands and told me that I had no right to do that because I was "under arrest" He went through the rest of my purse and picked out anything else that looked new and questioned me about those items.
When the officer arrived on the scene I did explain the situation to him. He said that because I was not admitting to having intentionally taken the items that the usual steps where he wrote up a paper and gave me a court date then released me could not be followed. He had me call my husband to pick up my daughter and then once she was gone took me to the police car, handcuffed me in the back of the car, and took me to central booking where I was processed. Once I was processed the officer returned with a warrant (not issued by the police, but from the store - he made that clear several times). I was then put in front some one who released me on ROR and I have a court date coming up in about 2 weeks. I was also wondering at what point was I placed under arrest "officially"? Are they supposed to read you rights or something? Was I under arrest when the officer got there? When I got in the car? When I got to booking? Or is that determined at court, will that determine if I am arrested?
Please help me! I am embarrassed, humiliated and scared to death! I really did not mean to do this! I have major medical issues (a morphine pain infusion pump, severe insomnia and depression) along with all the things that I have taken on lately that have made me a complete scatter brain! I made a mistake that I know but I swear I did not mean to intentionally leave with these items!
As we were going through the store I remembered a tablecloth that we had seen on our last visit and swung down the isle. I looked at the table cloth and even removed it partially from the package to check the fabric and get my daughters opinion on whether or not it would match the decor in our home. We decided against it, I put it back on the shelf, but we wandered if the placemats would look ok with the black table cloth we have. Not having the time to stand there and debate it, I got 6 mats, napkins and holders and placed them in the top of the basket on top of my purse to decide before we got to the register.
A few isles down, my cell phone started going off. I was receiving texts from my son and grabbing the items that I needed off the shelf, and I also realized that I had missed a few calls/texts. I remember that the mats were shifting all over when I was trying to get into my purse and I rolled them all up together. I also grabbed my wallet and day planner out of my purse so that I would have my card for the check out and could check my list because with rushing around I knew I would end up forgetting something.
We wrapped up the last few items, I stopped to get my daughter out of the cart so that I could go through check out. I went through the check out and as we were walking out the door to go to the car a man approached and asked about the mats. I immediately began searching for them through the top of the cart and told him that I had completely forgotten about them and apologized offering to turn around and pay for them, but he told me that I had my chance and took my daughter and I into a side room.
To make this story a bit less lengthy I will try to sum up the events that followed. The man accussed me of having done "This sort of thing often with my daughter" because I "had her trained well" he had her so terrified, and would not let me cross the room to comfort her. When I attempted to use my cell phone to call my husband to come get her, he physically restrained my hands and told me that I had no right to do that because I was "under arrest" He went through the rest of my purse and picked out anything else that looked new and questioned me about those items.
When the officer arrived on the scene I did explain the situation to him. He said that because I was not admitting to having intentionally taken the items that the usual steps where he wrote up a paper and gave me a court date then released me could not be followed. He had me call my husband to pick up my daughter and then once she was gone took me to the police car, handcuffed me in the back of the car, and took me to central booking where I was processed. Once I was processed the officer returned with a warrant (not issued by the police, but from the store - he made that clear several times). I was then put in front some one who released me on ROR and I have a court date coming up in about 2 weeks. I was also wondering at what point was I placed under arrest "officially"? Are they supposed to read you rights or something? Was I under arrest when the officer got there? When I got in the car? When I got to booking? Or is that determined at court, will that determine if I am arrested?
Please help me! I am embarrassed, humiliated and scared to death! I really did not mean to do this! I have major medical issues (a morphine pain infusion pump, severe insomnia and depression) along with all the things that I have taken on lately that have made me a complete scatter brain! I made a mistake that I know but I swear I did not mean to intentionally leave with these items!
