Okay, so you’ve definitely clicked on this article because of the crazy title. DISCLAIMER: I am not a criminal nor did I do anything illegal. Ever. Even though that’s true, believe it or not this article isn’t click bait. Buckle your seatbelt for a crazy story time with me. It’s going to be a long one but it’s worth it!
So, let me take you back to a time that seemed like paradise compared to 2020: the summer of 2018. It was the summer before I began my senior year of high school and I was thriving. I’ve been invited on a couple of family vacations with one of my closest and oldest friends so you can imagine how excited I was to be invited up to Cape Cod in the middle of July. Going on these little trips with my friend and her family are some of my favorite memories. So, you could see why I was so excited to go. Needless to say, this turned out to be a trip I will never forget. We had a fantastic week exploring Cape Cod. We went everywhere from beaches, to Provincetown and cute restaurants. We even celebrated my birthday there and ate a ton of lobster. It was the perfect day.
Not long after that, we took about an hour drive to a little town that had a huge outlet shopping mall for us to do some spending. We were having a pretty much perfect day: I bought a ton of fun stuff, got to try one of the nitro cold brew drinks from Starbucks and enjoyed a really nice lunch. Towards the end of our trip, we stopped in a Francesca’s for some last-minute shopping before we headed back to the Airbnb. Now, this Francesca’s was HUGE. I’m not sure about everyone else, but Francesca’s is unfortunately a hit or miss for me. Depending on the location, I can either walk out with hundreds of dollars’ worth of stuff or nothing at all. This store had the best stuff and both my friend, and I tried to look at every single square inch of that store. My friend’s dad waited outside with the dog (who we hid in a baby stroller. it was pretty iconic to say the least) and her mom was shopping in another store. I tried on a ton of clothes and sent pictures to my mom to verify my purchases since she was the one loading money onto my card. She liked pretty much everything I tried on and agreed to me getting it. We both hopped in line and made our purchases. My friend bought a couple of things and I ended up spending over a hundred dollars in this store. Yes, a hundred dollars (which you should keep in mind because it’s important for later.) The girls working the cashier were around our age and were no older than 20. They were both super nice, easy to talk to, and even got us two discounts including a college student one (which we weren’t technically supposed to get.) We finished up and joined my friend’s dad outside while we waited for the mom. Now, some more important information from our first trip in the store was my friend kept smelling this perfume and was debating buying it. She must’ve gone over and smelled in a million times. She quickly doubted her decision not to get it, so we headed back in to check it out after around ten minutes of waiting outside. Without question, my friend went back up to the cash register to buy it. That was our second trip in. After that one purchase we went back outside only to realize immediately after my friend’s mom was going to check Francesca’s out. Third trip’s a charm, right?
We did a final sweep through the store and started discovering new things my friend’s mom pointed out, so we continued shopping. At this point in time, we both noticed some weird whispering between the employees. There were much more people in the store at this point compared to the first time we went in and it was just us. Now, when things get kinda fuzzy so bear with me (you’ve made it this far.) Both my friend and I were waiting in line for the third time. From what I remember, we both were making additional purchases and really couldn’t stop spending. Apparently, my friend’s mom left momentarily, and I don’t remember why but it was just my friend Mackenzie and I (shout out to my bestie hehe.) Anyways, there was a cop standing towards the front of the store whispering with an employee. We both were thinking “wow, what the hell is happening with that?” and neither of us would’ve ever thought it was about us. Next thing we know, in front of EVERYONE, a very scary and intimidating cop comes up to us and asks to speak with us. I went into sheer panic mode. Not to flex, but I’ve never been a bad kid. Growing up, I never got in trouble and never went to the principle. I’ve always behaved and have never been in serious trouble, especially like this. Neither had Mackenzie. He pulls us over towards the front of the store and stares at us. We both exchanged uncomfortable glances and I felt like I was ready to pass out. The blood drained from both our faces and we looked unwell to say the least. Everyone in the store was staring at us and whispering. There was also no one in the store under the age of 40. People even started showing up outside the store because it was glass, and everything was visible. Oh! I almost forgot. They called the police besides the officer inside the store with us. Like, no joke there was a police car with the lights on right outside the store and another officer arrived. I can’t make this up. I felt like my head was spinning and I was racking my mind for any possible explanation. The officer finally asks us why we think he’s speaking to us and we both just stare back at him. I don’t even remember if I was physically capable of speaking in this moment. He continued to tell us we were suspected of shoplifting and asked to search our stuff. Yes, you heard that correctly: SHOPLIFTING. We both nodded vigorously and handed over our bags with the receipts still enclosed. He proceeded to spend the next ten minutes, still in front of everyone, and search through every single one of the items in our shopping bags and purse. He meticulously checked the receipts as we both stood there ready to pass out. Now I know what you’re thinking: Caroline, this seems a bit dramatic. I assure you, the terror I felt in this moment is not being embellished at all. If anything, there are no words to describe how I felt. Imagine just going about your day and a cop pulls you off to the side, publicly humiliates you and you did nothing wrong. While the cop was searching through my stuff (my literal hundreds of dollars’ worth of stuff,) I was racking my brain worrying that I accidently shoplifted. I knew I didn’t, and I never would, but with all the anxiety coursing through me I couldn’t help but think maybe I actually did do something wrong. Meanwhile, Mackenzie looked like she was ready to cry, too be fair I did too. We were only seventeen at the time and we were terrified. He finally tells us were all good and hands us our stuff back. He very sternly tells us that we were suspected of shoplifting because we spent an excessive amount of time in the store. Yup. We actually had the cops called on us because we shopped too long in a store. To be fair, it was maybe a little over an hour we were in there. Yet, the store employees felt it necessary to call the police on us. He said some other stuff to us (it wasn’t very nice either) but truthfully, I don’t even remember what it was. We walked out of the store as the officer continued talking to the employees. At this point in time, my friends’ parents were both alarmed when we came out and told them that the cop car (which was still there by the way) was there for us. So was the officer. We both could barely talk but briefly explained what happened before my friend’s mom marched into the store ready to rip them a new one. A crowd of people still stood outside staring at us as we both had emotional breakdowns in public. Very long story short, Mackenzie’s mom talked to the cop and the employees and gave them a piece of her mind. The workers ended up apologizing to us profusely, which we deserved because the whole situation was ridiculous. We ended up getting the full story as to why the cops were called. First, we spent a lot of time in the store. Second, I was in the dressing room a long time. Clarification, I was in there for maybe 15 minutes, trying on various different outfits and sending them for my mom’s opinion. Third, we came in multiple times and they’ve been victim of shoplifting recently. So somehow, us being there for a long period of time warranted having the police called and accusing us of shoplifting. It was truly ridiculous, especially considering we both made purchases. I personally made a pretty large one. The workers explained they weren’t sure what to do so just called secretary and the police. You know the rest of the story.
To say the least, we were both emotionally raw after and have a little trauma when going to Francesca’s now… we both definitely see it totally different now. The whole situation ended up working out and we headed home, but unfortunately our day of fun was ruined. The only fun thing about this experience is hands down telling people “oh, yeah! I was almost arrested one time on vacation!” and their reaction is always priceless. But I then go on to explain we were totally falsely accused, and it all was fine. Still terrifying though. Fun fact: you can see the cop talking to the workers about us in a snapchat video I took of Mackenzie doing something funny in line before he talked to us. I shudder every time that video comes up in my snap memories. Anyways, everything aside, maybe the lesson is don’t spend more than an hour in one store or else you’ll be falsely accused of a crime? Or maybe that was just at the terrible store we went too… regardless, I hope you enjoyed this wild story time with me!