Safeway had 2 stores unlocked/unattended over Christmas

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

From my neck of the woods what would happen in your area?


ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- Safeway officials said they are scratching their heads after a bizarre set of circumstances left two Roseville stores unlocked over the Christmas holiday.

Even more surprising, police confirm nothing was stolen even though shoppers had gotten inside.

Police told KCRA 3 that two different Safeway stores in Roseville were left unlocked on Christmas Eve.

One Safeway store was located on Pleasant Grove at Roseville Parkway and the other store was located on Sunrise and Kirby streets.

Police said when they showed up at 3:30 p.m. Friday they found that people had been taking items and leaving money at the registers.

Customers outside one Roseville Safeway store said they couldn't quite believe it.

"That's crazy. How would they forget to lock the store up," said Roseville resident Leanna Havens.

"Oh, wow. That's shocking actually," said Roseville resident Ron Hollingsworth.

In fact, according to Roseville police, they were unlocked on Christmas afternoon and that wasn't the only surprise when they arrived.

"A customer, from inside the store, said there was a lot of customers in the store. We went over there. There was actually a report of customers leaving money on the counter, purchasing merchandise," said Lt. Mark Toupin, with Roseville police.

Police said there was no looting and no theft.

"[I'm] surprised they would leave money. And you know, surprised they didn't get completely ripped off," said Roseville resident Leanna Havens. "People were in there getting groceries and just leaving money at the register because there was nobody to take the money."

Another Safeway store, a few miles away, was also found unlocked with no thefts and in both cases, company spokeswoman Susan Houghton blamed the problem on a lock malfunction.

"These are 24-hour stores, so they're not locked a lot," Houghton said.

Houghton said she called the outbreak of honesty a display of Christmas spirit and shoppers on Saturday said it was the only thing that makes sense.

"That's awesome. I can't wait to get home and tell the family," said Roseville resident Dan Allen.

"I'll be darned. Well, that was a really nice Christmas gesture, wasn't it," said Lincoln resident Roy Chase.

Safeway said the first store was left unlocked for almost four hours on Christmas Eve and the second store was unlocked for just over a half hour on Christmas Day.


The edit includes the full story that came out today.

[Fordel]

Safeway is a grocery chain, right?

[NiX]

Safeway is a grocery chain, right?

Yeah

[Bzalthek]

That's pretty cool, actually.

[Kail]

Bear in mind that "Safeway has not reported any missing items" is not the same as "no items were missing."  I worked security at a Safeway, and the store usually didn't go 24 hours without a theft, even with uniformed guards.  And you don't leave the doors unlocked at night, or homeless people start getting in (though that's not usually an issue at Safeways here since they have people in 24/7 barring holidays).

[NiX]

I'm sure someone stole, but at the same time you have to admire the fact that people paid and no one stole that money.

[Samwise]

From my neck of the woods what would happen in your area?

I find this statement interesting, but I don't want to drag it to Politics by discussing it.  I'll content myself with a  .

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

From my neck of the woods what would happen in your area?

I find this statement interesting, but I don't want to drag it to Politics by discussing it.  I'll content myself with a  .

People on the KCRA3 website (were this story comes from) have the same questions, the community is different there than say a place that is hard hit by the economy.

[Samwise]

 

[Righ]

Poor people tend to be more honest than rich ones. That's why they are the poor people. If it had been an upmarket grocer in the Hamptons it would have been stripped bare, and the opportunistic businessmen would have resold the merchandise in their own stores.

[schild]

Poor people tend to be more honest than rich ones. That's why they are the poor people. If it had been an upmarket grocer in the Hamptons it would have been stripped bare, and the opportunistic businessmen would have resold the merchandise in their own stores.

lol

[NowhereMan]

Everyone knows rich people are fastidiously honest with small amounts of money but will more than happily fuck over whole families and communities for the sake of profit. Poor people tend to have their own dishonesty limited by opportunity.

[angry.bob]

Everyone knows rich people are fastidiously honest with small amounts of money but will more than happily fuck over whole families and communities for the sake of profit. Poor people tend to have their own dishonesty limited by opportunity.

We need to go back to using green. Because I know that's got to be sarcasm. If it's not you may as well put this in Politics right now.

[NowhereMan]

That ain't sarcasm It's actuaall irony since it's written rather than spoken with a distinctive sarcastic tone.

[Brogarn]

Everyone knows rich people are fastidiously honest with small amounts of money but will more than happily fuck over whole families and communities for the sake of profit. Poor people tend to have their own dishonesty limited by opportunity.

Poor people tend to be more honest than rich ones. That's why they are the poor people. If it had been an upmarket grocer in the Hamptons it would have been stripped bare, and the opportunistic businessmen would have resold the merchandise in their own stores.

The politics of some of the people on this board are just... 

Also; awesome story.

[Signe]

Then there are those people who are unable (or unwilling) to recognise humour.  Don't forget them.   

[Brogarn]

Then there are those people who are unable (or unwilling) to recognise humour.  Don't forget them.   

There are also people who can be completely oblivious to intended sarcasm before consuming the necessary second cup of coffee needed for higher brain function.

In other words: I completely missed any humor if intended. My bad.

I do believe there are people on this board who do consider all rich people are properly caricatured by Mr. Burns, though.

[NiX]

They wouldn't blot out the sun for profit?

[Venkman]

Still on the same planet as the rest of it.

Back on topic, I'd be less surprised if these Safeways had self checkout. I could totally see people just shopping and self-checking, assuming the staff are "somewhere else". It's the same mental state as stopping at a red light in the middle of nowhere with nothing to hide cops. Pavlovian reflex.

[NowhereMan]

I thought of the 'pay here and collect your own change' bit from Clerks. Also my statement while not really serious was really meant to be more, "Everyone's a fucker when it comes to improving their standard of life' but rich people don't need to break windows to do it and poor peope don't get the opportunity to shortsell a stock and screw hundreds of investors.

[Merusk]

I seem to recall, once a long time ago, reading about a study that was done similar to this.  IIRC it showed that everyone was willing to pay, but the lack of any visible authority made them even MORE nervous and anxious to be exact or even overpay the amount owed than having someone there.   Something about invisible authority inducing the paranoia that they WERE watching you, whereas if you could see them you knew if they weren't.


  Damned if I can remember where I read it, though.

[NiX]

Sounds like a pretty logical way for people to think, especially with all the fuss about wire tapping and privacy.

[Samwise]

It's also possible that some people just want to make sure they pay what they owe, or that others' trust in them isn't misplaced.

[NowhereMan]

On the other hand I've learned that people who pay money into a church collection plate and then get some change out generally don't have that nervousness of unseen authority. Which is probably ironic somehow.