I Still Have Hope in People
Maybe that's a weird title. But I do..... I still have hope in people.
She was a regular customer. A Club Card Member. A customer that had poured her heart out to me and I had shared some of my life stories with her. When the wallet came up missing, we really didn't expect to see her face on the video tape stealing it. Apparently she didn't know that we have video cameras and that she was being filmed. She knows now. How sad. A lost friendship. A criminal record. A betrayal. All for a $39 wallet.
The real issue here is why. Why would a 60 year old woman, a "friend", steal something that she could clearly afford to buy? A cry for help? An addiction (like many others) that fills an emotional void? I don't know. We've seen it before and our reaction is consistent. We prosecute shoplifters. All shoplifters. Hopefully, this one will get the help she needs and will find out why she has the compulsion to steal.
I know she's hurting. We are too. This one (just like the shop owner we knew from a near by town that was caught stealing last March) stung deeply. Don't they know that God has a higher purpose for their lives? By prosecuting, my hope is that we help her get the help she so deparately needs. By writing this out, I guess I am getting the help I need to cope with another betrayal at the store. I still have hope in people. I know the majority of the people that come into our store are decent people. I will not let her take that away from me too. So, on we go.....Smiling, hoping, serving people as we always have.
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