Christmas day criminals . . . well. . . almost. . .

On Christmas day Joe and I went for a ride to find a grocery store to get a few things for dinner that we had forgotten to get earlier. We went to a couple of stores close by and nothing was open. But we finally found an Albertsons that had cars parked in the parking lot. Good sign!! There were people walking in. Even better!! Yeah! They must be open. So we went in too.

As we walked in the automatic door wasn't working and was only open a few inches. Joe had to push it open so we could walk in.

I noticed that only half of the lights were on in the store.

My thoughts: "They must be having a slight power outage."
Joe's thoughts: "We better hurry. . . they must be about ready to close."

I sent Joe to find a couple items and I hurried down an isle to find a few more. I noticed several people talking to a lady over by one of the cash registers.

I assumed: "She must be having a hard time getting the cash register to work since the power is out."
Joe's thoughts: "This is weird!"

I grabbed a couple bottles of BBQ sauce and as I was coming back up the aisle . . . I heard a strange conversation between a man and a lady.

Man: "I'm just going to take it and I'll come back tomorrow and pay for it then."
Lady: "Yeah, me too. I need these oranges today so I'm just going to take them but I'm going to leave my name, address and phone number and I'll come back and pay tomorrow too."
Man: "And maybe you should call the cops!!!"
Lady: "Ok, good idea!"

Wait. . . WHAT!?!? Ok. . .I don't know about you but hearing the words "Call the cops" got my attention. As I got back to the front of the store I met up with Joe and we both looked at each other with puzzled looks on our faces.

I said: "I think we better get outa here. I don't think this store is open."
Joe said: "Yeah . . . let's HURRY!!!

So we put down our items on the nearest counter and quickly pushed back through the door and headed to our car. We saw the "orange lady" out in her car and I asked her what was going on. She confirmed our thoughts that the store was not open.
She had called the cops and they were on their way.

I said (While holding out my empty hands): Well you are our witness that we didn't take anything.
She said (Holding up her oranges): Well I'm taking these but I left my name and I'm going to come back tomorrow and pay for them. You could do the same thing if you need too! I'm sure it's fine!!"

WHAT . . . wait!!!!!

Weird - why didn't she just leave some change or a check or something for her oranges? Or why did she (and others) think that they could just walk out with out paying?

Isn't that . . . stealing . . . sort of?!?! Last time I checked. . .ummm. . . yeah . . . sort of!!!!

Strange - Why was the store open? Did someone accidently leave it unlocked? Or did someone break in? And if that were true - were they still in there while we were? Ewwww. . . scary!!!

Fact - Isn't "breaking and entering" a crime? The last time I checked. . . ummm. . . yep . . .

I think it is!!!!

Rationalizing: Technically we didn't "break in" - we only pushed open the door that wasn't working and shouldn't have been open. We did "enter" but only for a few minutes!! And we didn't take anything . . . (but our finger prints our all over the place.)

Question - Were we "criminals" for a few minutes!!!!! Were we witnesses to possible crimes?

. . . Were we on their security cameras?

Reality - We didn't hang around to find out!!! We left and eventually found a store that (we made sure before entering) had a door that worked, lights that were on and was REALLY open.

Our thoughts: "Only in California . . ."