Petty Revenge

She was too busy to get her own, I guess...

This one is a few years old, but it was so weird I never forgot it. My wife wasn't feeling well, so I went to the store to pick up a few things, while I waited for her prescription to be filled.

Among the things I was picking up was a jumbo size bag of cat food, which was almost at the back of the store. I already had this in my cart, and had stopped near the front of the store, not too far from the entrance. I stepped maybe 5 feet away from my cart, to grab something when this woman talking on a Bluetooth headset walks up to my cart and snags the bag of cat food.

I thought that was pretty odd. Who walks into a grocery store, and grabs things out of another person's shopping cart? Somewhat amused, and a little irritated, I grabbed my cart and began following her. She walked straight toward the register carrying the bag, chatting away about how busy she was. I followed her all the way to the register, where she set the bag down.

I stepped right up, snatched the bag, and asked why she had taken the cat food out of my cart instead of getting her own. I made sure to speak in a conversational tone. Loud enough that those around us could hear, but not so loud as to appear angry or threatening. I wonder what the person on the other end of her phone conversation made of that.

She was obviously surprised, and a bit embarrassed about being caught. She muttered something about not realizing it was someone's cart...
Yeah... Right...

Even at this point, if she'd asked, I'd have shrugged it off, and let her keep the bag, but once she recovered from her initial shock, she started acting angry.

I pointed toward the part of the store, where the cat food was kept, and suggested she grab a bag of her own. She headed off toward the pet food section, while I went to check on my wife's prescription at the store pharmacy, trying hard not to grin.

Bonus: This store has a fairly limited selection of cat food to begin with, and I'd already grabbed the last bag of Meow mix.