What the...? Really? Public Pony Buying Horror Stories

[DJOctaviaSymphony]

Hey all. Okay I just thought I'd throw this up here since I've now heard of 2 other similar situations and it's just getting ridiculous...

 I just came back from a Walmart about half hour away and found quite a bit of new pony stock( half box of card packs, half box Wave 4 blind bags, new box large plush, 3 packs ect.) Anyway, after taking a few blind bags and heading towards the register I forgot to double check for a wedding 3 pack set so went back and happened to see a I assumed fellow brony? Looking through the blindbag box. Well when he saw me coming nearby he got a bit skiddish and wandered into the other aisle looking bothered. Me being curious looked into the box and noticed 6 of the blind bags in the box had been opened and the MLP card box was now laying next to it upside down o-o

 So I slowly saunter around the back aisle to view this guy and he is shiftily sliding pony trading cards down into his pockets along with where I assumed the blind bags went. Riled me up pretty bad so I ran quick to the electronics counter to try and get someone to help catch him stealing but everyone just kept putting me on hold. Finally I just blurted out"Well A MANAGER might want to head to the toy aisle youre having huge ponymerch theft going on right now..." that got their attention and amanager came from the back finally. Not sure if they confronted the guy as I went to purchase my BBs but really?

 I seriously just wanted to tackle the guy and be like "PONY THEIF YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!" augh. Has anyone here had any similar experiences seeing it happen? 

[slight title edit - SDS]

[Lorelei Redfern]

my mom was in a wallart  a couple weeks ago   the  day after reset and they told her htey had jsut set out the blind bag box  and every single bling bag was openend  and   almost all the  ponys were gone.  and  there wer other ponys that were ripped out of there boxes. 

this happened  in 5 wallmarts.

[dxgirly]

I've never seen a pony theft.... but I work at Walmart and see people stick DVD's down their pants a lot. And sadly, AP usually doesn't care. 

[BlueChaos]

Yup. But mine happened way back when G1's were out. There was a woman in the Children's' Palace toystore who was opening packages of baby ponies and just taking the babies. I went and told the checkout lady, but she didn't believe me. Oh well. I did my duty as an honest kid, so no sweat off my brow.
I was...7 or 8 then.
Ponies have been a thing to pocket for a while now it seems.

[Rachel-Eyes]

I haven't actually seen it happen, but I kept passing an opened Sweetie Swirl.

I felt so bad about no one wanting her that I stuck her back in the package and ended up buying her myself.

[GoodyGumdrop]

I've never actually seen someone steal a pony, but I did encounter a creepy lady while shopping once for G3s at Target. I had some g3s in my cart and this woman came up to me asking me if she could have them. I told her no, I was buying them. Then she demanded that I give them to her so she could buy them for her children. Once again I told her no, and then pushed my cart away to shop for other things in the store and refused to speak to her anymore.

This lady kept following me throughout the entire store, keeping about a 20 foot distance away from me, watching my cart the whole time. Maybe she was hoping I'd leave my cart unattended so she sneak up and take the items out of my cart. She finally stopped following me when I got in line for the cash register, but it was so irritating. I had wanted to hit up some other stores in that particular shopping center, but I went straight home instead because I didn't want to chance crazy lady breaking into my car to take the ponies I had just bought.

[Bebopgroove]

Great... now they'll start packaging the BB's in hard plastic, too -____-"

[Bebopgroove]

I've never actually seen someone steal a pony, but I did encounter a creepy lady while shopping once for G3s at Target. I had some g3s in my cart and this woman came up to me asking me if she could have them. I told her no, I was buying them. Then she demanded that I give them to her so she could buy them for her children. Once again I told her no, and then pushed my cart away to shop for other things in the store and refused to speak to her anymore.

This lady kept following me throughout the entire store, keeping about a 20 foot distance away from me, watching my cart the whole time. Maybe she was hoping I'd leave my cart unattended so she sneak up and take the items out of my cart. She finally stopped following me when I got in line for the cash register, but it was so irritating. I had wanted to hit up some other stores in that particular shopping center, but I went straight home instead because I didn't want to chance crazy lady breaking into my car to take the ponies I had just bought.

That is extremely creepy. Knowing me, I probably would have thrown something at her face Not the ponies though.
/dark violent side

[kakenterprise]

Great... now they'll start packaging the BB's in hard plastic, too -____-"

that would be horrible.

I've seen boxes of pony's opened, there small so they make a good target.
The store really can't do anything.  It's not like they can stop them from walking out all they can say is "we're calling the cops, or ask them to leave". They don't want a lawsuit.

[Bebopgroove]

I've seen boxes of pony's opened, there small so they make a good target.
The store really can't do anything.  It's not like they can stop them from walking out all they can say is "we're calling the cops, or ask them to leave". They don't want a lawsuit.

Actually, Walmart has Asset Protection who walk around the store like regular customers, watching for thievery. If a thief who's been spotted stealing tries to leave the store, AP jumps on them, where they call the cops to pick them up.

[Rachel-Eyes]

I've seen boxes of pony's opened, there small so they make a good target.
The store really can't do anything.  It's not like they can stop them from walking out all they can say is "we're calling the cops, or ask them to leave". They don't want a lawsuit.

Actually, Walmart has Asset Protection who walk around the store like regular customers, watching for thievery. If a thief who's been spotted stealing tries to leave the store, AP jumps on them, where they call the cops to pick them up.

Yup! This is true. My best friend's boyfriend is a Walmart security guard. He's also a certified policeman, so he has the power to arrest people himself if it comes down to that. (To my knowledge at least...)

Since he wears normal clothes, no one suspects a thing.

[MnDancer]

I've never seen anyone steal ponies before, but at my Walmart the BB ponies are almost always opened up, it drives me crazy because it ruins the fun for people who like the surprise. A guy stealing cards and BB ponies, like in the first case above, makes me wonder if he's really collecting or just selling them on ebay. I suspect the latter. So how do we know if any ponies we buy outside of the store are ligit or stolen? I don't want to buy stolen ponies!

[Diamond]

And you guys wonder why the ponies are so hard to get out of the box?

We are not allowed to stop customers, we can ask to see a receipt or the like but detain nope.  We can get a license plate number but our loose prevention has not done much when we have.

[TokiBear]

When I was on vacation this past week, I went to three walmarts in the town looking for BB's.  One of the ones I went to had 8 BB's and all of them were open.  The person before me hadn't stolen the ponies but they had checked every single one.  I grabbed a girl who was in the section and told her they were all open and asked if she had any more boxes in back.  She said no, just that one but didn't seem to care that people were opening them.  The checkout lady seemed way more concerned.  So frustrating when people ruin things for everyone else. 

[will2Bfree]

I saw two bronies opening blindbags in a walmart before. There was a third one, but he nervously ducked into another aisle when he saw me. They weren't stealing them, though, just looking for a certain one. One of them wanted Fluttershy.

So I told them about the codes on the bags and one of them tried to look it up on his phone (I couldn't remember the codes for the ones they wanted). I didn't want them to get in trouble; they seemed nice. I could understand their plight. Those "blind"bags really can be troublesome and not everyone has the money to keep trying when there's only one or two they want. I don't think it's good to open merchandise you haven't paid for, but at least they weren't being dishonest and pocketing them. And it's not something that damages the product. I mean, if you're not aware they can be identified another way, you're not left with many options. That's why I applaud people who leave code lists taped to the box. I'd do it myself if I had a working printer.