I got accused of stealing money from a customer, despite having security footage proving that I didn’t
TL;DR: Woman accused me of stealing 200pln from her the day before. When my boss showed her security footage and documentation from counting the cash at the end of my shift that proved that I gave her the correct amount of change, she kept arguing that I must’ve stolen the money for myself and completely ignored the security footage. She called me a thief and demanded that I should admit to stealing. She only left when told she’s welcome to call police.
I’ve been working in a corner store for a month now, it’s my first “real” job, as earlier I’ve been doing some commissions for friends and babysitting for family.
So me and my coworker open the store and immediately a lady storms in (mind you, this was 6am) and I’m pretty sure that she’s been waiting before we even came in 15 minutes before opening to prepare the store.
She points at me, yells “You!” and asks if I remember her. I didn’t, I have over 500 clients a day coming through the store on my shifts. She says that she was buying cigarettes from me yesterday and that she paid with 200pln bill (for context, it’s about 7h of min wage work) when she was buying cigarettes. It still didn’t narrow it down, we have lots of clients who do that.
She tells me that she actually gave me two bills by accident (claiming that they’ve stuck together and she didn’t notice it then) and that I’ve robbed her of those additional 200pln and she wants it back.
At that point my coworker took over (I had no idea how to even respond) and she told that lady that we can’t just give her 200pln and that she should come back in about three hours, because then our boss will come in and she could review the security footage and solve the issue.
The lady kept arguing that at that point I’d be gone (I wouldn’t) and that she would have to take a day off at her own job, but eventually she left.
She came back at 9am, stood directly in front of the register and just started at me angrily. I told her that my boss isn’t there yet, she just told me “I’ll wait” and continued on staring at me, blocking the way to the register.
Finally my boss came in. She showed that lady documentation from the end of my shift, that when I was counting cash, I didn’t have additional money and she showed security footage from when that lady was a day before, where it was clearly shown that I wasn’t handed an additional bill that I could’ve not noticed or steal.
The lady started arguing that I must’ve stolen the money for myself, she was shown the footage of me again, where she could see that I didn’t steal any money. She started yelling at me that I should just admit that I’ve stolen it. She also said that she “knows her truth” and that “my boss has her own opinion, but she wants her money back”. Again, she was provided with solid proof that I didn’t steal the money.
After some back and forth, she was told that she’s welcome to call the police if she wants to, so she finally left, yelling at me that I’m dishonest and that the money I’ve stolen isn’t worth it. She never came back or called the cops.
Well, now I get paranoid every time a customer, that vaguely resembles her, comes in. But I’m glad the boss and evidence were on my side and that I didn’t actually miss that bill by accident, both when she was paying and when I was counting the money.
(If it wasn’t clear, I didn’t steal that money, or any money from a customer or cash register)