Shoplifting and Banned from Bunnings Store

Hi

I am new to this forum and I have a problem at the moment. Hope that someone can help me out.

I was really stupid last night. I have always being a loyal customer to Bunnings stores. Last night, I saw a drill that I really liked and tried to steal it. Long story short, I was caught and police were called in. Fortunately they decided to let me go with an official warning. (Given I have no previous backgroud and seeing I was just stupid). I said to myself I will never do this again.

I am grateful that they decided let me go (believe I was so scared when I saw police walked into the office). However I was told that I was banned from all Bunnings Store from now on. I begged over and over again (asking for forgiveness and asking them not to ban me from shopping at Bunnings stores). But in the end, they still banned me and I was told that I were to visit any Bunnings store again without proper consent, the police will be called in and I will be charged with trespassing.

I am just wondering if there's anything I can do for them to lift the ban, so that I can shop there again. I thought about writing a letter of apology to the Bunnings head office. (Good idea?)

Any suggestions will be appreciated. I was really stupid and hopefully someone would be able to help me. (My family is trying to do a renovation at the moment and it will really hard to shop anywhere else and I really don't want to tell me I cannot shop at Bunnings anymore).

Thanks




Edited by junggwok - 04/April/2011 at 01:50

I think your idea of writing a letter of apology is a good start. There is nothing to lose there. Unfortunately Bunnings is a store that I believe has a huge problem with shop lifting and I can empathize with their position. Was the ban for a specific location or all Bunnings stores?

How do they identify you, if you do enter without permisson and pay cash?

The ban is valid, and applies to all of their stores it is a valid ban and suggestions on methods to avoid it or on the practical aspects are not helpful, nor are they in the spirit of this forum. We are here to assist people, not to suggest ways that they may get away with things.

Thank you. I, of course have no idea on the practical aspects of how this company identify banned persons, especially in other stores, however I am aware of technology that can do this. In the UK they have implemented a system of face recognition software that alerts staff if a flagged person (possible terrorist) enters any railway station.

I expect the costs of this would be prohibitive for a private enterprise but I just wanted to point out that such technology exists.

In reality I suspect his ban is enabled by the sending out of a regular fax or email listing members of the public who are banned, (along with lists of gift vouchers stolen, credit cards that are not to be accepted etc - sometimes you see this lists posted near registers and in the managers offices). As time passes I imagine his profile would drop down the list and he would have much less chance of actually being identified by staff unfamiliar with the actual incident (i.e. from his local Bunnings). His biggest risk (many years from now) would be to be silly enough to attract the attention of a manager by shop lifting (again) or creating a scene when claiming a refund or using a card in his name and then said manager discovering that he was banned and calling the police in.

There are alternatives to Bunnings.