Ah my friend, CBC radio! Tucked amid news stories of tragedies and wars, politics and celebrity came another bit of trivia.
The early morning item on ‘sales return fraud’ spun me down memory lane to a summer day in Regina, Saskatchewan in the ’70’s. It was around noon. A lovely day. In my memory, the amazing blue sky that I love so much was domed brilliantly over a busy downtown. On a minor shopping trip, my then husband and I had just pulled into a parking space in a large and busy downtown lot. In years gone by, this same lot had been busy with people boarding passenger trains to Saskatoon, Calgary or anywhere else the Canadian Pacific Railway or Canadian National Railway traveled.
Gary, sharp eyed and alert, called my attention to a young man and an accomplice breaking into a car one row in front of us. The illegal opening before us presented us with a choice ~ turn blind eyes or slip on figurative trench coats! We bravely, or naively, shadowed them at a safe distance. Surreptiously following the thieves for several blocks down crowded sidewalks, jaywalking and zipping into and then out of The Bay, we were in complete detective mode! In quick agreement, I split off and found a police officer. Gary and two police officers gave chase ~ literally ~ including leaping over cars! Justice was ultimately served in the courts.
And how does this relate? Stolen from the front seat of the car was a bag of merchandise with the receipt also left in the bag. The merchandise was ‘returned’ to a clerk, with the ‘proof of purchase’. The young men in question pocketed the cash ~ but only temporarily, their petty crime foiled by two newly minted ‘detectives’.
To this day, I still keep all my receipts in my purse. Once home they are destroyed by my hand. Any merchandise left in my car, is locked away and hidden from sight.
“Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.”
~ Sophocles
