The cheek of it!
I was installing some PCs at a well known UK Building Society for a new branch office they had just opened.

It was open day, and I was hanging around to ensure the systems were working properly.
This particular branch was inside a mall. We had decorations up everywhere, frilly things, banners and helium balloons.

Two helium baloons happened to creep quite near to the entrance. This woman with a pushchair walked in. grabbed a balloon, tied it to the pushchair. Then grabbed another balloon. tied that to the pushchair and walked straight out again. She didnt look at anyone ,and everyone jsut stared at her doing this. Just like it was a perectly normal thing to do. Ah well, the balloons were branded so she became a free walking advertisement!

Used to work for a computer shop and i caught a few people at it. We put a dummy playstation box on a shelf and filled it with old hard drives and stuff, then removeed the bottom, so when lifted the contents fell out. That must have happened at least once a day. The usual excuse was "I was just looking at it" These days we probably would have got sued for that!
(Miggyman, Thu 10 Jan 2008, 13:52, 1 reply)

To be fair
Shops often have promotional balloons that they give away -- I can remember being positively bombarded with the things when I'd take the nippers out for a stroll -- so she probably just thought it was a help-yourself thing. I'd always have asked, myself, but if you've got a bad-tempered brat that won't shut up until it gets a sodding balloon, I can see how you might forego the niceties.
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Thu 10 Jan 2008, 14:00, closed)