Aussie_Dog
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- Joined
- May 8, 2009
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You know those "doors" or beams you walk through to enter or exit a store, and if you're carrying something that wasn't paid for, the beams will go off and announce the horrible thing you've done to the entire store? Okay, well, around Christmastime when doing Christmas shopping, I couldn't help but notice that the beams in various store go off a little more often than usual whenever I pass through. Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes they go off when I enter a store, but they stay quiet when I leave. Sometimes they go off both times, somethings they stay silent both times. Embarrassing. Usually the store employees will just wave me through (I know they go off sometimes for other random people). But I was in a music store looking for a game my mom wanted me to look for (a present for my brother, but she had only so much time to do shopping, so I was enlisted to help out). Well, this music store didn't have this game anywhere in sight, so I left. Except when I left, the alarms went off, and the store employees waved me back in. They searched my bags (clearly expecting that I was shoplifting; after all, I walked in, didn't buy anything, and walked out, and after all, a music store caters to the teenage crowd). They asked if I had a cell phone (I guess sometimes they set off the detectors), but I don't. They began to look a bit baffled, and when I told them that I wear hearing aids, they didn't know if those will set off the detectors but I think they assumed that that was, indeed, the problem. So I was free to go, but they mentioned that the alarms would probably go off again (in order words, "ignore it and just keep going"). Wouldn't you know it, when I passed through, nothing went off. Granted, the store has two sets of doors and two sets of security alarms, and I had walked through the other set when I tried to leave the first time. Makes me feel like the employees decided I ditched the "shoplifted" item on my way back to them or right before I left the store the second time.
I'm too shy and good a person to just let this go, so now I stress whenever I'm about to walk into a store. Will the alarms go off and draw attention to me? Will I be able to leave quietly or will I be called back like a common thief. So I wonder if it's actually my hearing aids that set them off (oh, how inconvenient) or if the cause is what I originally thought it was, which is the interac chip in my debit card (they're new issue, and once when shopping with mom and sister, my mom noted that the alarms might go off because of the interac chip in her card (first time I'd heard of them setting off the alarms)). I've considered playing around with the hearing aids, turning them off before passing through the doors, but then I won't know if they've gone off or not (and answered my experiment). So how about you knowledgeable folks?
I'm too shy and good a person to just let this go, so now I stress whenever I'm about to walk into a store. Will the alarms go off and draw attention to me? Will I be able to leave quietly or will I be called back like a common thief. So I wonder if it's actually my hearing aids that set them off (oh, how inconvenient) or if the cause is what I originally thought it was, which is the interac chip in my debit card (they're new issue, and once when shopping with mom and sister, my mom noted that the alarms might go off because of the interac chip in her card (first time I'd heard of them setting off the alarms)). I've considered playing around with the hearing aids, turning them off before passing through the doors, but then I won't know if they've gone off or not (and answered my experiment). So how about you knowledgeable folks?