From u/breadwinger  Tales From Retail:

I work at a cheap womenswear store in a not so nice area of downtown, so we get a lot of shoplifting. I have crazier stories than this from work, but this one tickled me today just because of how amateur it was - it was almost refreshing compared to what we usually have to deal with.

A couple of teenage girls (maybe 14 years old) were shopping our swimsuit section, which is hidden in a corner of the store. I didn't pay too much attention to them until they came up to me to unlock a fitting room to try on some stuff - initially it seemed like an oversized sweater and two swimsuit tops. Our store policy is six at a time, and we have to take the clothing out of the customers' hands to count and hang in the fitting room because a lot of people will lie about how much they have etc (I'm sure you all know the drill).

So I start my usual policy spiel and go to grab the clothing to count, but I notice straight away that she's being super weird about the oversized sweater. First, she starts trying to hold it away from me slightly so I can't properly grab it even though she wasn't bothered about the swimsuit tops. Then when I do finally manage to get the hanger from her she's holding the bottom of the sweater, and I notice a weird lump of something shoved up there. I'm sure you all know where this is going. Finally, she gives up, lets go, and lo and behold another bikini top falls out of the sweater and onto the floor. Cue her nervous "omg I have no idea how that got there I swear it wasn't me lol!"

Sure Jan.

She spent approximately two minutes in the fitting room and then was straight back out again saying "I don't like any of it", shocking no one. I'm preeeeetty sure it was her first time attempting something like this just because of how amateur it was - most of our shoplifters are a lot sneakier. I hope in any case that being caught deterred her from trying again, but somehow I doubt it.

--u/breadwinger