Catch me if you can!

Saturday I was caught for stealing.

Although, I wasn´t stealing. But the security guard sure thought I was. He was intent on catching me.

Well, I was Christmas shopping (and because of that, I can´t be too specific here since the recipients of the gifts may be reading). It was Saturday evening, and I was shopping on Calle Colon, a street in Valencia just lined with tons of money-spending opportunities.

Later that night I had plans to go out to dinner with my host mom and her friends (a story planned for another post) and Cristina said she´d call me around 9:30pm. It was about 9pm at the time I walked into store XYZ (see, you aren´t going to squeeze Christmas present details outta me), intending to buy a thingamajig for youknowwho. I was obviously in a hurry, since it was busy and I saw the lines were long. But before I went to get the thingamajig in the thingamajig section of the store, I went over to the tiny objects part of the store to look at the different things the store had to offer. I was picking things up, putting them back. I was reading the labels of the tiny objects and putting them back. Then I was like “hey, I need to go get that thingamajig.” I went up the stairs of the store then once I reached the top, I realized I didn´t know what color I should get, so I decided to leave since I only had 20 minutes left to visit store ABC to buy a whatchamacallit for thatotherperson. 

So I didn´t run, but sort of shuffled by quickly, down the stairs, through the crowds of people, and out the door.

But then the security guy stopped me before I left. He asked to see my shopping bag first. I showed him my bag, which contained a gift that my mom asked me to get for my 2nd cousin. He took the receipt out of the bag, looked at the contents of the purchase, looked in the bag to make sure it matched the purchase, and was like “okay, this is from Pull & Bear (the name of the store)” as he put the receipt and gift back into the bag. 

Then he asked to see my purse. Since I didn´t steal anything, I gladly opened up my purse for his examination. He started taking things out and putting them back in, like my sunglasses, my wallet, my pack of gum, searching for this object that he was certain that I took (probably from the tiny objects section I was in before). Then he found my solid perfume, which looks like a lip gloss tin, and pulled it out. He was like “Is this from here?” And I was like “No, it´s from a store called Anthropologie that I bought in the United States.” (if I wanted, I could´ve showed him the sticker on the back which even said “Anthropologie” and the price, which was in dollars. If that doesn´t say “I was bought in the USA” I don´t know what does.) He looked around some more, finding nothing, then I was dismissed.

I swear he had a look of disappointment at the fact that he couldn´t find anything.

And I walked out, and of course didn´t set off the alarms, since I didn´t steal anything.

But I could see why he probably thought I did. I was rushing through the store, running past crowds of people to get to where I wanted to be, but that´s just me...I don´t want to lollygag behind these giant clusters of people blocking my path. I have money to spend here, people!
Also, it was chilly and my hands were cold from walking inside, so when I was looking at the tiny objects section, I´d stick my hands in my pockets to keep them warm. So it probably looked like I was stealing those tiny objects. But the thing was, he never checked my pockets, which is where I could easily have stolen things. Oh well.
But I had time to rush over to store ABC and get the whatchamacallit for thatotherperson. As I was waiting in line, Cristina called to say she had left the house and was on her way to pick me up. Perfect timing.

Today I was at OpenCor, kind of like a Walgreens pharmacy minus the pharmacy part, and as I was walking around the store, I swear that the security guard was following me. Now I think I'm either paranoid (even though I have nothing to hide) or maybe there is something about the way I look that screams "Hey, look at me! I'm gonna rob you blind!"