4-Year-Old Girl Interrogated For ‘Shoplifting’

A few weeks ago we wrote about a pregnant mother in Hawaii who lost temporary custody of her daughter after eating a $5 sandwich from Safeway and forgetting to pay for it. There was much debate over the moral implications many argued she shoplifted, plain and simple though I still think she was simply hungry and pregs (read: absent-minded). No matter. The fact remains that she’s an adult. Unlike Savannah Harp, the 4-year-old Washington girl who was recently busted for “shoplifting.”

According to reports, little Savannah was shopping with her dad at their local Safeway when she snacked on some dried apricots. She then put the bag back on the shelf and while her father didn’t notice, a security guard certainly did. He led them to a back room and told them, “Your daughter stole and she’s banned from the store, and we will be pressing charges. And she needs to sign this form saying she understands she can’t come into any Safeways.” [tagbox tag=”news”]

We’ve already mentioned that Savannah is four years old, right? The girl can’t read or write, but apparently the guard had her scribble her name anyway on a document banning her from the supermarket chain for life. ”It’s pretty troubling. It’s not like she even knows what she was doing,” said the girl’s mother, Alissa Jones.

If this isn’t a WTF moment, I don’t know what is. There’s this thing called common sense that this guard was so clearly lacking. I mean, we’re talking about a toddler here. He could have simply asked the father to pay for the bag of apricots rather than berating him and this poor girl. (Imagine that!)

The guard has since been fired, and Safeway has issued a formal apology to the family. According to ABC News, the division president has even offered to take the little girl around the bakery to show her that the store is not a scary place. Ha!

(Photo: abcnews.go.com)