Thursday, December 21, 2017

Dollar Tree Grifter


I got called back to the adult transition center. It's been a while, but I remembered that they go out on Mondays and Fridays, so I wore my walking shoes.

It was Friday. The prior day, the class had voted on where they were going to go, and the Dollar Tree store won. It was less than a mile from the school, so we'd walk it.

Before we left, the instructional aide questioned each student on how much money they had. Then he told them how many things they could pick up. (Most were looking for coloring books.)

The students didn't take very long to make their selections. I stood at the front of the store, monitoring as they made their purchases. (The aide was still in the back, keeping an eye on the student who liked to go into the back, just because.) The line was long, so I kind of zoned out.

Then the cashier called me over. Naomi had handed her $3 for a purchase of over $6. Oops.

I asked the cashier to cancel the sale. Naomi and I needed to pare down her selections to two. Before the cashier could void the sale and before we stepped out of the long line, a woman behind us offered a $10 bill. She said she wanted to make up the difference.

Now, this was really sweet of her, but I declined. I assumed that the purpose of the exercise (them going out to a store and purchasing stuff) was for them to know how much they could afford and choose what they were going to purchase accordingly. I said something of the sort to the nice lady, and we moved aside.

Naomi picked out two from the six books she'd selected, and I had Naomi get back in line.

In short order, the rest of the class (on this day we had five students with us) finished their purchases, and we were on our way back to school.

While we were walking, I told the aide of Naomi's oopsie.

The aide told me that this was a pattern with Naomi. And not only that, this wasn't the first time that someone offered to make up the difference.

So, Naomi may have been anticipating some "help" with her purchase.

Sneaky girl.

21 comments:

  1. She knows how to work it. Smart of you to intervene. She won't learn otherwise.
    Have a great Christmas!

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  2. Yeah, she needs to learn, because sometimes there isn't a kind soul to bail you out.

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    1. ...And those behind you can get rude about it, too. Oh yea, that doesn't always go well.

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  3. Sneaky girl indeed! Heh, makes me think of the show Leverage. :)

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    1. Well, that could be one of Parker's disguises. (Naomi does resemble Parker a bit...)

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  4. Wow, that's really interesting. Naomi sounds pretty savvy.

    Side note: Japan has 200 Yen shops. A majority of the goods for sale were either made in Japan or in neighboring countries. Japanese goods here are considered slightly 'high end', so it was a trip to visit their version of a dollar store. :D

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    1. I hadn't known I needed to know the Japanese version of our dollar stores. But it turns out I do :) Of course they would have a version.

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  5. Ha! She is a sneaky girl. It's nice to see people offering to help though :) And too cool they go on excursions!

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    1. I was with them on one the last time I was there. The link in the post goes to that.

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  6. Very sneaky....but so nice that someone wanted to jump in and help although not understanding the exercise.

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    1. It was nice of her. And considering that we were just out in a public place, there's no reason why the lady would have known that this was a school exercise.

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  7. Well, sounds like she's learning something useful, if less than ideal. ~grin~ Well done, my dear.

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    1. Now she just needs to learn not to try this again ;)

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  8. Yes, she definitely needs to learn that you can't depend on people to rescue you in these kinds of situations. She could end up in real trouble with that.

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  9. Very intuitive, Liz. She played this grifter act many times.

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    1. It was sheer luck. I could have so easily just let the lady help her.

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  10. Glad those who are mental challenge get a chance to get out in about.
    Coffee is o

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  11. I call her clever myself :)

    betty

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  12. Very nice of the lady in line to offer like that :)

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  13. *sigh* It's awesome that someone was kind enough to help out. It's disappointing, though, that Naomi was anticipating help. :-/

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, well... Maybe one of these days she'll stop doing that.

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