Karen doesn’t pay for stolen goods; Becomes store property

I work at a very old clothing store and one of the former owners was a real witch (I mean that literally). She put a spell on the business that turned anyone into a mannequin if they tried to steal from the store. Though if someone paid for the item you tried to steal you’d be changed back. The spell was automated as the witch who placed it was no longer around, so we didn’t have any control over it.

The spell was so sensitive I accidentally put a pen in my purse after ending my shift and that was enough to activate it. I was on closing that night and was the last to leave so I wasn’t found until morning. My co-workers found the situation funny and rather than paying for the pen (it had to be paid for, you couldn’t just return it) they decided to pose me in the window until they needed me. This was a common enough occurrence with the employees and even the owner of the store wasn’t safe from the spell. We’d even haze the new girls tricking them into taking something beyond the spell’s perimeter (just past the checkout but still inside the building) and posing them for their first shift.

As we had a ‘state of the art’ security system, the owner didn’t bother investing in CCTV or any other deterrents to stop theft, we’d just let customers steal items and deal with the consequences later. 90% of them would be fine, as a friend would call their phone wondering where they were and we’d explain the situation to them. Of course they didn’t believe us but we’d invite them to the store and show them (there was still one working camera for that purpose).

Now to the Karen or as we call her now the Karequin. Her daughter (KD) came to our store, grabbed some expensive lingerie then grabbed a skirt to hide them and headed towards the change rooms (we no longer bothered to monitor them unless a customer asked for help as our time was better spent elsewhere). She didn’t think anyone had seen her but an uninitiated new hire (NH) did and wasn’t sure what to do so she told me as I am the supervisor.

NH: I saw KD heading towards the change rooms trying to conceal lingerie.

Me: So?

NH: I thought customers weren’t supposed to take lingerie to the changerooms.

Me: They’re not (I said with a wicked grin on my face).

NH just looked at me with a confused look.

Me: Today’s your lucky day, you get to see our security system without trying it out yourself. Now follow me.

I took NH up to the register unable to hide my grin and Cashier gave me a knowing nod. Though she tilted her head when I didn’t get NH to step past her. Instead I tilted my head towards KD as she left the change rooms without any items in hand. At this stage it didn’t matter if she put the lingerie back or not as we couldn’t sell it so that also counted as theft.

The Cashier, NH and I pretended not to notice her as she walked right past us. I’d never forget the face NH gave as she watched KD instantly turned into a faceless white mannequin before her eyes.

After the shock had passed I explained the security system to NH (I didn’t mention the hazing we planned for her) and walked her through the steps for what we do with the shoplifters. We usually take their personal belongings like their purse and place it behind the counter. We never bothered securing them because any theft in the store is covered by the spell, even customer belongings.

With the mannequins we’d either display them with the item they were attempting to steal or whatever else we wanted on display or we’d take them to the back and disassemble them (their heads, arms, torso and legs were all able to separate) and box them up with their ID (as they all looked exactly the same) and a note with how much they owed. Though we didn’t get the chance to do either with KD as Karequin was outside the store and witnessed what had happened to her daughter.

NH was holding KD ready to take her to the back when Karequin came in and demanded to know what had happened to her daughter and for us to undo it. It was an understandable request and people did freak out when they learnt magic was real. I explained the situation about the store as calmly as I could (at this stage she was just shocked about what had happened and her fight or flight instincts hadn’t kicked in).

The situation escalated when I mentioned the theft and she denied her daughter would do anything like that and that we were blackmailing her (another claim always made against us). I apologized again and said she had to pay for the goods otherwise KD would be stuck like that until she did. Karequin refused to pay and again blamed us for KD’s current state. I explained the situation again, and got NH to check the price of the item she had stolen (it was $20).

Usually when someone hears this small amount of money, they usually begrudgingly pay it but not Karequin. She says she’s not going to pay us for blackmailing her even if it was such a small amount and if she had to pay the cost of the item I should give it to her for free. I explained to Karequin that’s not how it worked and that once an item was stolen at a certain value it kept that value. I could mark that underwear down to the cost we paid for it (it wasn’t allowed to go lower, I’ve tried with other things) but as KD had stolen it while it was valued at $20 she would have to pay $20. Again Karequin refused, then she did something I wasn’t expecting.

Karequin grabbed her daughter and went to walk out of the store with her, still in mannequin form. I’m not sure what she was hoping to achieve but the result was what I was expecting. As soon as she passed the register she was turned into an identical looking mannequin, with only the clothes telling them apart. I was flabbergasted this was the first time I had seen someone attempt to steal a mannequin, so I didn’t know the protocol for this.

My first thought was because we didn’t pay for the people who turned into mannequins that their value would be the same as the initial theft. When KD’s daughter came in the next day looking for his wife and daughter we found out this wasn’t the case. KD was crying and apologizing for stealing the lingerie and begged us to change her mother back as well, only we didn’t know how.

My guess was they had to pay the price of the mannequin as an object. As these ones were people and didn’t have a brand I didn’t have an exact figure to go by so I found the highest priced one I could find and slapped on an extra 50% just to be safe. Unfortunately paying that amount didn’t work either and now Karequin’s husband was getting angry.

My final guess was as she had attempted to steal her daughter, that was the price, though how do you put a price on a person? I would say it would be the value of all their current assets and anything the price of everything it took to get to where they are now (such as schooling, food, haircuts etc.) If this was the case, none of us had any way to quantify the amount, we weren’t even sure if the value started at birth or conception. I explained this to the husband and he was horrified. He looked like he was ready to attack us (bad idea as the spell covered assault too, usually that was paid with time and the price of medical bills) but KD calmed him down. So we came up with a payment plan.

I’m not sure why but after a year and almost ten thousand dollars invested he stopped paying. We speculated it was either he saw the futility in it, or that he met someone else and no longer wanted to pay someone even suggested he might’ve died. No matter the reason though, it meant Karequin was here to stay, all over not spending $20 for the lingerie her daughter attempted to steal.

Edit: Yes when you’re a mannequin you are fully aware, even without a face, though if there’s not much activity your brain kinda goes numb. For our longer staying Mannequins, they usually forget they’ve been turned back and are out of it for a good hour or so. Other than the older wooden ones Karequin is the longest lasting one in the store, so I’m not sure how that would affect her if she was ever turned back.

Edit 2: No we hadn’t considered what would happen if you swapped parts with another person while you were both mannequins. I’d assume because we all get turned into the same style and shape we’d just go back to normal.

Edit 3: I was wrong… thanks for the suggestion, you guys rock!