REGINA - Once Upon a Child Regina is searching for a suspect who allegedly took 20 plus clothing items from their store on Sunday, Dec. 1.
The suspect walked into the store at around 4:30 p.m. Peggy Hlushko, store owner of Once Upon a Child, was informed by her employees that the suspect came into the store very upset.
"A customer [the suspect] came in very upset, and they tried to walk her back out, but she wouldn't [leave the store]. So they [the employees] let her come in and shop."
According to the employees, the customer was originally upset over not being allowed to take items customers had returned. When the suspect was denied the clothing, they asked the employees, "show me your policy, where is it?"
The suspect had apparently assumed they could take whatever clothing they wanted. So, after the female was let back in, the suspect went into the corner of the store, where the boy's sizes 14 and 16 clothing were located.
Based on the camera footage the store has, the suspect kept tucking items under the clothing racks. Hlushko said the employees tried their best to work together and get the person out of the store when they noticed the suspect was acting suspiciously.
"We [the store employees were] trying to do a lot of filling of the racks right around the customer. So they know we're right there. We're watching. We're seeing what they're doing. And we try to get the items and put them up by the cash area so that they're going to kind of intercept as much as we can [so] that they don't get to leave. But nobody offered to take anything from her. And she kept walking back and forth and did say to one of my staff, 'why are you following me.'
Even though the employees were doing their best to watch the suspect, they made sure to fill a backpack with clothing when no employee could see what they were doing, as the suspect kept trying to distract the workers and get them to leave the area.
Eventually, one of the employees decided to confront the suspect, asking them to leave. However, the employees didn’t realize all the items she had taken, and the suspect walked out with stolen items.
Hlushko mentioned her employees have undergone training. "We've had actually [done] shoplifting courses and training with security officers that have come in and taught the staff how to deal with different situations, different clientele, different people. So we try to inform the staff on best practices."
In an event where a customer isn’t being cooperative and leaving the store quickly, Hlushko told her staff not to put themselves in danger. She added, "if somebody does steal something and the alarms ring and we know they've taken it. We just let them go."
Hlushko isn’t certain about the value of goods taken from the store because they haven’t done the inventory for it. She estimated it could be around $150. The money loss would have been around $800 on the regular market for the value of the clothing.
She noted Once Upon a Child charges "70 percent less on an average of what regular retail is. So if they've got some 22Fresh and some Nike and some Under Armour and some Hurley, which is some of the things I did see her take out, those are worth quite a bit more than what we even charge at 70 per cent less."
When asked what her initial reaction was to hearing about the theft, Hlushko said she was "heartbroken." Hlushko felt with the amount she’s done by helping families and the community, people stealing from her hurts.
When talking about giving back to the community, Hlushko said, "I love to see the satisfaction on their face that we're still doing something to help these families. That's huge to me. We also give a lot back [to] our community at the end of each of our seasons. So whatever we're not able to sell, we do push back into the community, which means a business loss for me, but it's still worth it to help our community."
Hlushko also pointed out that at the end of the year, her store will give away clothing to non-profit organizations in the area to try giving back to people less fortunate.
Because of her efforts to help others, in the around eight years Hlushko has run the store, she has not made any profit from it. The reason is that Hlushko is more focused on taking care of her employees and customers before herself.
"I always try to make sure my staff is cared for first. Then we have customers who bring us their items because we buy from the public. And there are days when we do want their items, but sometimes they bring us a lot at once. And some seasons are heavier for us to buy than others. And so we have to try to control that so I can still pay the bills. And so sometimes that little balancing act is just a little bit much," said Hlushko.
In terms of avoiding further incidents like these, Hlushko pointed out her store asks people to leave their bags at the front, but no employee asked the suspect to do that. The store's policy was on a sign at the front in the past, but Hlushko doesn’t remember when or why it was taken down.
Hlushko has also considered moving its location but finds the majority of people in the community are respectful and treat the store with kindness and appreciation.
As for the suspect, they are a female, believed to be around 30, with no teeth. With the suspect wearing a winter coat and hat, it was hard to identify their features.
One person reached out to Hlushko on Facebook, saying they believed they knew who the suspect is. Hlushko said, "we won't accuse anybody. We won't give names because we don't know [if this person is the suspect]. We just can't even start to accuse [without having enough hard evidence]."
If the suspect was willing to reach out to Hlushko, she would be "very blunt and say, I do have camera images of the incident that happened yesterday. And I will take them to the police, but I am going to ask you to leave the store."
Anyone with information on the theft is asked to contact the Regina Police Service or Once Upon a Child Regina
