[admin]

I used to work in a shopping centre. It was in a rough part of town, and I ran a needle exchange scheme.

On Christmas Eve one of the staff went to a shop in the centre, for some shopping, in her lunch hour. She said she had seen one of our regular methadone/needle users there. She had been caught shop lifting by the stores manager.

To give you a bit of background, this individual has a permanent hole in her groin, which she injects herself through. She showed me this hole once, and it was horrendous, all necrotic and had a very bad odour (you'll know what I mean if you have had any wound care involvement) with an anaerobic bacteria smell. She refused my advice to seek immediate medical help, but continued to use the scheme.

So the manager of the food shop told her to hand over the goods she had taken. He said he wasn't making a police statement on Christmas, and he just wanted the goods back. The staff member said the addict lifted up her skirt, in front of everyone, and took a packed of bacon and cheese out of her knickers!

What did the manager do? He just put them back on the shelf!

I think it put me off my turkey that year.....

And I didn't shop there ever again......