Angry.

Well, I decided to go into the local Chapindigo to buy a Perl book to advance my ability to do work, and I thought I could use a long-neglected gift card as well. I buy said book and on my way out I pass through the sentry gate in front of the door… beep beep beep beep… why…

I go back up to the counter, take the book out of my bag, wait for one of the orbiting cashiers to notice me, and ask them to deactivate the book. “No, no, don’t worry about it.” “What do you mean ‘don’t worry about it’, the alarm will just go off again!” “Yeah…” “Oh.”

Annoyed, I thrust the book back into my bag and leave the store again, ignoring the beeps as I went.

It’s bad enough the same thing happened at Shoppers Drug Mart minutes later. Almost the same discussion with the cashier there too, except I took my book out and waved it through the gate to see if it was the culprit, and the gate remained silent. I put the book back in my bag and walked out,.. and silence. Nothing had changed as far as I know, it just didn’t feel like going off that time.

Why? Why can’t these Thief-Gate makers, or even users, attune them so they will only go off when, say, stealing their merchandise, rather than, in practise, going on whenever the hell they feel like it.

I hate having attention drawn to me at all, but I have to say, it takes on a whole different stain when the attention is an automatic attendant calling me a thief.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep