I own a small gift shop, and there’s a private middle school nearby. A small group of 7th graders come in after school sometimes. They obviously have backpacks and jackets, which they set down on the couch in the back while they look around.

Yesterday, one of them came in by herself. She’s the quiet, shy one of the group so I kind of let her do her thing while I stocked a table.

After about ten minutes, she said her mom was there to pick her up and she left. After she left, I noticed a claw clip was not in it’s little spot! I checked inventory, searched the whole store, and she did, in fact, steal it!

I’m sure they’ll be back, and I want to ✨️ politely ✨️ confront her.

“Hey, I noticed the other day when you were in that a clip went missing. I’m not mad at you, I just want to know the truth.”

Is that how I should go about it? Should I not confront her? This is my second year owning a business, I don’t really know how to deal with this stuff. 😭

Thanks for the help, Reddit!