>>Try it before you buy it, but she didn't have the money to buy it. It was a heavy-handed response, but she was still wrong. Plus, 12 years old and out on her own? Is that normal?
>>
>>http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1035897/Nailed-Security-guard-police-officers-interrogated-grammar-girl-painted-fingernail-Boots.html
>
>Yes, she was wrong to try it when there was no tester. (I think it's pretty common for there to be "testers"--trial versions--of cosmetics. I'll let someone who actually buys cosmetics confirm that.)
>
>But to threaten someone, child or adult, with theft for it seems pretty ridiculous to me. If she'd asked a clerk, she probably would have been allowed to try it.
>
>As for a 12-year-old out on her own, sure, why not? I was letting my kids ride the bus to the mall at that age. I didn't let them go just to hang out, but if they had a reason, why not?
>
>When I was 12, I was getting paid to babysit for other people's kids.
>
>Tamar

You see no problem with a 12-year-old out at the mall on their own. Did you have any girls and let them do that? If so, then I'm surprised; you seemed so intelligent.