I (23M) was out getting some groceries and some new work pants. As I was walking in from the parking lot I was stopped by a kid in his mid-late teens; he asked if I could return some items for him for his mom as he's too young and there is no receipt.
It all seemed really suspicious but for some reason his story felt real in the moment. He gave me some sob story and I felt kinda bad for the kid (That should have been a dead giveaway that this is some sort of scam or something). First, I looked at his items. They were some skin and eye products that honestly didn't look that expensive. So I said.. "okay fine".
I get to the customer service line, and there is one guy ahead of me.. and he has the exact same items that this kid is trying to return. I thought, "what a crazy coincidence". I get up to the cashier and start to return the items, then the cashier says she just needs to scan an ID since there is no receipt, so I say "that should be fine" and proceeded to hand her my ID.
I'm standing there waiting for probably 4-5 minutes, and she hands me a gift card saying that there is too much to give back in cash. I look and see it says almost $140 bucks! That's when I actually start to process what is going on. "The guy in front of me.. the kid outside.. why are they returning the sam... oh. This has to be a customer service scam.." So I meet the kid outside and I walk up to him showing the gift card and receipt; I ask "those weren't your mom's products you had me return, was it? Did you steal these items to get money or gift cards like this?"
He gives me a sharp stare and grabs the card and runs off. I was about to chase him on foot but my car was about 30 feet away. I got in my car and start looking for this kid. I spent probably 30-40 minutes looking but I couldn't find him anywhere. I then realized I should have just immediately went inside and tried to cancel the card from customer service when he took off.
Is it too late to go back and try to cancel this gift card and make things right? Should I go to the police? Once they find out those items are stolen will they track me with my information with my ID? I have never been this gullible in my life and I feel sick. I truly don't know how to handle this.
I know I'll get a lot of comments saying I'm an idiot and I agree with you 100%. I didn't ask enough questions and I should have trusted my gut. This is probably the dumbest thing I've done in my entire life. I just really would like to know what my next step with this should be.
Edit: Some commenters think that some things on my experience here don't line up, and think it's fake. It's not. So why did I hold up the card to the kid when I came to confront him? I was trying to be assertive with him, and probably got too carried away. I don't really have a lot of experience being firm with kids or even people I don't really know. Why did I "chase" him? I didn't necessarily chase him. As I ran to my car I knew he would be going a certain direction.