Recently I was doing the debit card research task where you go to a shop, take a pic of the counter, any signage indicating a fee/min., pic of the outside, and a receipt if you made a purchase based on the guidelines. I went to the store, took a pic of the payment counter, asked about an item behind the cashier, asked if there is a min/fee/surcharge to use a card and he says no. I snap one more pic for good measure. As I am going to the exit, a manager asked me if he could help me and I told him no thanks. Once outside, I walk a little bit and turn to take a picture of the store and continue walking to my vehicle. I think it is better to take a pic after you leave and not before so you don't draw suspicion upon arrival.
I go to my car in the strip mall, start the engine, and attempt to finish uploading the info as I typically do. Before I get to input anything, the manager approaches my car and asks me why I was taking pictures. I just looked at him like I didn't know what he was talking about. He says they have it on surveillance. I basically told him I don't know what you want from me. He isn't happy with my reply and says if I want to know something just ask. I tell him I don't want to know anything. I told him I asked the cashier about an item and I decided not to get it.
He was clearly frustrated in that he wasn't going to get any answers from me and I started to get mad that he was wasting my time ( I did not use foul language and was polite the whole time, but enough is enough ). He moves away from my car and I proceeded to exit the mall which seemed like an eternity. I wasn't nervous during the confrontation. I was disappointed that it took place.
I was curious if something like this has happened to others here and what did you do? Is there something in the camera settings where instead of your last picture appearing on screen, it just appears dark so it wouldn't show up if you were being watched on camera? I suppose the problem with that is you can't see if the pic is good or not until you get back to your car, but I am not looking at the recently taken pic unless I am walking the store. Speaking of settings, I have the shutter on mute and the flash is OFF. When trying to take a pic in this environment, I hold it so that it looks like I am texting. Like some here have said, people take pics all the time and cashiers don't think twice about it.
Sorry for going on so long about it.