Do not leave your bag unattended in this store, not for a second.
I had my purse in the basket when I took about 10 steps away from it to grab a candle, and when I turned around to place the candle in there, there was another basket sitting in its place with someone else's items. People can easily swap baskets by accident, so I just walked all the isles several times over looking for my basket and didn't find it.
When there was nothing left for me to do on my own, I approached the store staff and let them know and asked what is the policy, how can they help. They had no policy and no idea or desire to help at all!
So I asked for specific help, in the following sequence, and the responses I received are listed next to them.
1. I first ask for one more person to walk around with me to see the basket, none of the staff members agreed to do this except for one gentleman. His search also yielded no result.
2. Since we were not able to locate the basket, I asked if they could make an announcement to the store to see if any customer by accident took my basket. They said that's not something they would do.
3. I asked one of the staff members at the entrance if she can watch the door in case someone is walking out with a red handbag while I go to the ladies room to check and she said Sure. When I returned, she was away from the door, chatting and did not watch the door at all.
4. I asked if they can call the police since I don't have my phone, which is missing together with the purse. The manager, who was called to come talk to me after about 15 minutes of back and forth, said I needed to call the police on my own because they would only call if their merchandise was stolen. Since it is my bag and not theirs, they could not call the police for me. So, I asked the cashier who controlled the phone if I could use it to call the police, and she said she will let me use it after she is done checking out the people in line. All she needed to do was hand me the phone, would have taken 1-2 seconds. After minutes, I asked another customer to use her cellphone and called my husband first, to come get me from the store since I no longer had my car keys. The store never called the police.
5. I asked if they can check the security cameras to see who took the basket, and they said they can't do that at this time but they would submit a request.
Just as I waited for my husband, a gentleman found the basket abandoned in the opposite end of the store (it was taken on the leftmost side near the front, and it was found on the rightmost side near the back). I was so relieved. I asked which gentleman brought it to thank him but they didn't say. In the end, it may have been an innocent mistake by another customer but instead of bringing the basket back, they abandoned it with my purse in a remote corner that would have been hard to locate.
Summary: I had good reason to believe my purse was stolen, after I exhausted all possibilities and the store:
-didn't offer the least bit of to help me,
-didn't let me use their phone or call the police for me,
TLDR: Make sure you keep your personal belongings very close and do not ever lose your purse because you will be denied the most basic assistance.
Well done Marshalls management. read more