Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

[Chaos81]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

The story doesn't specify this but I am assuming she followed him into the parking lot and asked for the receipt, I don't think she did it right after he set off the alarm at the doors.

It doesn't specifically say she left, but it does say she had to walk back into the store. I'm assuming that means she followed him into the parking lot, but who knows with the way stories are written these days.



Anyway, I worked at Sam's Club 12-13 years ago and we were told that we could ask someone for a receipt, and even follow them around the store if we suspected someone of something, but we were not allowed to leave the store. We had to call security and they would handle it. I'm assuming their rules haven't changed and I'm assuming Walmart has the same rules. If so, my guess is she was fired for leaving the store.

[Pokes]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

**Calling Gotmadskillz**

I thought he posted this thread at first... LOL.

But something similar happened at a Dillon's/Kroger's here. Two employees chased down a guy who grabbed a tray out of a register and took him down and got the cash back and were then promptly fired. The local newspaper ran a story about it and people started calling the store and leaving angry messages and they were eventually re-hired.

[countryboy]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

As Stewaat said policy is policy. There is a reason only certain individuals inside the store, namely LP and managers, are "allowed" to approach shoplifters and that is because they are trained for it.

Also, a lot of places will tell their workers to let said person go. Get a desciption, call the proper authorities whether that be in-store or local police, and report it. Reason being? Confrontation leads to the ability of making the situation worse. You don't know why this person is stealing and you have no idea what they are capable of, or if they are carrying a weapon. Comfronting them could take what would be a shoplifting incident to a hostage incident or lead to someone becoming seriously injured or worse yet killed.

I feel bad for the woman for being fired, but I'm 99.9% certain that she was informed either verbally from a person who is in a management position, or via an employee handbook, that she does not have the authority to confront a potential shoplifter.

[Burns11]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

The story doesn't specify this but I am assuming she followed him into the parking lot and asked for the receipt, I don't think she did it right after he set off the alarm at the doors.

I'm also assuming she tried to wrestle the computer away, or at least grabbed it and wouldn't let go, given that he kicked and punched her before dropping the computer.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

I've worked retail at both Sam's Club and Sears. Trust me, they don't pay you enough to risk life and limb to go after a shoplifter. Yet they tell you in team meetings that they are losing a ton of money due to theft and to be on the lookout.

I guess the key word is look....don't stop them.

[snepp]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

I feel bad for the woman for being fired, but I'm 99.9% certain that she was informed either verbally from a person who is in a management position, or via an employee handbook, that she does not have the authority to confront a potential shoplifter.

And that makes firing her the appropriate response?

One of these days we're going to stop letting lawyers dictate all of our decision making.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

Funny, Target must give their employees a little more leeway.

Last week, I was driving through the Target parking lot on my way to Subway and I see this kid in green walking though the parking lot. As I place my order, the kid walks in the door and goes right into the bathroom. He comes out and leaves. I didn't really think to much of it, but the "sandwich artist" said something like "that kids up to no good, I can tell". Two minutes later he comes back in and heads to the bathroom again. So I head out and there are two target employee's looking around. I ask them if their looking for a little kid in green and they are and I point to the bathroom. So they wait outside and confront the kid upon his exit.

Not sure if what he jacked or if he did, but I was surprised they took it that far. As many have said, when I was in retail, we could ask to see receipts, ask if they were going to pay for the items they shoved in their pockets/bag/pants/jacket, etc. But we couldn't touch them, chase them, etc. We could call security and that was it.

One of the cooler things we did once was this. Our dressing rooms had about a 1' to 2' gap at the bottom and we had a sketchy dude in there who was wearing a big thick jacket in the middle of summer. My boss tells us to look out for this guy. So he's in the room and we bend down and look inside and see sensors being tossed on the floor. So obviously nothing is going to go off as he walks through our detectors.

My boss calls security and their waiting outside. Again, this guy has no sensor, so we can't stop him at the door. So my boss tells me to talk to the guy for a few seconds to get a little distraction going on. So I'm like 16, nervous as crap and shaking as I talk to this dude. My boss walks up behind the guy as I'm talking and drops an alarm sensor in the dudes hood. The guy walks out and security is standing right there and the alarm goes off. They ask to look for whats making the alarm trigger and ask they guy to open his jacket. He got busted, but was confused as hell has how he got caught. He pulls out like 3 shirts and a pair of pants and nothing has a sensor. My boss told him to check his hood and the dude just about went nuts. At first he tried to say we set him up, but dropped it as soon as he realized what all went down.

[Aces15]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

I guess this is why the majority of employees for large stores like these just don't give a ****. Like someone else said, you're being paid a lowly wage and you're not encouraged to get involved, so why not just stand there and watch that guy leave with stolen goods? You can't lose your job for that....

[Pokes]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

There was also an incident at a Best Buy here around 13 years ago of some LP guys searching some dude in the store b/c they thought he had stolen something. They found nothing on the guy and he raised a lot of hell about it. Maybe that's why the rules changed.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

Having had worked and managed in retail, this is just how it goes. Policies are there for a reason... sometimes there are unfortunate casualties such as this, but in the overall picture they are actually there to protect the employees.

Like Stewaat said, policy is policy., and standards and consistency have to be maintained.

[Pokes]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

There was also an incident involving LP at a Dillards in Houston some 15-16 years ago where they hogtied the guy while waiting for the HPD to arrive. But apparently they tied him too tight and he died of asphyxiation. Dillard's naturally got sued for that.

[Cebby]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

And that makes firing her the appropriate response?

One of these days we're going to stop letting lawyers dictate all of our decision making.

I'm pretty sure they make it very clear that you are not to do anything but alert security to shoplifters.

[chicubsfan20]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

I worked at Wal-Mart, third shift for 9 months. Can't even count the numerous times me and fellow co-workers saw people trying to steal stuff. We are told though, we aren't allowed to do anything but alert management and they view cameras and call the sheriffs in here to watch them and catch them. It's something that you cannot try and say stop or anything, but then again its policy.

Then again, the pay wasn't all that amazing to try and stop them even if we could. You do what you gotta do, we'll take care of our part, lmao.

[Cabke]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

There was also an incident at a Best Buy here around 13 years ago of some LP guys searching some dude in the store b/c they thought he had stolen something. They found nothing on the guy and he raised a lot of hell about it. Maybe that's why the rules changed.

I work at Best Buy and about four months ago our General Manager and another manager were fired because they tried to stop a someone stealing $2500 in car electronics and they put their hands on them to stop them. They were gone within a week, appealed the firing, and lost. The GM had worked with Best Buy for 15 years since he was in college and the other manager was a respected guy who worked in retail at Walmart and target in management. So, it can happen to anybody.

[bill2451]

Re: Walmart employee fired for stopping a shop lifter

she had to have done more than ask for the receipt. As someone who has unfortunately worked at Walmart, I can tell you that asking for the receipt was common practice, in fact, the greeters (key word greeters, you know those old and/or handicap ppl at the entrance lol) are told to ask for the receipt when a sensor goes off by managers... most of the time it is a cd/game/etc that the person in electronics forgot to remove the security sensor from when they paid for it

either way, I did carts outside, and I was told if I was ever at the front when the sensors went off, to ask the person if I could see there receipt

so there is no way that is all she did... she had to have grabbed him/tried to stop him from leaving, or something along those lines, in order to be fired