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shyam09

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 31, 2010
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...yees-fired-stop-shoplifting-article-1.2914430

HD's policy according to spokesman Steven Holmes is:

"Pursuing shoplifters in the store or in the parking lot is extremely dangerous and risks the safety of everyone, which is why we only allow trained security personnel to do so,” he said.

“We've had instances of serious injury and even fatality in our stores. No amount of merchandise is worth risking the safety of others.”

But the employees state that they didn't know he was shoplifting.
 
A Walmart store I use once in a while takes down perps on the spot as soon as they attempt to leave the building and do not respond to a request to stop. Seen it happen.
 
It's crappy that they got fired, but it is VERY common for retailers to ban employees from playing store cop. If you're wrong, or handle it the wrong way, it may screw up the chances of convicting a shoplifter, or even worse, lead to the store being sued for harassment.

And there is a very real chance of being harmed. I can recall a story of an employee at Borders being maced when she had the misfortune to be near a shoplifter as he was leaving the store (I worked for Borders at the time, and this was peak DVD box set years, there was a shoplifting ring that would hit all the stores in the area and then ebay/craigslist the box sets).

In general, it can be really hard to prove shoplifting without absolute proof, which is why low-level employees aren't supposed to run around accusing people.
 
Store should simply send those employees to some sort of class where they are not chastised for their acts but rather shown/trained what is the appropriate response. - OR go to HR for the same "lesson." This really is about proper training.

I believe that the employees and the company lose out due to both making bad judgement calls.
 
Sounds like a reasonable company policy. It is too bad the company reacted so harshly in punishment (assuming the employees didn't do something absolutely egregiously dumb; I didn't follow this story carefully).
 
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