It's Wild West City Already

[fureverywhere]

Okay now as things get progressively goofier with weapons...first thing I would pass is a law that triples the sentencing if you shoot at someone who is unarmed completely...not even a nail file...if you shoot someone unarmed you deserve a more serious sentence. The police need their own hearing board for such matters.



Back to the topic-I have worked in the land of orange aprons for several years. You want to know the unofficial guidelines for shoplifting? In no particular order:



Over twenty dollars and they prosecute, under twenty dollars and you're told to stay the **** out.

There is usually one plainclothes security person, maybe two in a big store.

Only a manager has the authority to confront but not detain an individual.

If an associate or security person sees an act of theft they must notify the manager, this could take ten minutes to two hours.

The manager may confront a suspect and may inform them they are calling the police.

The manager can suggest the person needs to step into the back office.

If the suspect refuses to stay in the store and/or flees, NO ONE except law enforcement has the authority to give chase.

In the case of armed or unarmed robbery the cashiers are told to surrender their drawer and remain passive, allow the robbers plenty of room to exit, lock the front doors and notify manager who notifies police.



Shooting at a shoplifter isn't even in the training manual. He didn't cause physical harm to anyone, just a dumb schmuck...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...depot-shoplifter-michigan-20151007-story.html

 

[jujube]

I witnessed a shoplifting episode back in May: three women walked into a store and loaded their arms up with purses and literally sauntered out the doors into the parking lot and got in a car. The clerks yelled at them to stop but did not approach them closely. Apparently, crime DOES pay.

 

[fureverywhere]

I think the logic isn't so much letting the bad guys get away with it. It's more that you don't need an employee getting attacked over a sink fixture. Ditto the cash registers, of course our store is always so full of burly builders that a robber would be squished in the act.

 

[Pookie]

I work at Walmart. Here's a retirement plan for y'all:

If you look over 60, you can walk out with anything you want. They won't approach seniors because they might have a heart attack if they're confronted.

No kidding.

 

[jujube]

There was a story (obviously apocryphal, but still entertaining) going around last year about a man who stole a tool from a local big-box hardware store. As he ran out the door, he slammed full-on into a Marine who was there with the Toys for Tots campaign, knocking the Marine down. Two other Marines took chase and when the police got there, they found that the man had stumbled stepping down from the curb and has sustained a leg injury, a cracked elbow, a skull fracture and a broken nose and jaw. You really have to watch stepping down from those curbs.....they can be dangerous, especially if two Marines are helping you down from the curb....heehee.

 

[fureverywhere]

You want to know a shoplifting horror story? Courtesy of Bloomsburg PA about ten years ago. The youngest was about five and we were at Family Dollar. Bloomsburg is crazy small town. The police blotter might be a lawn ornament going missing and it's front page news. My kid was being stubborn and wanted jelly sandals. I told her I was not getting them. She fussed and tried to carry a pair out the front door. I shooed her back inside to hang them up.

By then three squad cars arrived. They took down names and everything else, threatened to contact child protection and told me how negligent I was letting my kid do such things. Scared my daughter to pieces to teach her a lesson about stealing. Then they escorted us home. Over a pair of sandals worth a dollar and change that we returned anyway. Oh and they banned us from the store for life. That store got flooded out and closed a few years later...good for them.

 

[jujube]

I was pushing my cousin's young'un around in a stroller several Christmases ago in the mall when I looked down and saw a large cello-wrapped gift basket in her lap from one of the bath stores. I was probably six stores away by then and I turned around and RAN down the mall back to the store, got just far enough inside to fling it on a counter and ooze back out of the store. I have no idea how she managed to snag it without my seeing it, but as you know, toddlers have a six-foot reach when they put a mind to it. I could just see trying to explain to mall security that I had no idea she had it....."Oh sure lady, we've heard that one before....hands behind your back! NOW!"

I kept my eye on the little shoplifter after that.