Catch a Thief, Lose your Job

They really will fire you if you attempt to stop a crime in progress. That's what happened to 24-year-old Dustin Chester. He worked at a Home Depot in Murfreesboro, Tennessee until he caught and restrained a thief who he caught prying open a soda machine with a crowbar. Now he's unemployed.

From the Tennessean:
"When he ran, I ran after him," he said. Chester caught the thief and restrained him in the parking lot until police arrived.
Chester was shocked to find out that for managers and most employees, catching and detaining thieves is against company policy.

"The district manager told me that we are supposed to let thieves walk away; it blew my mind," said Chester, a one-time employee of the year.

Chester said there was no loss prevention officer on duty during the Aug. 20 incident and that in his seven years, he'd never heard of the company's policy.
But even if he had known how the company wanted him to act, it wouldn't have made a difference.

"He had a crowbar, and what if he had come inside and gone after customers or the employees working at the registers?" Chester asked. "I'd rather have him coming at me than going after any of the customers."

Home Depot's spokesperson responded that "Safety was the primary focus of our company," when asked why Chester was fired.

Poor guy. The Murfreesboro police spokesman Kyle Evans told the Tennessean that citizens should concentrate on identifying criminals rather than tackling them in parking lots.

"Property isn't worth getting hurt over -- merchandise can be replaced and people can't," he said.

This isn't the first time Home Depot has fired workers for trying to stop a crime. If you work there, you really should just let people steal. Stopping them will cost you your job.

My all time fantasy is to catch a thief in the middle of stealing and have to chase after him so fast that I have to make a jumping leap to bring him down. I see it all in my head and its very heroic.
When I worked for Albertson’s my fantasy was quickly destroyed when I took the safety course and they stated specifically that, “You are not to chase or apprehend any person(s) who are shoplifting.” It is a liability because the thief having rights has the right to sue; the person who apprehends also has the right to sue in if any injuries occur. That is bad news for the company because they would be the ones being sued.

So yes, every store will fire you and will let you steal from their stores. Unless they catch you and have a security team then your ass is going to jail. Which means you cannot steal and get away with it at any malls. I know because my cousins once shoplifted at Macy’s in the Northridge mall before the Northridge Mall was sophisticated and huge, you know back in the ghetto days of that mall, they stole some underwear and bras and were arrested. So if you are a shoplifter, check around for security.