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"Police report on January 13, Trent Allen Longton was seen stashing a Netbook computer inside his clothes in the electronics department of a Walmart near Salt Lake City. Then, he headed toward the front of the store. The workers approached him and escorted him to the loss prevention office. That's where Longton took out the laptop, and then a loaded handgun. He rushed the workers, pushing the gun into Gabe Stewart. [more]
This is insane,they disarmed the loser and lose thier jobs cause they tried to help Walmart?
Simiilar incident happened with a grocery store here last year...employees restrained a shoplifter and called the police on him, then were later fired for violating store policy. Rules say employees can't lay a hand on customers no matter what...they were fired for violating the rules.
Kroger employees must allow shoplifters to walk out of the store with a cartload of stolen food. They can call the police (who often won't get there in time) but they cannot physically prevent the person from doing this.
I actually witnessed this happening once, in Flint Michigan. Where you're lucky to get a cop show up within 30 minutes for an armed robbery, let alone shoplifting, because the FPD has been so "downsized" the cops can't answer every call. And if they do, there's no room in jail for any but the worst offenders, and no money to build more jaol space, so all the cops do is issue an "appearance ticket" and good luck having the low-life show up for court.
Kudos to "Asset Protection Supervisor" Lori Paulsen - in my opinion she and the others went above and beyond the call of duty and it's too bad they didn't mess Longton up big-time, and even worse they got fired. But rules are rules and I can also see the store policy side (which is why I hope to God I never have to work for a big corporation like WalMart....!)
So this employee endangered himself, his fellow workers, other customers of the store, and potentially the financial well-being of the store for a $300 netbook.
Google walmart lawsuits and you will see a bunch of claims vs them for wrongful imprisonment etc.
Heck, in some of them all the "alledged" shoplifter had to do was claim they had planted the evidence in her bag. She the went in front of a jury and it's local gal vs. big bad evil walmart.....LOL....she got paid 200k. (Note that it happened in a poorer area where anti-business sentiment runs higher.)
Had any of these employees been seriously injured or killed on Walmart property, who would the injured employee or the family members (if deceased) sue? Walmart! There is nothing wrong with an employer limiting its liability. A lot of employers have similar policy.
Think of it this way, if that employee broke a leg during the scuffle, then Wal-Mart is responsible for worker's comp (and the obligatory lawsuit from the employee). It would end up costing them far more than the $300 in lost sales of a netbook.
Good on Wal-Mart for being smart about it. We have police, no need for a cashier to do the police's job.
For a little balance, I'd like to know what pressures Wal-Mart had placed on its employees in that store to reduce 'shrinkage'. All too many employers have 'Official Policy' stating one thing, and then an implicit set of expectations indicating the exact opposite.
I suspect that employees at Wal-Mart are caught in an extremely frustrating double bind...between an imperative to reduce shrinkage (maybe delivered with phrasing like "...whatever it takes...") and "Official Policy" which runs counter to that imperative. I can imagine training trainers to imply to new hires that certain aspects of "Official Policy" are only what is written on paper, and that they will be heroes if they ignore it, to do "whatever it takes" to protect the store. That gives the store plausible deniability....isolating blame with the offending Employee, who can then be fired.
So.....I'd like to hear from some Wal-Mart employees, about the Workplace Culture fostered by the store, regarding 'Shrinkage'.
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