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While the guard may have had good intentions, his actions clearly went against policy. As we have seen the past years, corporations do not look kindly upon employees acting like heroes, and their reasoning is perfectly understandable. At least the guy realizes what he did and doesn't blame Best Buy for being let go, unlike what others might have done (trying to 'shame' a company for being let go).
A Best Buy security guard and Army veteran thought he was “doing the right thing” by helping police capture a fleeing suspect — but a week after the incident, he was let go from the California-based store for violating company policy.
You never know if the perp has a gun. I remember reading about a guy who was chasing a purse snatcher and got shot for it. When I worked retail and a stupid cashier let a guy walk out without paying for a lamp I didn't do anything. I saw the guy right out there in the parking lot with it too.
What does him being a veteran have to do with the story?
I will say that it makes this case a little more difficult than most. Not only is a store employee expected to be passive when a robbery or theft (or even) assault is taking place, but someone with a military or police background has to overcome intensive indoctrination as well.
It's just good sense to keep an 18yo clerk from trying to play Batman, but when it's an older, trained, indoctrinated "guardian"... I can't imagine how hard it would be to just stand there while cops did their job right in front of you.
But in the end, it does involve the store and the corporation on some potentially disastrous levels.
It isn't the 70s, 80s, or 90s any more than it is ancient Rome.
I'm not sure it was any different, at least from the 80s on. This is a business liability/insurance thing, and it's not new. As a bank teller in the 1970s, we were firmly instructed to "just give 'em the money."
I am pretty sure a manager in my town (of maybe 40 branches) was fired for chasing a robber.
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