Caught a shoplifter at Home Despot: You're Fired

[Dark Psion]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/koco/1344154...OMAecGay0DW7oF

And it's from my home state of Okahoma too.

Hmmm maybe we can hire these guys?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

If that guy was not LP and did not have LP-type duties in his job description, such as pursuing suspects, then his firing was legit. Companies are extremely squeamish about regular ol' peons taking it upon themselves to play cop and chase after people; not only because they can be hurt but because they open the company up to a lawsuit if the suspect gets hurt in the chase.

At my store you can participate in chases ONLY if you are 18 years old or over, and LP specifically asks you to assist.

Well, if nothing else that guy could train for LP and try to get a job someplace. He's got the observancy part down.

[lordlundar]

An internal memo from Home Depot outlines that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting.

Now I can see the first 3 for legal/safety reasons, but you can't even phone the police? Why doesn't the company just put a sign on it's doors saying "Thieves welcome!"?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Now I can see the first 3 for legal/safety reasons, but you can't even phone the police? Why doesn't the company just put a sign on it's doors saying "Thieves welcome!"?

Probably because anything having to do with shoplifters is LP's job.

[Kara]

That's how it was at Circuit City. They wanted us to watch out for shoplifters at all times. They were always griping about Loss, but when we'd find someone suspicious (heavy winter coat in July, etc), we'd follow them all over the store. As soon as they would grab something and run to the door, a manager would show up and yell at us for trying to "be heroes." They said we weren't allowed to follow someone out of the store, that if they made it to the door, then whatever they had was just "gone." They said it was our job to stop them BEFORE they got to that point (without any pursuit or contact whatsoever). My argument was always that it technically isn't even stealing until they're out the door, but I guess that's why I wasn't in charge.

We didn't even have anyone from LP within 100 miles of the store. So basically, no one was authorized to really do anything about Loss, so the only solution was for management to bitch at us about not reducing a problem that was beyond our capabilities to resolve in the first place.

This is among many reasons why that company is in the toilet right now (and I couldn't be happier).