At most big retailers, shoplifters are allowed to run free, because any attempt to touch them brings up the terrifying prospect of a lawsuit. But a Montana Best Buy employee wasn’t having that, taking down a thief. Now he’s fired.
The newly unemployed computer department here, 51-year-old Roger Kline, sprang into action as the thief was about to sprint out of the store: “As he stood up, I grabbed a hold of him and threw him to the ground.” Kline’s manager told him he had to get off the crumpled criminal, which he did – letting a Best Buy shopper take over the job of keeping him pinned until cops rolled up.
Kline then spent the next month in limbo, knowing he’d likely be fired for knowingly violating the store’s policy of shoplifting non-intervention. So what moved him? “Someone steals from you, you stop them,” Kline explains. “That’s the way I was brought up. I felt like the guy was stealing from me, not just the company. I guess I took it a little personal when I saw the guy run out of the store with two computers.” Bummer. [Billings Gazette]
Photo by Rob Lawton