09-05-2007, 09:39 PM
Quote:I agree in theory. But most major corporations tell their employees not to chase down people who are stealing. Instead, get a manager and let them deal with it. Corporations are very scared of being sued/looking bad in the media when an employee gets hurt chasing a criminal. In some cases, people have lost their jobs for reacting to a person stealing (a few weeks back this happened to an employee at home depot).
Cheers,
Munk
Problem here is that this guy was detained by the CC employee and manager after he left the property. In general the big box stores built in these strips (which is where the majority of CC's are located) don't have any right to detain people in their parking lots. These lots are not owned by the stores, they are maintained by the owners of the properties which the stores are renting from.
This guy obviously has an agenda and to some people that might make him a Jerk, but as far as the Circuit City altercation he was completely in the right. If they wanted to detain him they should have done it in the store. Once he was out the door the best policy is to just let them go. Some people in this thread have said he should have picked his battles better, but if you look at what he wanted to accomplish with his resistance he picked his battle perfectly. It was Circuit City who should have picked their battles better. The reason that these stores like Best Buy and I would assume Circuit City tell their employees not to chase possible shoplifters out of the stores is less an issue with their employees and more an issue of legal repercussions. When i worked at Best Buy there was a whole day spent in training on loss prevention and why you shouldn't chase a possible shoplifter. The reality is that if this individual ends up running into the street and getting hit or killed the legal repercussions to the store is vastly more expensive than anything they could possibly be running out of the store with. It's just not worth it.
The reason these stores have the Security Podiums at the exits is for the psychological deterant posed to shoplifters. They put them smack dab in front of the exits and pick the tallest, brawniest employee to stand there and stare down anyone who would think about stealing anything.
The reality of this whole situation is that most likely the criminal charges against this guy will be dropped. If he hadn't made such a public display with his blog etc. I would expect in this situation for the charges to be dropped at the first court date because the arresting officer wouldn't have bothered to show up. It happens a lot with these minor issues. Now that it's a big deal the Sheriffs office will need to put up a harder display and ironically it will end up costing this guy a lot more in legal fees because the case won't just get thrown out. The issue regarding Circuit City, however, is highly in this guys favor and will most likely be settled before it gets to court. And the two store employees will probably lose their jobs for the way they detained him.