Posted on 05/06/2011 7:52:15 PM PDT by rawhide
Being a super hero is sometimes a thankless job. Just ask Spiderman and a handful of others who have both fought for and been chased by the law. As it turns out, even being just a regular hero isn't always all that it's cracked up to be. If you require proof, sit down for a chat with Roger Kline, a 51-year-old former Best Buy employee who was shown the door after he tackled a would-be laptop thief making a mad dash with stolen merchandise.
According to a report in the Billings Gazette, Kline was a well-regarded employee and one of the top salesmen during the three years he worked at Best Buy. He had never been in any kind of trouble with the electronics retailer or had any other negative marks on his record.
"I believe I was one of the highest-regarded employees there," Kline said.
Then March 28, 2011 rolled around, That's the day a customer with sticky hands tried to bolt out the door carrying two laptops he didn't pay for. As the man ran by, Kline instinctively grabbed hold of him and tossed the would-be shoplifter to the ground, then held him there until his boss told him to let go. The laptops were valued at $1,600 combined.
For having tried to steal two laptops, the man was arrested and charged with felony theft and misdemeanor drug possession. As for Kline, surely Best Buy recognized his heroics and, at the very least, gave the guy a day off from work, right? Wrong.
Because it's against company policy to interfere with a crime-in-progress, Kline was technically breaking the rules. After a more than three-week investigation, Kline was called into the manager's office and handed an "involuntary separation notice."
"Roger, you admitted that on March 28, 2011, you pursued a shoplifter and engaged in physical force to apprehend this shoplifter," the one-page notice said. "This is a violation of Best Buy's Inappropriate Conduct Policy which states that employees are prohibited from 'pursuing shoplifters under any circumstance or using physical force to detain shoplifters' and ground for termination. Your employment with Best Buy is terminated, effective immediately."
Agreed. Let the cops deal with these punks.
If you’re just dealing with clones it sounds straightforward.
“There is a reason we hire police officers.”
Screw the police, i’ll take care of my own problems!
If I get killed doing it tough shit!
Stomping dogs, breaking doors down and burning people out of their homes. No one does it better!
“...I’ll send hate mail to them in the morning.”
Good for you. Best Buy’s policy is offensive and anti-American. Boycott Best Buy!
Apparently after all these years since I left, some people still can’t lay down a stretch of time code and fill in a corresponding data entry field. I can only imagine fixing it is a mind blower for some there still.
The AA manager freaked out when he saw me copying/pasting text from notepad since the titles were all the same. He was convinced that copy/paste text wasn’t the same as typing it and was the culprit behind all the system failures.
Louth/Harris automation is another disaster epic for another time.
It was fun to watch AA and his sidekick spend up to a few hours clicking on the same Windoze error boxes in the idea that they were fixing actual problems in the OS or software. It never occured that it was somebody else in one of the server spaces on the phone with Louth/Harris who put in the hours and grief getting things running again.
The AA manager was finally forced to retire a year after I left. The guy who got to do his job on top of his own has found out a lot of what I spoke about is apparently true after all.
It may all be moot though. Nikki baby is looking to shut SCETV and the Arts Commssion down. I wish her well. The drones are really nervous from what I hear.
SCETV has dodged bullets over the decades but economics and technology might just be the two lockons for this latest attempt.
Yes, because injured parties being able to sue is a bad thing. Only large companies should have access to the law.
I’d give you a cracker, but I think you’d need an actual parrot to teach you how to eat it.
Best Buy and Future Shop are the absolute worst place to buy tech, bar none. Mediocre selection, zero product knowledge, outrageous prices and pressure to pay an arm and a leg for the “extended warranty”. No thanks, I live in a neighbourhood (Spadina & College, Toronto) that has about a hundred independent computer stores within walking distance, all of which typically charge 60-80% less than BB for the same stuff.
I wouldn’t have the heart to charge a fee just to set up a router- if the customer wants to pay me to do it, I’ll install an AV program at the same time, because chances are that if they don’t know how to secure a network they probably don’t have a decent AV. I want them to remember me as someone who sells value. And $160? In my town you’d be run out on a rail. The going rate for in-home computer service around here is $40-$80.
The purpose of modern day LEOs is revenue generation.
People instinctively realize that thieves should be stopped;it takes lawyers to protect thieves and punish the honest.
There is a reason we hire police officers.”
Ok. What? To eat donuts? A cop is not typically going to apprehend a shoplifter because, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
A lot of it is irrational fear of lawsuits.
Really?
So if a deranged drug crazed 2 time loser robbery suspect had a gun to the head of a female clerk, and a male clerk subdued the robber and disarmed him, saving the female, should the male clerk be terminated from employment?
Agreed. I always try to educate my customers at their comfort level; if nothing else it leaves them inclined to recommend me.
The hallmark of a good person. ‘Teach a man to fish’.
I saw no mention of dogs needing to be shot. Cops are only for cleanup afterwards and are next to useless in most situations that are put into.
Some stores have dedicated security personnel, and they can stop and detain you. Unless you know how the store you visit is staffed, you risk being detained or worse for refusing to show your receipt. You're guilty until proven innocent at Best Buy.
I'd love to say that this will make me shop at Best Buy less, but I don't shop there now, since they have no ethics on a corporate level at all and have no qualms about cheating their customers.
As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to be sad about a guy getting fired from a company that practices bait-and-switch on a daily basis, refuses to honor their own ads, and has sold more than one box of rocks where a computer/piece of electronics should be.
The name "Best Buy" is synonymous with "showroom to visit before ordering online" for a lot of people.
I look forward to their eventual demise, much like I did Blockbuster.
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