Respectfully, you missed the whole point. The Walmart employee is a civilian and not empowered to make a non-felony criminal stop. When he attempted to he became the criminal as he was initiating an assault. To wit the “customer” was well within his rights to defend himself from a potential threat. Had the Walmart employee tried this on an armed individual he may well be more than just unemployed.
Moreover, ask yourself what gives you the right to check anybody’s bag/possesion/property/etc? A Walmart vest? Once a customer has moved past the cash register what is in those plastic bags is the customers property and not subject to search without probable cause unless determined by Law Enforcement. It can get more complicated than this but that’s the simple explanation.
Again, reverse the role. You just made a lawful purchase and are walking out to your car. Somebody tries to stop and harass you in the parking lot under the guise of checking your bags. What are you going to do? Submit to some stranger and forgo your rights just because they have a Walmart vest? Only if you are a sheeple.
Unfortunately too many citizens have been conditioned to submit to ANY perceived authority, including Walmart.
I have a feeling your whole thought process is based on a presumption of guilt. Remember, the electronic tags and exit alarms give false alarms over 99% of the time. Is this justifiable cause? The answer is a resounding no! These machines are simply intimidation devices. Anybody who submits to one is a sheeple.
Personally I think the greeter position is a total waste. The money they spend on harassing good customers should be spent bagging our groceries and bringing carts in from the parking lot to prevent door dings. However, stores justify the greeters by saying that they are the first step in loss prevention. By meeting people at the door, potential thieves are supposed to be made aware that they are watched and not just blending in. Hence they are supposedly less likely to shop-lift. This may have been true 20 years ago but these days shoplifters are de-sensitized to greeters and basically ignore them. Really what criminal is going to be intimidated by a 70-year-old greeter who should be at home relaxing in retirement?
I spent 10 years in Retail including some big box stores, Loss Prevention in those same stores and Law Enforcement. My opinions are based on what I learned on the job, company policies and basic human nature. Remember criminals by definition don’t respect your laws.
You’re wrong.
Once you pass the registers (or point of purchase), people are still subject to identifying themselves as being a purchaser. Just because you get past the registers doesn’t mean you are all of a sudden free from being questioned by employees.
If this were the case, robberies/thefts would be up exponentially just because you are past home base.
I understand your concept, but Walmart should back someone making 7.25 an hour for the preservation of the company’s goal- not getting ripped off.
You would think so, but you are wrong in Florida and that is where this happened.
Florida Statute 812.015
(3)(a) A law enforcement officer, a merchant, a farmer, or a transit agency's employee or agent, who has probable cause to believe that a retail theft, farm theft, a transit fare evasion, or trespass, or unlawful use or attempted use of any antishoplifting or inventory control device countermeasure, has been committed by a person and, in the case of retail or farm theft, that the property can be recovered by taking the offender into custody may, for the purpose of attempting to effect such recovery or for prosecution, take the offender into custody and detain the offender in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time. In the case of a farmer, taking into custody shall be effectuated only on property owned or leased by the farmer. In the event the merchant, merchant's employee, farmer, or a transit agency's employee or agent takes the person into custody, a law enforcement officer shall be called to the scene immediately after the person has been taken into custody.You have to do it right, promptly call the police, etc., but your main assertion is that you cannot be held by an employee and the law says the opposite.(b) The activation of an antishoplifting or inventory control device as a result of a person exiting an establishment or a protected area within an establishment shall constitute reasonable cause for the detention of the person so exiting by the owner or operator of the establishment or by an agent or employee of the owner or operator, provided sufficient notice has been posted to advise the patrons that such a device is being utilized. Each such detention shall be made only in a reasonable manner and only for a reasonable period of time sufficient for any inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the activation of the device.
(c) The taking into custody and detention by a law enforcement officer, merchant, merchant's employee, farmer, or a transit agency's employee or agent, if done in compliance with all the requirements of this subsection, shall not render such law enforcement officer, merchant, merchant's employee, farmer, or a transit agency's employee or agent, criminally or civilly liable for false arrest, false imprisonment, or unlawful detention.
Following a criminal to write down a plate number is not a crime. Defending oneself from attack is not a crime either. But I do understand concerns about employee safety.