Posted on 06/06/2007 10:53:36 AM PDT by Cagey
MIDWEST CITY, Okla. -- A former Home Depot employee said the company fired him and three other workers because they helped police catch several suspected shoplifters in May.
Midwest City Police said the men helped officers catch suspected shoplifters as they tried to run from a store with lawn equipment.
An internal memo from Home Depot outlines that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting. However, one of the fired employees said the company is selective in enforcing that policy.
"The loss-prevention guy at our Shields (Boulevard) store turned around and told me all we need to do is tell the shoplifter to have a good day as they leave the store. I said that just doesn't make sense," former employee Bob Stewart said.
Stewart said what really doesn't make sense is a termination letter Home Depot gave him and three other employees after they helped police catch the shoplifters.
"We saw them with the merchandise. We saw them run out of the store. I never kept my eyes off of them," Stewart said. "Then when we asked them for a receipt, and that's when they dropped the merchandise and they kept running. One guy still had a chainsaw while he was running, and that's when the cops tackled him."
The letter said Stewart and the others were fired because they "pursued and assisted in the apprehension of suspected shoplifters."
Stewart said all he did was call police, something he's done before. Less than eight months ago, he said that he received a letter -- a commendation letter -- for helping police catch a thief trying to steal $2,500 worth of wire.
On the top of the letter, written in bold letters was "Great job, Bob."
Home Depot officials said in an e-mail to Oklahoma City TV station KOCO that they have "standard operating procedures in place for situations like this," and that "from time to time, we find inconsistent execution in our stores."
However, they added that they do not discuss personnel matters and will not comment on this specific case.
Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said he won't comment on the store policy, but said they would probably not have caught the suspects or recovered the property or the stolen car they drove if it had not been for the help of these four employees.
Clabes said he is considering giving the four men letters of appreciation for helping catch the suspects.
This is not true. Citizens arrests are legal in most states I know of.
JOHN VLIET SPITZER, NY, governor
This is Lindsayism, pure and simple: Open the rolls and they will come!
In fact, "outreach" by the state and City Hall has already brought massive jumps in the number of recipients: Since Mayor Mike took office, for example, Gotham's food-stamp rolls have soared by 40 percent, to about one in every eight city residents.
Now the gov hopes to sign up at least a quarter-million people by the end of next year - and his plan to remove anti-fraud safeguards will surely help.
When Giuliani introduced electronic finger-imaging for welfare applicants in the mid '90s, hundreds of thousands of people vanished from the welfare rolls - almost overnight.
Funny thing, though: That number far exceeded increases in employment, crime, homelessness and soup-kitchen attendance or drops in population.
So what became of the hundreds of thousands? Apparently, they were never real to begin with.
Is Spitzer going back to the future?
Bon appetit, New York.
Oh....
I guess Home Depot likes to be robbed.
No wonder our society is a bunch of limp-wristed f*ggots. In 1920 you would have been told to shoot the bastards as they walked out the door.
It seems like the Europe-like wimpification of America is proceding splendidly.../s
Letters of appreciation? How about their f**king jobs back?
WTF is wrong with these people? Are they so brainwashed by our "never-offend" PC society that they can't just say "good job men, next time shoot the bastards" and go on with their day?
Guy was marking off a board or something, and also bought his carpenter's pencils there, btw. Or use to. Can't remember how the story turned out.
Or illegal Mexicans.
That was the police chief. I think he was embarrased by Home Depot’s actions and wanted to make a statement about how he felt about their policy.
Yea. But what's not so kool is that pesky 7th commandment.
The Libbers and commies are getting exactly what they've asked for. Too bad folks don't behave.
Glad I dumped all my Home Depot stock!
“Where can I send a note to Home Depot to tell them that I’m shopping at Lowes from now on, because of their mistreatment of employees?”
Wish I could do that, but I’m boycotting my local Lowes due to the fact that they have gone completely bilingual, moreso by far than any other store in my area.
It makes for much more dificult store navigation, due to the fact that one must try to pull the English from amongst all the Spanish signage.
25 years ago, my wife worked for a privately run Seattle area jewelry store. At the time, she was 8 months pregnant with our son. She noticed two women heisting displays of gold bracelets from behind a counter. As the male sales people sat in utter oblivion, she yelled at them and proceeded to chase them out of the store, accross the parking lot as they dropped bracelets. She continued to chase them, while picking up bracelets, and even yanked the purse off of one’s shoulder (later found to contain $900 cash,multiple ID’s and methadone). Turns out they were from a known shoplifing ring. She was about to tackle one when one of the “brave” salesmen yelled at her to stop, as they may be armed. Only then did she stop.
She was rewarded with her choice of any gold bracelet from the store. It was a high end store. She chose a nice one..ha :).
And....no...I don’t piss my wife off....LOL
It seems to me that a policy like this relies on the great majority of people being honest. As a country, we are importing many millions of people quickly who do not necessarily share those values.
I think that the average annual per store loss at a Home Depot is in the neighborhood of one million dollars. Employee theft is the largest category. Credit card fraud is significant. Shoplifting is about 25%. The risk of an employee stopping a shoplifter does not match the potential savings in merchandise.
Besides all of the chinese junk that is sold at Home Depot, this is another fine reason not to shop there.
Meanwhile, Home Depot will try to put you in prison for a used carpenters pencil.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1526246/posts
hmmm ... I’d ‘shop’ at Home Depot ... but it’s not worth my self-respect.
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