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."
And another question is, can I really walk out of Best Buy with a new laptop or camera or whatever, knowing that no one will attempt to stop me physically? Sounds like free electronics just for the taking?
“can I really walk out of Best Buy with a new laptop or camera or whatever, knowing that no one will attempt to stop me physically? Sounds like free electronics just for the taking? “
The message is now very clear: FREE STUFF AT BEST BUY.
Also says that employees are prohibited from pursuing you!
I had a best buy employee chase me out to the parking lot in Texas. I was pricing ram for my laptop on the road. Yelling that I stole it. I clearly did not, the sticks were misplaced by another employee. If the female wasn’t there it might have gotten really, really ugly. Best buy is inept in general.
And if the guy had a piece, the Best Buy smurf might have gotten a helluva lot more than just a pink slip. He might have gotten his face blown off.
There is a reason we hire police officers.
At Fry’s and Best Buy I like waving with one finger to the poor nerds checking receipts at the door.
Shoots, back in the day (early 80’s) we used to pray for a shoplifter just to break up a dull day.
We chased one guy 5 or 6 blocks. Detained him for the police. When the cops got there, they told the guy he was lucky he didn’t get caught at one of our competitors. He said they would have just beat you to a pulp and left you.
Based on this policy, the BB employee should have been fired for pursuing you!
I understand the lawsuit rational.
Most stores will not stop people from stealing.
My daughter says she watches hundreds of dollars walk out of Marshalls daily
I think these policies are ridiculous and there should be a remedy.
I had a calming presence (thankfully) with me and we were still traveling (travailing?) south at the time. I didn’t pursue it.
Wrong, we hire cops to take reports and draw chalk lines around bodies after the crime is over and the criminal long gone. They do not stop crime, which is why we have so much of it.
If citizens were taught from childhood to resist and stop criminals, crime would be virtually non-existent.
“There is a reason we hire police officers”
lol. You must be joking.
A few times I had applied for a part time technician opening here at the local Buy More. The one time that the local PHB called me up to talk to what I thought I had applied for was comical. He was like a broken record, “I need customer service” over and over. I asked him about the tech opening and cited my certs and experience and got the customer service response like it was a looped playback.
Anyway I couldn’t push overpriced services on people that don’t need them and generally have no concept of what is being pushed on them.
A lot of times people call me after their overpriced and halfway done run ins with the Geek Squad.
I worked for a large electronic chain back in my college days and we had it hammered into us from day one that we were NOT to detain or pursue shoplifter under any circumstances. If we thought someone was trying to shoplift, about all we could do is approach them before they left the store and say something vague like, “I noticed you picked up a radio, I can check you out if you are ready.” If they continued to head for the doors, we were told to let them go and call mall security with a description of a shoplifter. As some have mentioned, the reason the companies do this is fear of lawsuits and other liability issues if the employee or the perp is injured, or the employee detains an innocent person by mistake. The company would rather take a couple hundred dollar hit than risk a six or seven figure lawsuit.
Someone call looter guy. I hope Best Buy gets hit with a flash mob of thieves.
BB also acts like they require Bachelor’s in Computer Science coupled with an MCSE on their job application. I have never met a BB “tech” that inspired any confidence or made a favorable impression ever. At my local Buy More there is a very high turnover in that area.
Retail work is a bitch, thanks to LAWYERS! Don’t blame the retail companies.
OK fine, he violated rules. They couldn’t take into account his exemplary record with the company? They HAD to fire him on the first “offense”? No black mark on his record and upgrade training? They just HAD TO fire him?
In my college days, I knew a forklift operator at a retail store who accidentally destroyed 5 grand in merchandise and got nothing more than a talking-to about it. (For that matter, I’ve seen a machinist trash a $60,000 landing gear piston and nearly nothing was said to him about it.)
I’m betting a manager up the chain was worried that this guy was going to move up and take his job. Ever wonder why blithering idiots get hired/promoted and really decent people get passed over? There’s a lot of managers who want to be the most knowledgeable and experienced person there, so they hire the biggest morons they can find and pass over good people (or fire them for bogus reasons).
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