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It seemed like any other day in the electronics section of Service Merchandise, with me telling the teens to turn the stereos down, the elderly to turn their hearing aids up, and random sweeps through the shelves to make sure everything looked neat*.
(*"Neat" being the code word we all used in the electronics section to make sure nothing was blocking our view of the girls in the Jewelry department.)
It was just after I had returned from a random sweep through my department, and moved back behind the counter, that I notice my supervisor is looking somewhere other than the jewelry department. In fact, he was actually paying attention to a customer in front of him, who is holding out a receipt and a rather large stereo unit that sold for a few hundred bucks.
As I stood back to watch what I thought would be his selling technique failing miserably, I realized he's not trying to make a sale. He's trying to block a return. Because something on the receipt wasn't right. Ok, maybe they bought it somewhere else that didn't want to return it. It happens all the time with older folks who mistake us for Sears, JCPenny's, or, you know, Old Country Buffet.
As I'm idling nearby, I see the manager of our store walking up behind the customer that my supervisor is talking with, walkie-talkie in hand. She places her hand on the customers shoulder, explains that she KNOWS what she's up too, and the police have been called.
At this point, all hell breaks loose.
"Customer" (who is 5'5", about 125 lbs soaking wet) whips the stereo around at manager's head. Manager (who is about the same build) is able to duck just in the nick of time, but loses her balance and goes to the floor. My supervisor (who is 6'3, 250 lbs and has some muscle) reaches over the counter to grab at the "Customer", but is only able to grab a lock of hair.
Me, being the fast acting hero that I was, didn't move just from the sheer shock of it all.
By the time my Manager picks herself up off the floor, "Customer" has a 10 meter head start to the outside doors. Supervisor throws himself off from the counter and starts to pursue.
At this point, Manager looks at me and yells "GO!!!", which my body took as a cue to drop every bit of adrenaline into my system and force me out of my shock.
Immediately I bolted, jumping over the still swinging door at the end of our counter, hitting the ground running in the direction I had last seen the woman who was still holding OUR stereo had gone. Ahead of me, I saw her make it out through the doors leading to outside.
Now, at this point, any properly trained loss prevention person would have stopped, as you never, EVER know what the customer has waiting for you outside, and you can't legally do anything to them at that point anyways.
But I wasn't properly trained.
So, through the doors I continue running, slowing only enough to catch a glimpse of her just getting off the curb and heading for a large Ford truck. When she hears the door get beat open behind her, she turns around, to see me, in all my 6'0 175 lb, 18 year old glory, giving chase.
She freaks.
She throws the stereo in the back of the truck, and runs off in another direction. I don't even pay attention to the stereo, and immediately change my direction to match hers.
It's now a foot race through the parking lot. She's several meters ahead of me, but my 2 years of running long distance track in highschool is finally paying off.
She's running full speed now, looking back at me as I'm charging towards her, closing the gap.
Her eyes beg me to slow down, to just let her go and she'll never do it again, pinky swears! But I can see otherwise. I can see...the guardrail she's about to run into.
But she doesn't just run into it. No, her lower half is immediately stopped, but she's going so fast she doesn't even realize it, and her arms are still doing that running motion as she FLIPS over the rail, and begins tumbling down the hill on the other side.
I managed to slow down and jump the rail just in time to see her SPLASH!!! into the water that had filled the ditch below.
At this point, all the emotion has left the scene. As I'm slowly making my way down the hill to see if she's still alive, she comes out of the water on my side, head down, holding her arms out. As if I had a pair of handcuffs or something.
I led her back to the front of the store, where the mall security and police were waiting. They already had the accomplice from the truck in custody. They didn't even question why the "customer" was soaking wet. They simply cuffed her, threw her in the back of the car, got a statement from the Manager, and went on.
To this day, I know it was stupid chasing a shoplifter out of the store.
But I'd pay good money to get to see her get what she deserved all over again.
(*"Neat" being the code word we all used in the electronics section to make sure nothing was blocking our view of the girls in the Jewelry department.)
It was just after I had returned from a random sweep through my department, and moved back behind the counter, that I notice my supervisor is looking somewhere other than the jewelry department. In fact, he was actually paying attention to a customer in front of him, who is holding out a receipt and a rather large stereo unit that sold for a few hundred bucks.
As I stood back to watch what I thought would be his selling technique failing miserably, I realized he's not trying to make a sale. He's trying to block a return. Because something on the receipt wasn't right. Ok, maybe they bought it somewhere else that didn't want to return it. It happens all the time with older folks who mistake us for Sears, JCPenny's, or, you know, Old Country Buffet.
As I'm idling nearby, I see the manager of our store walking up behind the customer that my supervisor is talking with, walkie-talkie in hand. She places her hand on the customers shoulder, explains that she KNOWS what she's up too, and the police have been called.
At this point, all hell breaks loose.
"Customer" (who is 5'5", about 125 lbs soaking wet) whips the stereo around at manager's head. Manager (who is about the same build) is able to duck just in the nick of time, but loses her balance and goes to the floor. My supervisor (who is 6'3, 250 lbs and has some muscle) reaches over the counter to grab at the "Customer", but is only able to grab a lock of hair.
Me, being the fast acting hero that I was, didn't move just from the sheer shock of it all.
By the time my Manager picks herself up off the floor, "Customer" has a 10 meter head start to the outside doors. Supervisor throws himself off from the counter and starts to pursue.
At this point, Manager looks at me and yells "GO!!!", which my body took as a cue to drop every bit of adrenaline into my system and force me out of my shock.
Immediately I bolted, jumping over the still swinging door at the end of our counter, hitting the ground running in the direction I had last seen the woman who was still holding OUR stereo had gone. Ahead of me, I saw her make it out through the doors leading to outside.
Now, at this point, any properly trained loss prevention person would have stopped, as you never, EVER know what the customer has waiting for you outside, and you can't legally do anything to them at that point anyways.
But I wasn't properly trained.
So, through the doors I continue running, slowing only enough to catch a glimpse of her just getting off the curb and heading for a large Ford truck. When she hears the door get beat open behind her, she turns around, to see me, in all my 6'0 175 lb, 18 year old glory, giving chase.
She freaks.
She throws the stereo in the back of the truck, and runs off in another direction. I don't even pay attention to the stereo, and immediately change my direction to match hers.
It's now a foot race through the parking lot. She's several meters ahead of me, but my 2 years of running long distance track in highschool is finally paying off.
She's running full speed now, looking back at me as I'm charging towards her, closing the gap.
Her eyes beg me to slow down, to just let her go and she'll never do it again, pinky swears! But I can see otherwise. I can see...the guardrail she's about to run into.
But she doesn't just run into it. No, her lower half is immediately stopped, but she's going so fast she doesn't even realize it, and her arms are still doing that running motion as she FLIPS over the rail, and begins tumbling down the hill on the other side.
I managed to slow down and jump the rail just in time to see her SPLASH!!! into the water that had filled the ditch below.
At this point, all the emotion has left the scene. As I'm slowly making my way down the hill to see if she's still alive, she comes out of the water on my side, head down, holding her arms out. As if I had a pair of handcuffs or something.
I led her back to the front of the store, where the mall security and police were waiting. They already had the accomplice from the truck in custody. They didn't even question why the "customer" was soaking wet. They simply cuffed her, threw her in the back of the car, got a statement from the Manager, and went on.
To this day, I know it was stupid chasing a shoplifter out of the store.
But I'd pay good money to get to see her get what she deserved all over again.
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