Stopped A Robbery In Progress!

[Mr Hero]

Any idea if they were able to use the cell phone of the guy they caught to find the distraction person?

Ooh that's a good idea. I hope they get both SOBs.

[RealUnimportant]

Well done! I'm confused why you're not allowed to detain someone actually caught stealing - citizen's arrest?

[Dreamstalker]

Employee safety, likely. We were actually told at the bookstore and game store not to try to stop a shoplifter/robber as we had no idea if they were armed.

My store has a break room and locker rooms in the basement; before Wednesday everyone was keeping their shit in the manager's office/time clock area. Which stopped abruptly after a part-timer went to clock out and found their bag missing. The lockers are tiny, but I actually prefer knowing my stuff is locked up; I keep valuables with me anyway (I don't care if mom says my cargo pants look 'awful', my wallet, keys and phone are staying on my person).

[XCashier]

I wish though, that the store would not put their employees in this position in the first place and would put a damn working lock on that door!

Yes! A new lock, or even a new key for the existing lock doesn't cost that much. Certainly a lot less than the employees and business kept losing by leaving the door open!

You did a fantastic job. Thank you for getting one more crook off the streets!

[LillFilly]

Well done! I'm confused why you're not allowed to detain someone actually caught stealing - citizen's arrest?

As an Employee of the mall itself, stores renting our spaces don't fall under our jurisdiction once I cross that lease line. Since he what he did occurred within their store, and not the common area of the mall, he didn't commit a crime against the mall but just against that store. It's kind of complicated and all about not getting our butts sued for unlawful imprisonment or something. Now, if the guy had become violent in the store and the employee had asked for help, or if SHE had been detaining him and he turned on her, then I would have had a reason to cuff him. Or if he had turned on me once we got into the mall common area. Unfortunately our company insists on security being very passive and observing rather than getting involved; we're just supposed to record everything until the police get there. I've only actually had to get a physical 2 times that I can remember. And every store has it's own policies on how much it wants its employees to get involved; some have zero 'no confrontation' policies. The larger ones will chase and hold people. I think it all comes down to how much liability a store is willing to shoulder. It probably would have been easier had I just been a customer, then I could have made a citizen's arrest.

Draco, I'm sure the police will be checking the thief's phone, but he was fiddling with it as we walked so he might have deleted the calls/messages. The police said they'll have to get a warrant to get phone records. I'm betting the phones were probably stolen anyway.

[rose_metal_nz]

Awesome work! You rock!

[LillFilly]

Update:

The store employee and myself just got the subpoenas to testify for the State VS. Stupid Thief - in less than a week, that's pretty darn fast around here. So, in order for this to be happening he had to plead not guilty at his hearing and ask for a trial. That means he's going to be sitting in our city's jail for a month and a half until the trial date. He must REALLY not want to be extradited! I wonder what the heck he did.

[PepperElf]

Yay! Good job!!

My company provides lockers (or locked drawers depending on the location) for employees and so many of them don't actually lock the stuff up! I used to be bad about remembering to lock up my keys (I'd do my purse, but then leave my keys on the desk in the back). Until one day, someone stole my keys and used my remote keyless entry to steal my car. Even telling my employees this story, there are many of them that don't lock up their stuff! DUH!

mine does too but we don't have enough lockers. and like your place ... a lot of people don't use the locks.

when i use them i bring a lock but lately i haven't bothered using them at all. i just leave my stuff in the car and take the keys with me. except lately it's been hot so i don't want to leave the itouch in the car. but in my section we have a special drawer to lock our phones in (no one uses it anymore tho they're suppose to). and i just use that

[LillFilly]

Update-Update

Remember when I mentioned that another employee at this store had had the same thing happen to her several months ago? And the Manager didn't do anything because getting a new lock was 'out of her budget?' (probably because it was only an employee getting screwed, not the store) Well, I ran into that employee today and SHE got a subpoena too because guess what!? THIS WAS THE SAME GUY THAT ROBBED HER TOO! Apparently she either IDed him or they delved into video footage from her case because in that incident, the thief got her credit and debit cards and maxed-out the credit card and emptied her bank account within an hour of stealing them to the tune of almost $2,000 at a couple local stores. So, with her case lumped in with the 2nd one, this guy is looking at a felony. Warms my heart! The police promised that they're going to throw the book at him. We're also hoping that he rats-out his friend who helped distract the employees.

I was kind of thrown that in that case and others in our area, that it was WAL MART that denied the thief use of the card because the name obviously did not match the person (like a 6", 250lb man is going to be named Ethel B. Sherman), but yet TARGET took the cards each time.