Usually our shoplifter stories focus on being detained illegally or held at knifepoint by a rabid senior greeter who demands receipts*, but Target in Milwaukee toes the line when it comes to dealing with suspected theft. That’s why they fired a retired cop (warning: video) who stopped a teenager he saw stealing liquor for the second time in a month. He told her he’d seen her take rum a few weeks before and asked her what was in her bag this time. She showed him. He called her father. Target fired him because the store policy is that only certain managers can intercept shoplifters. We admire his attention to detail and desire to help, but we’re glad to see a Big Box retailer following its own policy.
Babcock seems like a nice guy, and we hope he finds a more suitable job soon. We also hope that when Babcock was on the force, his partner’s name was Goobcock, because that would make any reasonable criminal have a good laugh.
*Claim might be slightly exaggerated.
“Target Security Guard Fired After Stopping Shoplifter” [Fox 6 Milwaukee] (Video) (Thanks to Nicholas!)
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@Pylon83: He did see her put it in the bag: both the bottle of tequila this time and the bottle of rum last time.
And she’s 16. I don’t think she qualifies as “stupid” so much as she A) is young and immature and B) was probably pissing in her pants when she walked in the store. (Sure, she could theoretically be a seasoned 16-year-old criminal, but I’m discounting this possibility.)
@Pylon83: Also, to be clear, I’m picturing her theft unfolding along the lines of one of the following scenarios:
So I have a “scared kid” bias here.
Totally sucks to be the security guy–it must be really frustrating to not be allowed by company policy to stop someone yet assume a position that implies that it’s part of your job.
As for the people who are attacking the anti-receipt checking people, I have to say that a security guard/worker who is checking everyone’s receipt and then acting belligerent towards a customer who refuses to show one is completely different than a security guy who witnesses a customer stealing twice.
Apparently Target is fine with teenagers stealing alcohol from their stores. Who needs a fake ID when you can just steal the stuff? This guy should seriously report Target to the Attorney General for allowing teenagers to steal alcohol.
@Michael Belisle: I don’t think there was pants-pissing involved. The fact she did it twice points to serious stupidity, a driving need, or her having twice her weight in balls. I can’t imagine her being petrified and still going that route when there were other options. Unless she’s like a socially retarded 400lb midget with a hunchback and male pattern baldness… she had other options.
@unravel: You can’t imagine it. I can. Shall we fight about it?
I think this guy was totally in the right. I understand people having a problem with this guy going against “policy”. The difference is that SHE STOLE the rum and he knew that. What’s the point or hiring a retired cop if he is going to watch some girl steal alcohol and leave with it. By the time he gets her plate # and alerts the manager she is probably gone. What if she gets stupid drunk and kills someone before anything can be done? THat Target policy will change pretty fast.
Well, I know where I’m taking my shoplifting from now on!
Congratulations, Target! You just netted yourself a new customer.
“We admire his attention to detail and desire to help, but we’re glad to see a Big Box retailer following its own policy.” WAH WAH WHAT??!?!
We are glad that a big box retailer fired someone for trying to keep prices down by actually preventing theft? While most big box retailers’ own policies force people standing at the door saying hello to accost you over a receipt!?!? Insanity!
Looks like dude got axed for copping an attitude with the manager.
My biggest concern: they sell hooch at Target???
maybe just take a chaser and sit down in the store and mix a drink for free..might be the next fern bar!
So what exactly are Target security guards supposed to do?
So let me get this straight. I can walk into a Target. Load up of target junk. Walk out the door and tell the security guard I’m stealin’ this junk as I walk by him.
And there is nothing he can do? I can just keep walking with my stolen Target junk?
Cool. The PD in this city has about a 40 minute response time for shopliftings.
I’m doing all my stealin’ at target from now on.
@DojiStar: That seems to be the situation. And if I understand the law correctly, the employees of the store cannot legally detain you. So yeah, you can walk out most likely. You might not even get caught. But I wouldn’t show back up at that Target if I was you.
What is a security guard good for when he can’t stop shoplifters? Especially ones he SAW shoplift?
here in ontario
security guards are licenced by the goverment
(ministry of community safety and correctional services)
getting physical and how/when they can stop/detain is usually in the contract between the security company and the site being secured
(working security isn’t a bad way to make extra money on your days off)
security guards that are dicks make it miserable for other in the industry – better to treat everyone the same way you’d treat your grandmother/grandfather
Security gaurd’s are often in place as a prevention mechanism. Just the presence of a security gaurd should make a theif think twice about stealing. The same way a secuity camera works.
I used to work for a K-mart as a “loss prevention manager”. My job was to actually stop anyone who stole things. The security gaurd’s job was to call the police if anyone was in trouble, or if anyone saw a theft.
Every place is different, and has their own internal guidelines. If this security gaurd was not aware of these guide lines he should of recieved a warrning. If this was a repeated problem, then the old guy goes.
Lastly, I don’t aggree with the policy. If I owned a buisness I’d let all my employees know it is okay to detain a confirmed shop lifter(no assumptions), however I woudln’t tell them they HAD to.
So I understand all of the legal arguments here, but it doesn’t sound like he was trying to get the girl arrested or prosecuted for the theft. He just called her dad. As for the possibility of her suing for wrongful detainment or whatever one might sue for when stopped by a person who doesn’t have the legal power to stop you, I have to ask – if he doesn’t physically detain her, does that even count? I mean, if she just doesn’t know that she could walk away and is detained by her fear of an adult with a name tag who is telling her what to do, is that him actually detaining her? Maybe she didn’t know she had an alternative, but she did agree to show him what was in her bag, and then she stuck around long enough for him to call her dad. Likely some intimidation was involved, but still, she agreed. Anyone out there with some legal background – are there grounds for a suit like this?
Our Target in N. Florida has liquor, and the new Walmart has a stand-alone liquor store. It’s a state/locality issue. When we lived in NJ, Trader Joe’s was only allowed to have one store in the state with wine, and no liquor. Go figure.
Target = common sense FAIL on this one. Their policy sucks.
But it’s a stupid policy!
The “it’s for the safety of the employees” line doesn’t even work here. It isn’t the policy that no one is allowed to intercept shoplifters, it’s that ‘only certain supervisors’ can intercept shoplifters.
I’m sorry, but what makes the supervisor more qualified to stop shoplifters than the security guard who’s an ex-cop? If anyone should be allowed to stop a shoplifter shouldn’t it be the security guard?
It seems like everyone is forgetting that he did see her shoplift(granted not this time, the first time).
“He told her he’d seen her take rum a few weeks before and asked her what was in her bag this time.”
Seems reasonable to me that he’d stop her. After all, he took down details, she returned, he acted on said details.
No good deed goes unpunished.
@Rectilinear Propagation: I agree with you completely. It sounds like a retired police officer (HELLO WHO IS MORE QUALIFIED THAN THAT? Definitely not a retail manager) approached a teenage girl and was honest with his questioning. He was obviously concerned about her as he called her father not the police to handle this. An underage girl with a bottle of liquor = TROUBLE. I would liken this to a nurse getting fired for performing CPR on a dying patient instead of stepping aside and letting the Registration Supervisor do it. Maybe not as serious, but similar. Remember when we were kids (Those born prior to 1980) and that is how things were handled? You screwed up – Your parents got called – You got a little whooping and/or grounding. Common sense definitely left the building on this one and I am a little disappointed in Consumerist for applauding Target. Uniformed company policies exist to create drones and accommodate all levels of stupidity in a company’s work force. Some of us out there are intelligent enough to exercise good judgment.
I think the security guard should have just told the girl for 10 minutes of “slap and tickle” he’d forget he ever saw her. He gets a little bit of that young thang. She gets to shoplift and go home unpunished. Target gets their booze back. Everybody wins.
I’m very VERY disappointed with the comments here. Not a single one of you said:
But where has all the Rum gone?
Maybe I’m just expecting a bit much.
Firing for a one-time offense of breaking a silly rule? I don’t get it.
Wow I’m surprised by the range of responses here.
I’m surprised that anyone can steal from Target and get away unless a “certain supervisor” is on site. Ironicly in this case they (she specifically) only works 50 hrs out of the business week. Which also means on shift managers can’t stop shoplifters?!?!?
She was witnessed and willingly opened the bag. I’m sure the front end cameras saw it. Furthermore, despite being in store or out of store there is no way she could claim intent to purchase.
We don’t really know why she got away the first time. He did witness her so I’m guessing he was following policy that time and not this time (He probably did know store policy and overrode it) While he did break policy a termination is probably a bit harsh. I’d really love to see where policy requires termination for not following the rules to the letter regarding shoplifting.
We have a lot of farmland here in WI & if something did happen the pitchforks would come out against Target. Most metro areas of WI require liquor sections to be walled off from the main store area including grocery stores. Delavan is a smaller community and that requirement probably does not exist. Those requirements for walled off liquor sections is actually in place to prevent kids from getting liquor because it does happen quite a bit. I worked retail and trust me lots of kids get their alcohol from shoplifting.
Wisconsin has had a rash of underage drinking accidents recently and a few have resulted in deaths so the concern is very real on his part.
At least give him some props for a good guy. He could have called the police but choose instead to call her father and not turn it into a criminal matter. I don’t know his entire personal record but I would hope that this was not the only thing that led to his termination.
-Nicholas
Was it Capt. Morgan, Bacardi, or good ‘ol bottom shelf Ron Rico? And did anyone check the security camera tapes? Eh? I’ll bet her boyfriend was stealing Coke and Twinkies while she was diverting the security ‘force’.
Secondly, surely no one is surprised that Target could sell alcohol in Wisconsin. When I lived there in the 80′s we would hit up the local chain-drug store for booze before kickoff on Sundays. I guess this explains why no one really cared why the Packers sucked–everyone was too wasted to know what winning was.
If he let the minor leave the store with liquor and something happened to her because she was drinking, it’s likely some asshole lawyer would try and sue him for knowingly letting her have alcohol. So the poor old guy had a tough decision to make. He did the right thing.
Store policy is for security guards not to intercept shoplifters. You are therefore *not* authorized to stop a shoplifter under *any* circumstances.
This prevents the ‘good’ guys from helping true, but it also keeps the jerks who feel like real men because they get a plastic badge and policemanny uniform to go on a power trip with.
Good for you, Dean Babcock. I, for one, am thankful that there are still people like you in this country.
@Pylon83: It says he saw her taking liquor for the second time that month. Learn to read before posting.
If they won’t allow him to provide security, then why the hell do they have him there in the first place?
@ianmac47: It’s Wisconsin. You can buy alcohol just about anywhere including all the gas stations along the freeway. EZ-OFF, EZ-ON say the signs.
Its true, Those security guys you see at Target cant really stop you its against policy. The ETL AP is the only one who can detain someone and that guy wears a red shirt like everyone else.
The normal security guys are there to deter theft, not stop it. They can notify the ETL AP of an issue and then he can make the stop but otherwise Target employees cant do a thing. Its always been that way but they dont tell people that for obvious reasons.
@Pylon83: If you had watched the story he did see her take it.
It’s just the “Big Box” way of taking the easy way out…..just like some of them won’t bother anyone taking small cheap items under a certain value.
This gal was probably an alcoholic and nailing her would be doing her a favor. Her rights weren’t being violated….She’s a THIEF!
So here is a diffrent take.
Were not talking about stealing bras, panties, toys, clothes……..
She was stealing something that is ILLIGAL for her to have.
The security guard SAW her stealing it.
If he did not stop her, couldnt her parents have sued him and Target for negligence?
If he did not stop her wouldn’t that be contributing to the diliquency of a minor?
Also, as a US citizen, don’t you have the obligation to report a crime you see in progress.
Isn’t this the same reason you can not leave the scene of an accident if you are the first witness?
Re: why was he fired? I imagine that calling a shoplifter’s parents is also not a part of Target policy.
Couldn’t he just have been disciplined or retrained? Why is it you have to do something REALLY crazy in order to keep your job and just get the ‘retraining’?
@vladthepaler:
In many municipalities, actually, he could be ticketed and fined for allowing a minor to leave the store with the alcohol.
@CharlieInSeattle:
Actually, he said he saw her put it in her CART, not her purse. So, he did NOT see her steal the tequila. Putting it in your cart does not equal putting it in your purse.
I am a former cop that now works in management so let me tell what COULD have happened; if the girl was involved in a traffic accident AFTER leaving the store with the liquor the store, home company AND the management AND the security guard could face charges of allowing a minor to have alcohol and be sued in the process. More and more retailers are not stopping shoplifters for fear of lawsuits. But, they are opening themselves up to criminal prosecution from state and local governments. Plus, the lose is passed on to the rest of us in higher prices. I have been offered several lose prevention positions since I left the PD and have turned ALL of them down because it is a total waste of time to train people to spot shoplifters if they can’t do anything to stop them.
I’m sure Target would much prefer for an underage kid to steal alcohol, drink it and maybe drive and kill herself or someone else, then the parents can sue Target for not stopping her from stealing the alcohol in the 1st place. This is a catch 22. It seems he stopped her more for being underage and trying to steal liquor more than for just stealing.
Target’s policy is that they have an Executive Team Lead of Assets Protection and an Assets Protection Specialist (plain clothes) who can stop shoplifters.
They will also employ 2-4 uniformed security (Target Protection Specialists) who are there as more of a physical presence. The uniformed employees cannot stop shoplifters for any reason, nor can they accuse anyone for shoplifting. The uniformed employees are also paid 2-3 dollars less on average per hour. Their responsibility is to be a physical presence at the entrances/exits and to perform receipt checks. They also help the plain clothes and executive employees in watching potential shoplifters and assisting during a stop if the apprehension becomes too physical.
I used to be employed as a uniformed security guard at Target and I was never luck enough to assist in the stopping of a shoplifter.
What this employee mentioned in the article should have done is performed a ‘receipt check’ rather than stopping for shoplifting. This would have been well within Target’s policy and may have got him in less trouble. ultimately it’s his word against hers and he could have simply said that he saw an item in her possession that Target sells and performed a receipt check, taken the bottle and sent her on her way.
Target does institute a very stringent policy as far as stopping shoplifters. There must be 100% surveillance on the subject and the employee must see the subject conceal the item and pass all points of sale with that item and attempt to exit. If you lose sight of them for any amount of time you cannot stop that person for shoplifting.
I agree with Target on this one because their policy is very clear cut on who can stop a shoplifter and what the circumstances must be in order to do so. This employee broke the rules.
Comment on Target Fires Security Guard For Stopping Shoplifter Well if you think that is bad I was an assistant manager and followed
a shoplifter to the parking lot trying to get his license plate and
got fired. Best Buy fired me for stepping off the sidewalk because it
violated the policy that you were not suppose to pursue a shoplifter.
The cops apprehended the suspect because I called them and they even
found drugs on him.
I want to clear some stuff up.
Target has three types of security guards: Uniformed, undercover, and non-uniformed. The Uniformed and undercover security guards CAN detain people. The non-uniformed employees (the ones who wear red and khaki and watch the camera monitors) cannot confront any criminal. The HIGH THEFT Targets (generally the busier stores) will have a uniformed security officer on duty during store hours. Lake Geneva is not or was not a HIGH THEFT store. Therefore this guy should not have approached or even questioned the young girl.
Every once and while, if a store recently had a lot of thefts, they will bring in an undercover guard dressed in street clothes. They also can detain people.