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They’re not paying you minimum wage to be a hero.
A 24-year old Walmart electronics worker is in critical condition after he tried to prevent a robbery. A female customer asked him about hard drives and then grabbed a boxed hard drive out of his hands and fled the store. The Walmart worker pursued. She jumped into a car with a waiting driver. He tried to stop her and the car, but it sped away, knocking him down and running him over.
Do not risk your personal health trying to stop a robbery. That’s what cops and insurance are for.
Walmart Worker Hit, Run Over After Female Steals Hard Drive, CPD Says [NBC4I] (Thanks to Amber!)
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I bet he gets fired.
After getting the cost of the hard drive deducted from his last paycheck.
That’s a baseless and asinine accusation. It was apparently intended as a joke, but how is it funny when only a fool would think Walmart would do that? Where’s the humor in criticizing a company for something they don’t do?
You must work for Wal-mart.
I’ve never worked at Walmart in my life. I rarely even shop there.
Then why the need to defend it so vehemently all over the comments?
Isn’t obvious that someone pissed in his cornflakes this morning and he’s lashing out because YouDidWhatNow? failed to make him laugh. This is apparently punishable by evisceration of YouDidWhatNow?’s cynical statement.
Oh, wry tongue-in-cheek comment, we hardly knew ye…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire
In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement.
It’s a good thing humor doesn’t only exist in your myopic perceptual vacuum.
If unoriginal and unfunny = humor to you, I’m sorry.
Let’s examine that one again. If a form of humor = unfunny to you, STFU.
Yep. I like mine better.
Are you the anti-fun troll today?
It was semi-sorta funny and had insight to the ways that Walmart (along with any retailer) would do things if they could. It hearkens back to the Domino’s driver who had to repay the cash stolen from him on a delivery through payroll deductions.
I thought it was quite funny, well done, with a side of irony.
Couldn’t DanRydell claim that his post was also satire?
Hah hah hah…well done…
“DanRydell, the people of the Consumerist have found accuse you of grouchiness and general unpleasantness…how do you plea?”
“Satire!”
“Hmmm…well…um…*mumbling*…I guess…”
This was the first thing I thought. It’s too bad he doesn’t read the Consumerist:
http://consumerist.com/2010/05/walmart-employee-fired-after-trying-to-stop-a-shoplifter.htm
He doesn’t need to read Consumerist, he just needs to be familiar with his company’s policies.
The only way you get to do this and not get fired is if you jump on the hood and aren’t thrown off until the 8 second horn sounds.
As soon as he’s able to walk Wal Mart will fire him for breaking store procedure.
Why would they wait until he can walk?
Because he got injured on the job. Their workmans comp insurance already covers him. Their rates have already gone up as a result of the increased risk. They gain nothing other than bad PR by firing him now.
That won’t stop them from doing it anyway.
Why should they not fire him?
Because their insurance still has to pay him whether or not he is employed. If they don’t fire him they can get some use out of him once he leaves the hospital. If they fire him workmans comp pays him for not working. They can try to get workmans comp to not pay the claim but they are under insurance regulations and the government can, and frequently does just take the money as an administrative measure. So it does not serve Walmart to fire him. What they do is what most corps do. They have him on limited bitch work until he quits or gets better and then they fire him. When I worked for a wholesaler we would occasionally have employees who would get injured and we would make them staple paper packets for 8 hours a day.
They’ll get him drug tested to see if they can base his actions on drugs. Then they’ll fire him for leaving his department. Or they’ll fire him for something like unsafe actions on company property.
Well, America…you wanted cheap, right?
I bet that box had a brick in it instead of a hard drive.
+1 I hope so. That would be awesome
no, the thief was smart eough to go to Walmart, not best buy.
The really sad thing is, if he survive, will Walmart fire him?
A harddrive. Running after someone for at max (although maybe only 500 gig) $100 hard drive.
I’ll say it – he got beat up by a girl. And her car.
I’ve got extra hard disks laying around. If only they’d just *asked*.
Hey, can I have a hard drive?
its not sad! he WILL be fired. and likely responsible for his own medical bills. its an insurance company and corporate liability MANDATE. stop claiming business owners are evil assholes, its insurance companies that force them to do things like this.
well, they’re still assholes.
Got that right, somebody in the loop is an evil a-hole. Will all the a-holes please stand up?!
Unfortunately the party that should be responsible for his medical bills probably doesn’t have much money, otherwise they wouldn’t be stealing hard drives from Walmart.
Violating policy or not, he probably won’t be on the hook for the medical bills.
You’re just dumb, mean or live under a rock if you think all the repeatedly published abuses of workers and consumers nationwide and worldwide are okay.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com
http://www.walmartwatch.com
why is that robbery and not shoplifting (the first part of the crime)
I am guessing its robbery since she stole it from him directly or maybe value?
But yea hes fired.
Shoplifting is just a theft. Robbery has an element of violence or a threat of violence. The assault elevated it from shoplifting to the more serious charge of robbery.
It’s just stuff. It was just one item, not all that expensive, and Wal-mart has insurance for this sort of thing.
I’d be willing to be that the employee wouldn’t have given chase had she not grabbed it right out of his hands. It probably pissed him off and is more like someone is robbing you instead of just the store.
That was my thought exactly. All of the comments seem to focus around the dollar amount of the item, insurance companies, and store policy. But really, this guy was probably just mad that someone stole directly from him (out of his hands), was pumped up on adrenaline, and had a deep rooted desire to stop a bad guy. It had nothing to do with the value of the item stolen.
This isn’t the first item that’s mentioned “{Merchant} has insurance for theft”…guess what? I bet they do but the deductible is very high.
So high in fact that it would only for if someone broke into the store and stole a bunch of upscale HDTVs. Or all the cash in the safe.
Insurance does not work that way. Do you think you can file a claim for every little thing you lose on homeowner’s insurance? If it was covered, you’d be cancelled quicker than you think, and then your property would have a big red flag on CLUE, leading to higher rates…..
I’m also thinking that in the second he had to make the decision, he may have been afraid he’d be fired if he didn’t stop the thief. After all, they basically took the merchandise directly out of his hands, making it more his fault than if they had stolen something off a shelf.
“They’re not paying you minimum wage to be a hero.”
Couldn’t have said it any better. This poor sap put his life on the line for all the wrong reasons. I hope he makes it through alright and doesn’t get fired, but I don’t see it happening. IF he makes it, he’s gonna get canned, and probably have to pay his own medical bills. All that for a fucking hard drive. Very dumb move…
And if he doesn’t make it Wal-Mart will collect on the dead peasant’s insurance they carry on him.
I wonder if he will be able to get worker’s comp.
I seriously doubt it. If he was doing something that was not mandated by company management or outlined in their handbook, then he may be in some serious trouble in getting help.
I had a friend who worked for 7/11, and they were very specific that if you tried to thwart a robbery, stop a shoplifter, or chase after a drive-off, you’d be fired. Corporate didn’t want employees to get hurt, say by being run over by someone, trying to stop a crime.
Have they told him he has to come back to work yet? Or did they just fire him right away?
I blame advertisements.
The American shopper is so brainwashed as to the value of the crap we purchase that we are willing to risk our lives, and risk the lives of others, to stop the invalid transfer of said crap from one party to another.
I put this in the same basket as those fatal trampings that happen around Thanksgiving weekend.
That’s one of the most nonsensical theories I’ve heard in a while. Gold star for you.
Yeah, because people have only been assulting and killing people over their possessions for the last 50 years.
My proposition is that we value human life less (comparatively) because advertisers push to make us value material possessions more than they are worth, and that this started in the 20s.
I doubt shopkeepers in Athens would risk their lives to stop a man who stole an apple, as much as they would a man who stole a necklace. Advertisements corrupt our sensibilities and makes us believe that the apple is so good that it is worth the same as the necklace.
A long time ago we did not have insurance, if someone stole something from you, you were SOL. A long time ago it was less of a crime to harm minorities or the indigent, so you had no fear of reprisal for carrying out vigilante justice.
In todays environment, if not for the false valuing of material goods, people would not go to the lengths they do.
The tramplings that occur around Black Friday are a direct result of advertising and the overvaluing of material goods.
You are insane. A shopkeeper in Athens would grab that apple thief and have his hands cut off. Ok, maybe Greece didn’t have that form of punishment, but other civs throughout history did. Point being the value of that apple was greater than the value of a man’s body.
Horse thieves and cattle rustlers were hung in this country in the 1800s.
And you want me to believe human life is worth less now, compared to the past?
so (in your opinion)the average American is so stupid and weak willed that a 30second commercial can be a catalyst for murder, and that is somehow the fault of the ad agencies?
You are under the impression that people have to be stupid or weak willed for propaganda to work on them. That is exactly what the propagandists want you to believe.
We have all been under the yolk of advertisers since at least the 1920s.
Tried to bring a body to a car fight…. maybe he’s been watching the new show No Ordinary Family and thought he was like the dad…
I didn’t even know that they had hard drives in stores like that.
If he was on the clock he would have to get worker’s comp, and I am sure that Walmart will be fighting to make the guilty pay the bill after that. Even if they have a signed document in their employee policy on how to handle theft they will still have to pay workers comp benefits. This person was dealing with a customer after all. Now Walmart’s goal will be to get the employee to come back to work ASAP to reduce their insurance payout. Firing the employee could very well happen later, but it will be for other documented causes.
From local headlines: “2 addicts convicted of murder in dragging death of Kmart guard” http://www.freep.com/article/20101012/NEWS03/101012062/1005/news03/2-addicts-convicted-of-murder-in-dragging-death-of-Kmart-guard#ixzz1312FGrR7
Dumb ass will be fired and rightly so. Every wallymart I’ve ever driven by is blanketed with cameras, did they catch this bitch yet?
My cousin got fired when he ended up tackling a shoplifter in the mall.They went to court and everything, cousin ended up losing his apartment and last I heard was living with a friend in a basement apartment
well, i taught my kid not to play in traffic. i blame his parents.
Poor guy. Its gonna suck when he finds out a 2nd thief emptied out his register while he was chasing the first decoy shoplifter.
he’s so gonna get fired.
Ahh, gotta love the south side of Columbus.
South High Street, enough said.
this.
Haha… I actually was replying to the first comment. He’s gonna get fired.
S’okay. You have shown everyone how stupid that meme is.
I hope it was a high rpm drive. I would never consider for a second to physically try to stop someone stealing a hard drive. Especially the price per gb of platter drives. You seriously under value your own life.
Someone TOTALLY needs to make a video game called WalMart Rampage where they run over as many greeters and WM “Security” people as possible in the parking lot after luring them out with thefts, or just stay in the store and lynch the receipt nazis then go use tactical nukes to blow up HQ and follow Lee Scott home and dynamite him there. They would be doing the virtual world a favor, not to mention local virtual communities a favor economically.
Back in the real world, gee Bubba, maybe stop acting like a cop when you’re not one, and enjoy that tire mark tattoo on your face! On the other hand I hope Bubba sues WM corporate for the damages just because they suck, and they probably encourage people like Bubba to be “heroes” and get hurt, and they further take out a life insurance on Bubba he isn’t aware of banking he’ll buy it just so in the parking lot.
Yes, robbery is wrong, but THIS IS WHAT WALMART GETS WHEN EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY CUSTOMER IS TREATED LIKE A CRIMINAL AROUND RECEIPTS. BRAVO!
No they don’t encourage them to be heroes. They say your life is worth more than a few measly bucks.
The Wal Mart worker was then told that if he was not back to work within 24 hours he would be written up.
The worker being in critical condition has yet to commet.
You know how all those people defend stores when they fire employees who chase after shoplifters?
This. Is. Why.
A hard drive isn’t worth your life. If someone is stealing from you, you cannot rely on them acting responsibly when you try to apprehend them. No one at Wal-Mart is happy that this happened. There is a lot to rightfully demonize the company for, but this is one area where I believe the genuinely are concerned for their employee’s safety. I’ve been through retail training so I know this is something the store would have repeatedly told this employee not to do. But as we’ve seen time and again employees seem to not pay attention to repeated safety warnings. I don’t really know how to fix that, but one way is to stop blaming stores that fire employees for running after shoplifters. They genuinely do that to try to save lives.
Darwinism in action.
I’ve chased after a shoplifter. It was stupid and dangerous and I could have seriously gotten hurt, but in the heat of the moment, andrenaline kicked in and I didn’t even think about it when I took off after her. The best part was watching her dive through the window of the getaway car as it was trying to pull away with her hanging out of it.
This is why I liked working for Krogers. They shelled out the cash for an actual police office to do security work, that way if the shoplifter runs he can just shoot their dog instead of get run over. And it’s not like this is a Wal-Mart exclusive policy- most retail places will instruct you to avoid hazardous situations when dealing with shoplifters. It’s just dumb to get yourself hurt because you think you’re protecting your employers’ bottom line.
Fire the receipt checker, too. Apparently, they were not doing their job, either.
And this is why they tell you to not chase people down.
If a cop can get workers comp for being injured during a crash that he cause while speeding and texting then this guy should be able to get workers comp for these injuries.