These days, the writers of laws don’t necessarily hew to the old common law definitions…So you can have burglaries of businesses.
They wouldn’t have gotten away with it if not for the lack of meddling kids?
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The video was entertaining but, damn, that camera is impressive!
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Law of the jungle?
Hillsboro, not Hillsborough, for the record. Nice to see my county suddenly famous for such an important reason, but you should spell the city’s name right.
Fun fact (apropos of nothing), the Intel chip in your computer (if you have one) may very well have been produced in Hillsboro.
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What is in it for the manager of a chain or franchise to physically detain someone? Is it just a sense of justice?
You’d assume that insurance would cover the cost of the stolen items. So there doesn’t seem to be much upside. And the potential downside is being personally charged with assault.
So, though he’s in the right, I’m on the “call the police while you let her go” side.
Then again, I’m on that side for most altercations that involve nothing more than property.
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Won’t you join me in my campaign (crusade?) to stop calling Fred Meyer “Freddy’s” and start calling it “Grubby’s,” in keeping with Fred’s original name?
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I think that the big reason that most stores don’t want their employees doing this isn’t the chance that they’ll be sued by the shoplifter, (not likely to succeed in most jurisdictions) but the chance of a workman’s comp case from the employee if they are injured. And corporate is worried enough about that eventuality that they will often fire employees that engage in anything like this scuffle.
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I sure can. I mean I usually call it, “oh God, what the hell”, but I can get behind you on this.
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This video had it all - from the denial at first, to the "you assaulted me first " accusations, followed by the violence.
After the shoplifter was firmly on the ground and beaten, she resorts to the high pitched “please someone help me I’m a woman being assaulted by a man” card.
Even after the shoplifter admits to shoplifting, we still got at least one white woman trying to intervene because he was a man of color. It almost landed her in trouble when he asks the lady “Do you know her?”
The white lady wised up and quickly NOPED right on out of there.
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A friend of mine has many a story from his days as a “store detective” (catching shoplifters). One in particular has always stuck in my mind:
Kitsilano is one of Vancouver’s (increasing number of) trendy & affluent districts. In the neighbourhood supermarket, my friend watched a woman stuff a giant brick of cheese into her couture handbag. After confronting the woman (who denied shoplifting), escorting her to the back (while she screamed “assault”), and asking her nicely to take the cheese out of her handbag and leave, so the store wouldn’t have to press charges (again, denial), he removed the cheese from her handbag and asked her to explain herself. “I don’t know how that got in there”.
Perhaps some do steal to eat. Others steal because they don’t think they should have to pay.
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The best line: “She continues to writhe under his grasp!”
Nevertheless, she persisted.
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50 Shades of Scooby Doo wiith a line like: “She continues to writhe under his grasp!”
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I frequent an all-night cafe here in Vancouver’s downtown. A few months ago, some guy was being loud and obnoxious so I - relatively politely- asked him to keep it down. He told me to “fuck off” and things spiralled verbally until he threw a cup of coffee at me. At that point I took him down and pinned him, and yelled for someone to call the police. After at least 10 minutes, I started to wonder about the legality of what I’d done, and how the cops were going to deal with someone holding someone else down against their will. Cops showed up, arrested him, and left. I didn’t have to even say a word.
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When I worked in retail, this wasn’t all too uncommon. Security and coworkers sometimes got surprisingly aggressive, though never touching the shoplifter unless they got aggressive and punchy first. Typically, what happens is someone will say, “Excuse me, may I see your bag.”, the shoplifter will simply drop it and quickly walk out. On rarer occasion, they’ll keep the bag and sprint out. The only incident that really sticks in my mind, though, is when a checker grabbed a woman’s bag as she was about to exit, saying, “What’s in your bag?”. The woman looking scared and ashamed. The checker looked in, took a deep breath, and said, “Go on.” and she quickly left. It was a bit odd as far as these exchanges go, so I asked him about it. He said she had a can of baby formula.
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From the federal Criminal Code:
#Arrest without Warrant and Release from Custody
Arrest without warrant by any person
494 (1) Any one may arrest without warrant
(a) a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence; or
(b) a person who, on reasonable grounds, he believes
(i) has committed a criminal offence, and
(ii) is escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person.
[…]
(3) Any one other than a peace officer who arrests a person without warrant shall forthwith deliver the person to a peace officer.
IANAL, but I think you were on pretty solid ground for a Citizen’s Arrest, especially since I think that having a cup of coffee thrown at you qualifies easily for assault (clearly an “indictable offense”).
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IANAL but I live in the UK and have never heard this. The police advise people not to expose themselves to unnecessary risk in dealing with criminals, but there is a general assumption that the police will be assisted.
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Unless she had some gold bricks or printer ink stuffed in that bag, it’s extremely unlikely that what she stole would even clear the deductible of any insurance policy. Part of a retail store’s budget is shrink, it’s just the cost of doing business. (And shoplifting isn’t usually the largest component of that – employee theft is.)
Unless you’re talking about some seriously high-value items being shoplifted, the only reason to get that physical with someone is a sense of justice.
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Where I worked shoplifters were taken to a second story manager’s office to await police. If they cooperated, a citation and release, if not, the police took them.
One fellow seemed to cooperate, then suddenly jumped through the glass window and onto to the sidewalk, twenty feet below. After medics tended his many cuts, contusions and what looked like a broken ankle, he was taken away for booking.
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Place I used to work had a “no chase” rule after an employee chased a shoplifter into traffic where he was hit by a car.
The driver sued the store for creating the situation and won. The store’s policy went in shortly after.
Which is not to say that teenage boys adhere to policy well. But most times they never caught up, anyway.
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