Suspected Walmart Thief Dies after Altercation with Employees

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Suspected Walmart thief dies after altercation with employees

Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:26pm EST

(Reuters) - A suspected shoplifter died in Georgia on Sunday after a confrontation with two Walmart employees and a contract security guard who caught him in the store's parking lot, local media reported.

Police said the man stole two DVD players from a Walmart in Lithonia, southeast of Atlanta, before he walked out the front door and was apprehended by the workers, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported in a story on its website.

The three workers were on top of the man when police arrived, and officers found him unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth and nose, the newspaper said.

The man was taken to a local hospital, where he was declared dead. He appeared to have been put in a choke hold by the security officer, the paper reported.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8AP00Y20121126

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Had to put a choke hold on him. Otherwise he might have gone on to stealing loaves of bread.

[Ken Burch]

8. It starts with the bread...but it leads to butter!

n/t.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Were 2 dvd players worth killing a man for?

I hate ending a sentence/interrogative with a preposition but I just can't be bothered to re-phrase right now!

[patrice]

4. I had a serious freaking linguistics professor who said that rule only makes sense in terms of

the Latin influences on English and English really is much more influenced by German in which that rule is illogical.

[slackmaster]

16. Certainly not, and they weren't worth dying for either

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I cannot put.

[kag]

28. Damn, you stole my line!

Actually, Winston Churchill's line, but anyway, you beat me to it .

[TheDebbieDee]

36. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I cannot put.

That sounds like something Yoda would say...................

[slackmaster]

37. My grandmother taught me that one

She was kind of Yoda-ish in her later years, but I did love her a lot.

[marshall]

31. He was probably stealing for Christmas presents

The holiday is so commercialized now, everyone feels the need to give fancy gifts.

[patrice]

3. That happened here, to a young fellow in a downtown drug store. They crushed him to death

over a magazine or something like that.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. That makes perfect sense ...

the guy stole so the appropriate response is to kill the guy ... no doubt damaging the items that the perpetrator took, in the process.

[vduhr]

25. What is also appalling....

are the comments on the message board below the story. People actually condoning killing this man for stealing? Killing for stealing is something that is done in third-world countries.

[1StrongBlackMan]

27. Yep ...

Killing for stealing is something that is done in third-world countries.

Unless you enjoy a position at the top of the pyramid; then the theft goes unpunished.

[Sirveri]

38. No, if you're at the top the theft goes unpunished in every country, not just the third world.

After all, if the President does it, it's not a crime...

[1StrongBlackMan]

39. I wasn't limiting it to 3rd World Nations ...

Ignoring the President reference ... The largest theft, er ... transfer of wealth in history happened right here in the U.S. and was not carried out by the President; rather, it was carried out by the true folks at the top ... the money-changers.

[Blue_Tires]

40. Welcome to the "tough on crime" south

where the most insignificant transgressors are made the harshest examples as a warning to everyone else...

[Selatius]

6. They should've simply given the security camera footage over to the police after the theft.

Then let the police do their work. No DVD player is worth human life.

[Ken Burch]

7. Especially since the damn things would've broken down the day after the warranty expired.

[Ter]

43. Nothing ever happens that way, unless he's on file

They should have held him, but not put him the choke hold.

[David__77]

9. When I worked at Target, we were under orders to never interfere with stealing.

Not verbally or physically. There was security for that, and they had specific protocols that certainly did not involve choke holds. The only time I worked there that I saw a shoplifting in progress, I didn't report her: she was a young girl stealing a pregnancy test. Once when the store just opened and there were no security staff, a well-dressed just wheeled a microwave out to his Volvo and drove off without paying for it. Guess he knew the Target security schedule lol...

[CreekDog]

30. because it's illegal

if someone steals from you, you can't chase them down and kill them for doing that.

[WooWooWoo]

10. weird, cause when I worked at Walmart

I was told never to follow a shoplifter out of the store.

[Maine-ah]

20. same here -

and it was a pretty big store policy too. It's always better to let a thief get away than to risk your own life.

[ripcord]

11. I'm surprised

I would have thought Walmart workers wouldn't be so invested in the company, it would have made more sense if they had stood there and waved to him as he left.

[blkmusclmachine]

12. .

.

[crim son]

13. There was a story posted here a while back

about a man who tried to steal a woman's purse, and was shot dead as a result. The general feeling seemed to be that the thief deserved to die and by stealing he knowingly took the risk. What's different about this thief? Curious.

[JI7]

14. do you have details of that story ?

[whopis01]

24. If I am thinking of the same story I think you are off a bit on the response

Rather than it being "he deserved to die for trying to steal the purse" I believe it was more of a "she was justified in shooting the man attacking her".

I think there is a significant difference between a physical attack upon an individual (the stealing of a purse) and shoplifting. There was not physical attack or danger until the employees accosted the person in the Walmart case. Whereas in the case of the purse snatcher, he did have to physically accost the woman to initiate the crime.

The woman could not know where the danger would end. Was this just a purse snatching? Was it a physical assault? Was it a kidnapping? To expect a victim to differentiate between these during the attack is just not reasonable. Whereas in the other case there was no physical danger - just a potential loss of property.

[Exultant Democracy]

34. You really don't see the giagantic difference

The woman in question would have been in fear for her life. While I still don't think the guy deserved to die there is a big difference between the violent crime of mugging and shoplifting.

[DallasNE]

15. Is Georgia A Stand Your Ground State?

And what was the race of those involved. I ask that because of the excessive force and brutality involved.

There should be a good chance that security cameras should pick this up unless it was too dark.

If Georgia is a stand your ground State then there is a good chance nobody will be charged with the possible exception of a hate crime if race is a factor.

[slackmaster]

17. Sad story with neither heroes nor true villains

[cprise]

18. I remember reading about other instances like this at Walmart stores

Specifically someone who was crushed to death by employees.

Strange.

[Franker65]

19. I say wait until the results of the investigation

Perhaps it was manslaughter - he could have been an older guy. He could have suffered a stroke or something...I guess security guards should be trained in how to apprehend shoplifters without choking them to death.

[frylock]

29. they are trained to only observe and report

[Blandocyte]

21. Sad. Those 3 employees will spend way more on lawyers

than the merch was worth. Walmart will spend thousands, probably, too, defending itself by clarifying that employee training does not include following a suspected thief out the door.

[Earth_First]

22. Was this a case of Wal Mart "May I see your reciept, Sir/M'am...?"

"No, you may not."

I'd like more details, however I've heard stories of this happening where overzealous 'greeters' get confrontational over 'reciept checking' at the exits.

We shall see...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

23. I saw a "sleeper hold" on television once ...

... so trust me, I know what I'm doing. It looked something like this, I think ....

[Drale]

26. I don't know what Walmarts policy is but I would expect it to be similar

because of insurance reasons, but when I worked for Hollywood Video our policy was never confront thieves and if you are robbed give them what ever they want, in fact if you tried to intervene in a robbery they could fire you for that.

[slackmaster]

32. The security guard who initially detained the suspect was a contractor. I suspect that when more...

...information is released, it will indicate that the regular employees intervened because the guard was having trouble handling the situation alone.

I'm quite sure that Wal-Mart's official policy is for employees NEVER to try to stop a shoplifter.

[Blue_Tires]

42. well, the suspect is described as "middle aged"

so I'm curious to know how much trouble he really was--unless the guard and employees were a similar age or older...

[Ter]

44. 38 can be middle aged

Boxing and UFC champions have been that age and older.

[Blue_Tires]

45. True...Or he could have been some Army Special Forces type

We'll see what other details come out...

[slackmaster]

46. Chuck Norris is 72 and can crack a walnut between his buttocks

[Sgent]

33. This is horrible and dispicable

In many states, merchants are allowed to apprehend / detain people who are suspected of shoplifting until police arrive. However what they should have done was get a license plate, picture, etc. and turned it over to police.

What will probably happen: Security guards in question will be charged with some variant of manslaughter.

What should happen: Everyone up the chain of command who approved of the training which allowed for choke holds to be used is charged with negligent homicide -- including head of security, Walmart's HR, and possibly other executives -- assuming policies allowed for physical apprehension.

[RebelOne]

35. This story was just broadcast on the local Atlanta TV news.

The 2 employees have been suspended. And the security officer will not be working there anymore. For further details go to http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/alleged-walmart-thief-dies-during-confrontation/nTFNN/

[Blue_Tires]

41. what an ugly situation...

at least that guy's surviving relatives will have no problems finding an attorney to sue Wal-mart in a wrongful death case...