The Apprehension of a Shoplifter

I would like to share with you the story of me stopping a Shoplifter recently here at my work site, Sugar House Center. For several months now, I have been working as a Security Officer at a shopping center here in Salt Lake City, Utah. On a typical day, I patrol the shopping center throughout my shift. During those patrols I regularly deal with the homeless people migrating through the shopping center trying to beg customers for money, food, cigarettes, etc...aka panhandling, stopping teens on their skateboards, and then get rid of drunks and if necessary have the police come and take them away for public intoxication. But every once in a while, I get to chase down a shoplifter. First of all, I am technically not supposed to go after shoplifters, because of liability issues, but this time I took action. One of the many businesses at my work site is Toys"R"Us. They have had several cases of shoplifting in the past, and they were not able to do anything about it. Since our company have been here, we have been making in store patrols in order to show presence and deter anyone that may be thinking about shoplifting. This has decreased their shoplifting cases dramatically, but every once in a while they still will have a shoplifter. In those cases, I was only able to get to the area only in time to identify their vehicle and sometimes even their license plate #, but pretty much we never see them again.

A few Saturdays ago, I received a call of a man running out of their store with several items in his hands. As I was running towards Toys"R"Us, they told me that he was hiding on the back side corner of the building. As I got to the Toys"R"Us Parking Lot, one of the employees pointed out to me where the man was. I then approached the man from a distance and told him he needed to come with me. Immediately at that moment, he ran over to the fence and concrete wall, behind Toys"R"Us, and jumped over it. It was about a 20 foot drop into thick bushes. I then immediately called the police, as I ran around the wall. I wasn't going to put my body in danger, besides I knew I could catch up to him by going around. Once I got the SLCPD dispatch on the phone, I told them the details of the situation, and that I was tracking him down. Once I ran around the wall and down the road that was behind the building, I regained visual of the shoplifter. He was walking away into the North Parking Lot of my site. Since I had him in sight and he wasn't running away, I decided to keep my distance and keep him in view as I updated the Police of his location. A few minutes later, the shoplifter noticed I was behind him, and then I told him to STOP! He immediately ran across the street over to the other shopping center. He then ran down some stairs that went to a underground garage. I then decided this guy is going to get away for good if I don't run after him and stop him physically. After updating the Police, I ran across the street and down the stairs to the underground garage. My adrenaline was definitely pushing me now. When I got down to the underground garage, I cautiously entered the area and search for this man, since I didn't know if this guy had any weapons on him. Soon after, I spotted him walking up the ramp entrance to the garage from a distance, and then immediately ran after him. Once back on top, I found him next to Petco. I then grabbed his left upper arm in order to stop and detain him. He resisted for a while then got away. Since I had my phone, with SLCPD online, I only had one free hand. I couldn't hold him with just one hand, so I continued to follow him and repeated to command him to stop. Soon after, the security officer at this shopping center came by, and I gave him my phone to continue to update the police of our location, and so I would have both my hands free. I then was able to catch up to this guy just behind Men's Wearhouse, near by main road, Highland Dr. Once I caught up to him I grabbed him with both hands and told him to stay where he was. A few things were going in my head at that time. Making a decision on the spot on what action to take. After holding him and realizing he wasn't going to be very violent and had no signs of carrying any weapons, I decided to not handcuff him and just held him, so he wouldn't get away. He continued to resist me. Basically, for a good while, if was like we were opposite linemen in a football game, trying to out block the other, but it was going on for several minutes. Eventually the man gave up when I repeated to tell him I didn't need to hold him if he wasn't trying to get away, so he stopped and I moved him to the side by a wall. About 5 minutes after this, the police finally showed up, approximately 50 minutes from the point I initiated the phone call to the Police. This is SLCPD for you. Sometimes they are good on getting to the site pretty fast, but most of the time, unless it is a life threatening situation, they take forever to show up. This is why I took action to detain this guy, because I knew right away, the Police would get there long after this guy had got away. Anyways, once the Police got there, it was a female officer first and then a male officer pulled up a minute later. They then got my statement and search the guy. They found he had Ten X-Box 360 video games, still in the plastic cases, in his backpack. After searching him thoroughly, the male officer handcuffed and put him in his patrol car. I then ran back over to Toys"R"Us to meet the police up there. I got up there about the same time the police got up there. They then had the employees that witness this man steal the video games come out to identify him. The female officer then went inside to give the games back and get a total value on the games. The total came to just under $600. Since it was over $300, it was a second degree felony which is at least 1 year to no more than 15 years in jail. I hope this guy will learn his lesson. Overall, I received a lot of gratitude from the employees, especially the managers of Toys"R"Us, and continue to receive it today. Also, my manager was pleased, even though he told me I should have just let him go. My boss knows what goes on, and knows that when your in the situation, you naturally have the mentality to do the right thing or be the hero. But it is important to understand the difference between a security office and a police officer, because a lot of people don't understand clearly the difference.

As a Security Officer, I am still a citizen. The only type of arrest I can make is a citizen arrest, which can be done by anyone else as well. I can make a citizen arrest when I witness the act of a felony, like in this case Robbery. But since I didn't actually witness with my own eyes the act of theft, I technically couldn't make the arrest. There is a misunderstood line between law enforcement and security officers. For example, in this case, since I touched the shoplifter, he could, legally, file a suit against me. But it is really hard to make the case, since I did not injure him in anyway. Plus he was clearly guilty of the crime. And the having statements from witnesses of the situation, and having the Police support me, it was very, very unlikely I would hear from this guy again. But, just by chance I did, I wouldn't have the State to back me up, like with Law Enforcement who have authority. So, basically the responsibility of the Security Officer is to Deter, Detect, Observe and Report. Overall, the best part about this situation is that I felt good to apprehend a criminal, knowing that one of our clients, Toys"R"Us, feels more safe, and that I can get another bad guy off the streets. The other good part about this situation is that the word gets out pretty good on the streets here, and decrease the likely hood someone will try to do the same as this man did. So, as to quote Bruce Wayne, "I seek the means to fight injustice, to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful."