Accidental Detainment

No one when working retail wants to ever call the police. It is something that we never want to deal with in our lifetime. No one also wants to deal with a crime happening while working because when it happens you feel helpless and immobilized. Mardens it is the most shoplifted store in the state of Maine because we have no metal detectors and nothing to stop the shoplifter from getting away than our under cover security guard that only works days when I work nights. When I work I am usually almost always downstairs in out hardware department and we have a door that goes into the parking lot out back of the store. As I am working I am either pricing items away from my cash register or I am cashing someone out.

One night I was told by one of my co workers that our security guard who finally worked a night was downstairs and was following a person he suspected to be a shoplifter but he didn’t have enough evidence yet to detain him so he continued to follow him. I continued my pricing duties since I didn’t have a customer so I just kept working like usual. I had a customer finally and I cashed them out and told they went on their way. After the customer left I started to adjust the price of my price gun so I can change the price of an item and I was walking from my register to my work station which is on the opposite side of the door and the register is close to the door of the hardware department. As I was walking while changing my dials on my price gun I was ran into without even paying attention and I didn’t get knocked to the ground somehow I just stumbled and the guy that ran into me did hit the ground. I was so terrified that I couldn’t figure out what was actually happening and most of what happend was a blur. Then I see my security guard run over with my manager and they both picked him up and handcuff him and and scolded me saying you aren’t suppose to stop him thats our job. I told him I didn’t even mean to stop him and I was looking down at my price gun. I had the honor as well as calling the police for the first time ever and it was an interesting experience because I had never had to call the police ever so I was messing up my words a lot.

I was so distracted with changing the price of my gun to see where I was walking and I stopped a shoplifter from stealing a couple of electronics and hardware equipment that was worth 300+ dollars. My manager didn’t even understand what had transpired that night on camera and we both laughed about what happend. I had to stay an extra two hours to help with the investigation and sadly I wasn’t getting paid to do so so that kinda sucked but I was a part of the investigation since we had contact. The shoplifter was banned for life never to return to any Mardens store and was taken to the Lewiston police department. I was told to take the next day off which I was supposed to work but they told me I would get a paid day off to recover from this event which I was fine but whatever Ill get some money without working which is neat I guess.

I could only feel like Paul Blart mall cop in a sense because I stopped the bad guy unintentionally and it ended up working out in the end. It wasn’t even my job to stop him it just happened. It was the most confused I have ever been in a very long time as I was dumbfounded with the fact that I accidentally stopped a crime by not paying attention to surroundings. Paul Blart did the same thing when he accidentally drops marbles and the bad guys slip on them knocking them all out. Stopping the bad guy un-intentionally. It also reminded me of a video I saw on Instagram of this football player that was turned around and tackled the guy unintentionally by tripping the guy with the ball stopping a touchdown and he saved the game without even doing it.

In this experience I have learned that I always need to be ready for what ever life throws at me and I need to be more attentive with things because If that shoplifter had a weapon and he came at me before the security guard could come then it would have been the biggest unintentional mistake In my life. I am very thankful that I made out of this mess ok and everything worked out the way it did and I was able to continue on with my life. This experience is something I have not told a lot of people about because it is a very scary situation for me and I didn’t like how it could have went down if other factors were in play. I am very lucky to have been not hurt.

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