Wal-Mart Fires Security Guard for Chasing Shoplifter
They say that no good deed goes unpunished, and so it seems in this case.
A Wal-Mart guard saw a man in the act of stealing golf balls. He chased the suspect, who pulled a knife and was later arrested, across the parking lot. In doing so, the guard violated Wal-Mart's policy against chases. He was fired the next day.
What do you think about this? Should Wal-Mart have treated the guard so harshly?
I'll leave the answer to the moral part of the question to you. The answer to the legal part of the question is that Wal-Mart was clearly within its rights to set a policy on how shoplifting incidents were to be handled and to decide that the guard's violation of that policy warranted termination.
From a security guard point of veiw, the company was 100% correct to terminate the security officer in question. He violated the company policy, which I think is probably in place not only for his safety, but the safety of employees and customers alike. Also at issue is, the value of golf balls are minimal at best. One tactic used by shop lifters is to get one person to lift something inexpesive so while the security guard is busy with that, another shoplifter can steal something more expensive, such as a TV. I don't see a moral issue here. The security guard violated a policy, left his post while doing so.