Students Fired By Best Buy After Tackling Shoplifter

[Guest bkelm18]

Students Fired By Best Buy After Tackling Shoplifter - Denver News Story - KMGH Denver

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- Two college students who tackled a shoplifter at a Best Buy in Broomfield have been fired.Jared Bergstreser, 20, and Colin Trapp, 23, were fired Sunday, two weeks after they tried to stop two men fleeing the store at the FlatIron Marketplace.

When the students saw the men fleeing with armloads of merchandise, Bergstreser tackled one of the men."A gentleman came by us in a red shirt with a bunch of product in his hand. It was pretty obvious that he hadn't paid for it yet," Trapp said."I just kind of reacted. I wasn't thinking about it and followed the guy out the front door and tackled him," Bergstreser said.

As Bergstreser was struggling with the thief on the ground, Trapp ran over to help.

"We thought we had the situation under control. That's when he pulled a knife and began flailing it around wildly," Trapp said.

The man broke free and cut the store manager, who had come out to try to calm things down.

The two shoplifters escaped in an old light-green Pontiac driven by a woman, according to police. The car had a temporary license.

A police report said the two men got away with computer hard drives and other items. No arrests have been made in the theft, which occurred Aug. 1.

Trapp and Bergstreser said they feel they were wrongfully terminated for their actions on that day."It was just completely demoralizing. You think you have in your head what you know is right or wrong, what your parents instilled in you growing up as a child, and then to be reprimanded for that act is so sour and so sad," Trapp said.

"I think I did what I believed was right," Bergstreser said.

Bergstreser, who received minor cuts and bruises, worked at the store for nearly three years. Both students worked in the company's asset protection unit. Bergstreser said he knew making physical contact with a customer was against company policy, to protect the company from lawsuits. Trapp said he was never told about how to handle a fleeing shoplifter.

However, both men stand by what they did.

Still, Bergstreser said he can see why company officials may have been concerned.

"By my doing that, it put other people in danger. Even myself. So I can definitely see why they would have reprimands for that," he said.

The female manager who was cut was not fired.

Calls to Best Buy's corporate media relations department were not returned.

[Smith]

Heroes are the new villains, Good is bad, and what was right in now wrong. Thank you lawyers!

[TNTitan]

This is pretty standard policy in most retail environments. Risk Management. It is usually much much more costly to the company to have employees intervene in shoplifting crimes than to let the merchandise go out the door and file a police report. Employees arent trained for this and people can get hurt or killed.

This is usually gone over thoroughly during hiring and training and employees are usually told this is a terminable offense. I appreciate the "spirit" of the kids - but I work in Risk Management and understand the position of the company. The "Stuff" just aint worth the health and wellbeing of their employees and patrons. I bet the medical bill to Best Buy for the cuts and brusies is going to be more costly than the stolen hard drives..

[dralarms]

If they had worked for me I would have promoted them.

[Steelharp]

And that's why I don't do BB.

[BryanP]

It's purely an accounting decision. One successful lawsuit for injury would cost them more than many thousands of small shoplifted items. And yeah, they have to make sure their employees know that when they're told not to physically intervene they mean it.

It sucks, but that's the way it is these days.