Man Arrested After Shoplifting From Wal-Mart

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victoriane

Summary:

It seems as though the largely known corporation, Wal-mart has been having trouble with theft lately. A Victoria man is facing a number of charges after he allegedly shoplifted from the town and country Wal-mart, carrying a large kitchen knife and a pair of scissors. Police were then called in at 8:40 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 to deal with the shoplifter. The man fled the store with $100 worth of merchandise and when stopped, he turned to the officers with the scissors clenched in his hand. Evidently, the man was being detained by the loss prevention officer and two off-duty security guards when the police arrived. When the suspect was searched, his clothing turned up a large kitchen knife. The man currently now faces charges of assault with a weapon and theft under $5000 as well as other charges of recognizance, undertaking, and probation.

Connections:

The issue of shoplifting, as described in the article, affects many retailers everyday. Clearly, even an extremely successful corporation such as Wal-mart deals with problems of shoplifting. Although Wal-mart took the right measures to deal with the shoplifter, it seems that they were not able to take the means to prevent the situation from occurring. As stated in the text, if employees at Wal-mart payed special attention to the man the situation may have been prevented. It is important to learn how to identify shoplifters and if the salespeople at Wal-mart were able to do that, the entire ordeal probably would not have happened. Fortunately, Wal-mart did take the appropriate steps to detaining the suspect, pressing charges, and arresting. For example, Wal-mart's security personnel detained the suspect instead of the store personnel. Wal-mart's careful steps towards detaining their suspect conformed to the Criminal Code described in the text. Furthermore, because the suspect had evidence of his crime on him such as the weapons and merchandise, the arrest was not false and avoided a potential lawsuit.

Reflection:

It is quite surprising how often shoplifting occurs in stores. I believe that Wal-mart could have been more careful by asking the suspect questions and paying more attention to him. Store employees are supposed to be trained in identifying potential shoplifters and in a case like this, it is probably even easier to identify the shoplifter. For example, the man carried a large kitchen knife and scissors; therefore he must have been wearing something large to hide his weapons. In my opinion, I think that he was likely to have been acting suspicious as well because he was in a large store with a lot of people. However, I do think that Wal-mart took the right means in dealing with the situation and it is an event that can be forgotten. All in all,I found this article to be a good example of the issue of shoplifting in stores.