While in college I was a store detective at Target. As most of you probably know this involves walking around in plain clothes, watching camera's, playing the latest video games on the floor etc., to catch shoplifters. Most days I usually worked by myself, but on this day another store detective named Mark was working with me. I was up in the office zooming the camera here and there, playing around mostly, when I got a quick message from Mark over the walkietalkie "Got one meet me at the entrance!". You have to understand that this job was pretty boring about 95% of the time, boring almost all the time until you have a potential stop. So I jumped out of my chair and headed out.
Well the security office in this store was at the back of the store, and on the 2nd floor, but I hauled butt up to the front of the store and started looking for Mark. I couldn't see him anywhere and thought maybe, the lifter was having second thoughts, or maybe scoping out his exit. Then I got another walkie talkie message with Mark breathing pretty heavy "...outside <pant> ...store <pant>...running <pant>..." . So I ran out to the front of the store and saw both of them run out of the Target parking lot, across a street and towards the Mall.
The lifter was in pretty good shape, as he was smoking Mark (who wasn't in bad shape either) in their little foot race, and was at least 75 feet in front of him and he was heading straight for the main Mall entrance. Once in the Mall we would be hard pressed to find him and it would give him a chance to dump the loot. I started running towards the Mall and after getting in to the Mall parking lot I realized that with all the running around they had done in the Target parking lot, I had a much better angle on the Mall doors than they did. Another factor was the lifter didn't realize that he had 2 guys after him yet, Mark was over his right shoulder and I was coming at an angle on his left. The lifter kept looking over his right shoulder to gauge if Mark was closing or not, and poor Mark wasn't .
The lifter was about 50 feet from the door and gave one last glance over his right shoulder at Mark and actually gave him a big cheezy smile as Mark was at least 150 feet back at this point. Then he looked in front of him at the doors, and that's when he saw me, out of the corner of his eye running towards the same doors. His smile vanished from his face and was replaced by an "Oh !*&#!!" look, and he sprinted towards the door. Just has he put his hand on the Mall front door handle, I caught up with him. As he started opening the door, I grabbed him around his midsection and pulled him up and away from the door then towards the ground. This guy had a death grip on the door though, as I threw him to the ground, the door handle to the mall when flying out into the Mall parking lot. I pushed him down to the ground and got my cuffs out. At this point he pretty much gave up and went limp "Alright allright man..". I slipped the cuffs on him as Mark came jogging up "...<pant>...good <pant>....job ...<pant>...". At this point a crowd started to gather, and Mark whipped out his badge "It's ok store security, everything's fine now" (Cheesy I know but hey we were rent-a-cops)
Cliff notes
Shoplifter lifted
Shoplifter ran
Shoplifter pulled handle off door
Shoplifter caught
Well the security office in this store was at the back of the store, and on the 2nd floor, but I hauled butt up to the front of the store and started looking for Mark. I couldn't see him anywhere and thought maybe, the lifter was having second thoughts, or maybe scoping out his exit. Then I got another walkie talkie message with Mark breathing pretty heavy "...outside <pant> ...store <pant>...running <pant>..." . So I ran out to the front of the store and saw both of them run out of the Target parking lot, across a street and towards the Mall.
The lifter was in pretty good shape, as he was smoking Mark (who wasn't in bad shape either) in their little foot race, and was at least 75 feet in front of him and he was heading straight for the main Mall entrance. Once in the Mall we would be hard pressed to find him and it would give him a chance to dump the loot. I started running towards the Mall and after getting in to the Mall parking lot I realized that with all the running around they had done in the Target parking lot, I had a much better angle on the Mall doors than they did. Another factor was the lifter didn't realize that he had 2 guys after him yet, Mark was over his right shoulder and I was coming at an angle on his left. The lifter kept looking over his right shoulder to gauge if Mark was closing or not, and poor Mark wasn't .
The lifter was about 50 feet from the door and gave one last glance over his right shoulder at Mark and actually gave him a big cheezy smile as Mark was at least 150 feet back at this point. Then he looked in front of him at the doors, and that's when he saw me, out of the corner of his eye running towards the same doors. His smile vanished from his face and was replaced by an "Oh !*&#!!" look, and he sprinted towards the door. Just has he put his hand on the Mall front door handle, I caught up with him. As he started opening the door, I grabbed him around his midsection and pulled him up and away from the door then towards the ground. This guy had a death grip on the door though, as I threw him to the ground, the door handle to the mall when flying out into the Mall parking lot. I pushed him down to the ground and got my cuffs out. At this point he pretty much gave up and went limp "Alright allright man..". I slipped the cuffs on him as Mark came jogging up "...<pant>...good <pant>....job ...<pant>...". At this point a crowd started to gather, and Mark whipped out his badge "It's ok store security, everything's fine now" (Cheesy I know but hey we were rent-a-cops)
Cliff notes
Shoplifter lifted
Shoplifter ran
Shoplifter pulled handle off door
Shoplifter caught