@jayphat: I was in the hunting knife section of Wal-Mart last week and they now have all the knives locked on their display hooks. To get one you have to have an employee unlock the hook. I thought it was due to shop-lifting knives but your story makes me wonder. Maybe this will stop the bleeders from cutting themselves and their phone packages. Naw, they'll just move on to the utility box cutters.

@pecan 3.14159265: Maybe they are so good you only think they are from Japan.

@Saboth: There are 2 walmarts near me 1 is in a higher crime small town and they allways check receipts if something is not in a bag. The other is in a low crime small town and they don't check near as many receipts. Go figure higher loss numbers more people getting checked.

This guy can come back and defend himself, but it sounded like he was saying that that "haha Walmart" picture is not so out of the ordinary, not that that is a photograph of his own anecdote. I mean that would be a pathetically crappy attention-whore lie.

Of course it's kind of hard to conceal a safe on your person, but maybe it was made by Acme or something...

Why even bother checking receipts or having security then? Just let people walk out with whatever they want.

Don't hire me to do a job then tell me I don't have the power to do anything. It's like having guys transporting millions of dollars then arming them with mace. I might get killed because you are placing me in danger with no tools (and yes, regulations are "tools").

Reminds me of a Spongebob episode, where Patrick beats Mr. Krabs in a board game:

Mr. Krabs: Patrick, you're fired!
Patrick: But I don't even work here!
Mr. Krabs: Would you like a job, starting now? (puts hat on Patrick's head)
Patrick: Boy, would I?!
Mr. Krabs: (takes hat off Patrick's head) You're fired!

My guess is this was step one of his plan.

1. Steal safe.
2. Rob Bank.
3. Put money in safe.

I think he was referring to the energy of beating up a an old receipt checker.

Funny, NONE of my local walmarts (out of 3) have receipt checkers. We have old people that hand you carts as you come in, but no one bothers you on the way out.

@econobiker: Maybe he just really needed a safe place to store his 2008 1040s....

@pecan 3.14159265: PWNED!

Based on what I've read on The Consumerist, it seems that Walmart's corporate policy is to severely punish anyone doing what is honorable.

You're right, I am a little grump lately. Things involving Walmart just push me over the edge.

@Josh_G: I thought they looked like cops (I've seen some wearing gloves like that - perhaps they donned them for capturing the almost naked guy). They do look like they are having a good chuckle!

What are security guards hired for if not for this?

Also, I don't much care for the condescending tone of the article. Because a job is supposedly low-paying, that means you aren't obligated to perform it to the best of your ability?

Kudos to these men for doing their job, and doing it well. I don't consider that "alarming" in the slightest.

Also, pellet gun.

Probably that guy would be fired.

@GitEmSteveDave_woot'sOffSoHard: Ninjas are from Japan.

save the outrage for when youve ran your own business, and priced out how much it costs to insure your employees against active armed robber fighting.

Wait, what's wrong with velcro shoes?

@mrsultana: I'm gonna say no you shouldn't beat up the receipt checker.. but you could stop shopping at that store.

"leaving the store with a Sentry Safe he allegedly had not paid for."

Anyone for betting that he thought the Sentry Safe already had money in it?

Or his criminal mastermind buddies told him to "go rob the store safe where they keep all the money" and this was the best he could do?

@mrsultana:

Pummel them with your sense of self importance. It's big enough to do the job apparently.

Put that energy into something that matters.

Refusing your business means not letting you back in the store not refusing to let you leave. It's kinda too late to refuse someone's business after the transaction.

;)

@xkevin108x: Don't know the actual effects of the law but you're also choosing to buy an item from them in their store. They can refuse your business for any reason I believe (like if you don't want to show receipt). I know sams club also has it written into their policy in all that legalise wording

@fantomesq: That was only in China walmarts though, American walmarts just let people steal while the 80 year old receipt checker dozes off.

@dorianh49: Thor is for viking mythology, zeus rules the clouds for Greek (or was it Roman?) mythology.

@apd09: I thought that was Thor.

They know they're not supposed to do things like that nor do they have the authority to detain anyone. If some Walmart rent-a-cop tackled me for doing what I do, I would probably proceed to knock his teeth in. I would at least call the police immediately and press charges.

But did he have feet smaller than my sister's?

@jokono: I'll be taking photos from a tree stand I make from shoe boxes. Then I'll be emailing them to whoever is working Consumerist at the time.

It'd be kind hard to enforce anything if all you can do is just stand there and smile while people run out the door with merch.

In the last 'employee chases down a perp' type story someone in the comments related a personal experience where they and a second employee did get fired for fighting even though the customer and his son attacked them first.

@Josh_G:
You laugh at that, but thats a scene from when I worked fro Wal-Mart in 2006. Guy tries to steal a pre-paid phone, goes over and gets a hunting knife to cut the package open, and manages to stab himself in the artery in his wrist cutting it open. He bleeds ALL the way to the front of the store before passing out.

And yes, he still tried to pocket the phone.

Oh, he was Hep B positive too so he got charged with a felony for the almost 1K worth of merchandise we had to destroy because he bled on it.

I have nothing bad to say about Walmart security guards capturing an armed assailant. Thats how it should be. Good job.

@Bellor:
I doubt it. He really didn't pay for it and so long as they were just blocking his path, he threw the first punch, and they tried to get out of the situation, they'll be OK.

If my Walmart ever gets jacked as I'm shopping, you'll find me cowering in the $12 velcro shoes aisle.

Not me. (I'll evaluate the situation, and it may come to that. But, that certainly won't be my first reaction.)

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