Donna Hansbrough, Rincon Lowe’s worker left with black eye trying to stop shoplifter fired after violating company policy forbidding attempting to stop shoplifters. But who’s the real thief?
‘He punched me again and again’. A Georgia Lowe’s worker beaten trying to stop shoplifters making off with over $2000 worth of goods has been fired by her employer.
Donna Hansbrough, 68, was sacked days after she attempted to stop a gang of shoplifters stealing more than $2,000 worth of merchandise from her store in Rincon, Georgia last month.
During the unfolding milieu, the worker was punched repeatedly in the face, leaving her with a black eye, WJCL News reported.
‘He punched me again and again’
Despite standing up to the criminals, Hansbrough’s was fired by Lowe’s after 13 years for violating company policy that state’s staff who witness shoplifting must not intervene and instead call authorities.
‘The guy decided he wanted to be let go, so he punched me and grabbed my glasses as I still held onto the cart,’ Hansbrough told WTOC.
‘He punched me again and again’ the worker said tearfully.
The suspects were identified as Takyah Berry, her uncle Joseph Berry and another man, Jarmar Lawton. Police say both Berrys remain at large.
‘They say that if you see somebody stealing something out the door, not to pursue, not to go out,’ Hansbrough told the Effingham Herald.
‘I just got tired of seeing things get out the door. I basically lost all the training. Everything they tell you to do, I just … I just lost it’ the former worker explained.
‘I didn’t expect to get terminated, maybe a reprimand or a suspension,’ Hansbrough said. ‘I’m going to look for a new job. I can’t sit at home. I’m not that type of person.’
Ongoing epidemic of store thefts across America
If the shoplifters are taken to trial, Hansbrough said she will assist the authorities with whatever they need: ‘If they do need me, I will be there.’
Detective Vance from the Rincon Police Department said the employee had suffered ‘two traumatic events all at once with being violently attacked and losing her job, her happiness, her peace, all at the same time.’
The incident is the latest in a string of cases across the U.S. where employees have lost their jobs for intervening in shoplifting incidents.
In June, a King Soopers grocery store worker in Colorado was fired for filming shoplifters stealing $500 worth of laundry detergent and unloading it into their car.
Santino Burrola sprang into action when a group of thieves targeted the store in Arapahoe County, Colorado, on June 18, filming a now-viral video of the crime in action.
He chased the group out of the store and filmed while they unloaded countless cartons into their car, even peeling off a license plate cover to help track them down.
But his actions allegedly breached the store’s policies on confronting shoplifters, and Burrola was fired on the spot after a meeting with his union rep.
The retail worker’s video of the shoplifters quickly gained traction after he posted it to social media, and it was even shared by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office as they continue to investigate the crime.
Burrola said as soon as he saw the thieves take off with mounds of laundry detergent, his ‘first instinct was to record.’
As he followed the men out of the store, Burrola was heard mocking the thieves and questioning their audacious heist.
‘Really bro? You gotta resort to this?’ the worker is heard saying in the video. ‘The economy’s not that bad.’
Welcome to a brave new America
The shoplifters then attempted to drive away from Burrola as he continued to record nearby, leading him to rip off a tin foil cover to expose their license plate.
But the store took offense to the worker’s actions, with Burrola saying parent-company Kroger deemed Burrola violating their policy against employees intervening in thefts.
Lululemon has also been criticized for firing staff who confronted masked thieves at their Peachtree Corners store in Atlanta.
Two Lululemon employees were fired in May for ‘breaking employee policy’ after brazen thieves stole armfuls of expensive yoga gear and they tried to stop them.
Lululemon’s CEO later stood by the decision. ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy that we train our educators on around engaging during a theft,’ Calvin McDonald said on CNBC. ‘It’s only merchandise.’
Stores across the US are experiencing a sharp rise in crime and some major retailers have been forced to shut down shops due to millions of dollars in losses as rampant theft plagues businesses.
Shifting social forces: Behind lock & key
In 2021, shoplifting cost retailers $100 billion.
Stores in San Francisco, New York and many other metropolitan areas have been hit by a rise in shoplifting.
The rise in petty crime and shoplifting comes in the aftermath of the pandemic and increasing disparity of social and economic mobility in the U.S – as lawmakers continue to lower corporate tax burdens, cede to efforts to reduce government hand outs for the poor along with a general reluctance to raise minimum wages in line with the rising cost of living in the U.S – with general real wages falling or stagnant at best.
Discussions that one is wanton to find in the corporate media – which makes up 90% of the media landscape in the West.
Un-relenting store thefts has caused retailers to put many items behind lock-and-key while corporations continue to do their own brand of thievery, the ongoing lobbying and subsidizing of their economic affairs (jobs,jobs!!) the general decline of corporate taxes along with Fortune 500 companies booking their biggest profits and dividends in years along with bumper share prices – all of which are shared among a small sliver of the public … never mind discarded workers trying to be store heroes.
