Dealing with Shoplifters on Drugs

Just another fantastic day at work in your neighborhood convenience store. One can always tell the deprivation of a neighborhood by the delinquents and the people who stand out of the norm, and not in a good way. Working the evening shift at Alepa Kivenlahti in Espoo (undoubtedly you might know that place, but if you do, you know what kind pond scum mill around there...) today, there was a large number of people purchasing alcohol. (Note: it's a Monday...) And I'm not talking about the alcoholics who frequent the store on a daily basis, but the people aged 25 and below. (one girl aged about 21 or so was boasting to her friend that she'd been drunk the whole last week while on sick leave from work, bitching about having to go back to work the next day, while buying two 12-packs of beer. Her friend suggested she call in sick tomorrow on account of her impending hangover, much to the delight of the first girl, who seemingly thought this to be a good plan...) Then, to top off the night, at about 7pm two guys and a girl walked in, with intention to shoplift (I didn't notice them enter the store as I had guite a line of customers at my cash register. Had I noticed them, I would have sent them straight out as atleast two of them are known to shoplift, having done so before.) My co-worker noticed the girl filling her handbag with cider cans (and we're not talking of a few cans, but 10ish) and confronted her as she was walking towards my register. Seeing this, guy #1 emptied his own bag (which he had filled with beer and cider) and proceeded to the cash, looking all innocent, as if he had nothing to do with the girl. As the two of them were ushered to the exit emptyhanded, guy #2, who at this point was standing in line, holding a 12pack of beer, started to move past my cash register (still carrying his loot). I managed to stop him before he reached the door, taking hold of him and the beer. Naturally, he didn't really like being caught, and began wrestling to loosen my grip on him. Thankfully, another customer came to my aid in holding him, and getting him to the ground, whilst another helped by holding the door closed as the girl and guy #1 were coming back for their friend, protesting that he hadn't done anything (nevermind the unpaid beer he was holding whilst heading for the door...). The girl and guy #1 finally took off as my co-worker called the cops to come get guy #2, who was still persisting in trying to escape, even while me and the customer were holding him on the ground. The dumbass was also bleeding from the lip as he'd hit his face on the ground whilst trying to bounce up, trying to catch us off guard, and was now complaining that I had punched him in the face. The fun continues; calming down for a minute of two, the guy I was sitting on started to threaten me and the customer, saying that it would take him all of a minute to kill us... After some 5-15 minutes (you tend to lose track of time when your body is pumping adrenaline through you) the cops finally arrived, put the struggling guy in handcuffs, sat his ass down on a chair, started asking us about just what the hell really happened here. After passing our information to the cop, along with a rundown of what happened, and descriptions of guy #1 and the girl. He then radioed the descriptions to another patrol car in the vicinity, noting that they seemed like old friends, mentioning a few names which sounded familiar to me under earlier, similar instances. (the other patrol car radioed back a few minutes later, asking for clarification on the descriptions, after which they informed us that they'd caught the other two.) Then, after watching the security camera tape and getting some more info, the cops left with guy #2 in handcuffs, and it was back to work as usual for the last few hours.

Now, this is not the first time I've had to go through this bullshit at the same store. Daily one deals with these idiots, and on one occasion before I've physically caught several guys running past my cash register with beer under their jackets. (On that occasion, they finally managed to push past us and run away. This time I'd learned my lesson and instead of "politely" asking the perp to shut up and sit down, I needed to get this guy off his feet, on the ground, so he wouldn't get the chance to run away.) All the shoplifters we've encountered are in their early 20's, so they're old enough to buy the beer themselves, but, alas, they're narcs. And it's always the same group of people. (One of the guys who I almost caught the first time I went through this is the boyfriend of the girl we caught shoplifting tonight, and I swear each and everyone of them in that group has been to jail atleast on one occasion, either for shoplifting or drugs, or both.)

All in a day's work in the lovely world of customer service! Hell, it's just a job... If any of the people I've caught or anyone else in that group ever threaten me outside of work (the only time I'm in that neighborhood is when I'm going to or coming from work there), I'm never going there again, for work or anything else. It's just a job, and it's not worth endangering my health and wellbeing for. Do have to admit that the whole thing kinda scares me cuz we're not dealing with normal, sensible people, but rather with narcs with nothing to lose, so fucked up on narcotics that there's no telling what they can or will do... The only reason I've tried to stop them is to give them what they deserve, and that is punishment to the fullest extent of the law. But, hell, it's just a job...