Armed Robbery and Attempted Murder

One of the main issues that the company that I worked for had and I'm certain still does was that of organized retail crime groups (ORC). They were difficult to catch since most of the time they would do grab and runs where they would walk up to a fixture of high priced clothing that was somewhat near an entrance, grab as much as they could, and run out to a waiting car ready to speed away. The groups that were the best at it could be in and out in 30 seconds or less and cost the company thousands. It was extremely rare that anyone in Loss prevention even saw the event happen in real time on the cameras or floor and we usually found out about it from a customer or a sales employee that saw it happen. Catching them is nearly impossible, however we did have a couple occasions.

On this particular occasion the LP agent got lucky and spotted a known ORC car in the lot prior to them entering. He let his team know, I think there may have been one or two other agents working at the time, and started watching them as they set up. The advantage to the store where this incident occurred is that the LP office was right next to the main entry to the store from the parking lot.

The ORC group gets set up, I believe it was just 2 males in a BMW. The LP agents are set up inside right around the entrance that one of the males is going to go into. The male that enters is very well known as a part of this group and has already cost the company about 10k from previous grab and runs. The male enters and immediately approaches a fixture with high priced men's shirts. He grabs about 15 shirts and starts to sprint back out the doors to the waiting car. The LP agent watching him on camera in the office had already called the local PD to get them started that way, and upon seeing the male grab the shirts, he left the office to go stop him. Both the male and the LP agent make it outside and are probably 10 feet from the waiting BMW when the agent stops the male and tells him he is LP and needs to return to the store with him.

At that time, the male with the shirt becomes combative so the LP agent goes hands on to restrain him. The driver of the BMW then tells the agent, through the window of the car, to let the guy go or he is going to shoot him while at the same time pulling a silver handgun out from somewhere in the car and pointing it at the agent. The agent immediately complies and as soon as he does he sees the male in the BMW pull the trigger on the gun and hears a click. The gun jammed. The male in the BMW then has a shocked look on his face because he can't believe the gun went off. About this time the male with the shirt had made it into the car just as the local PD pulled up and saw what was happening. They immediately draw down on the car and begin ordering the males out of the car.

The BMW driver decides he's not going to jail today and floors it right at the cops nearly hitting one of the officers. A massive chase ensues and the men get actually got away for the time being as the cops called the chase off.

The most nerve racking part of the report that I read from the agent who go the gun pulled on him was how he described the guys face after he pulled the trigger. The guy completely expected to shoot our LP agent and was shocked when the gun jammed. He completely intended to shoot an employee over stolen shirts

/r/TalesFromRetail Thread