Safeway Security Guard Fired After Interrogating Girl

**troung** · 26 Nov 11,, 21:54

Safeway Security Guard Fired After Interrogating Girl; Company Faced Criticism for Similar Incident
By Suzan Clarke | ABC News Blogs – Fri, Nov 25, 2011
Safeway Security Guard Fired After Interrogating Girl; Company Faced Criticism for Similar Incident | ABC News - Yahoo! News

Safeway has fired the security guard who interrogated a 4-year-old girl for alleged shoplifting after he saw her eat from a bag of apricots and put the bag back on the shelf.

The girl’s father apparently hadn’t noticed what his daughter had done and was taken aback when he was stopped by security on his way out of the Everett, Wash., store.

The guard then interrogated Savannah Harp, 4.

The girl’s mother, Alissa Jones, said the guard proceeded to tell Harp’s father that the tot was banned from the store and that it would be pressing charges.

“He told them, ‘Your daughter stole and she’s banned from the store, and we’re pressing charges. And she needs to sign this form saying she understands she can’t come into any Safeways,’” Jones said, according to ABC News Seattle affiliate KOMO 4 News.

Savannah, who can’t read or write yet, was forced to scribble on the piece of paper.

“It’s pretty troubling. It’s not like she even knows what she was doing,” Jones said.

Safeway officials expressed outrage over the guard’s treatment of the little girl and issued a formal apology to her family. The division president offered to take the little girl around the bakery to show her that the store was not a scary place.

“In this case, neither our policy nor commonsense seems to have been followed,” Safeway said in a statement.

The California-based supermarket chain recently came under fire in a similar situation. A pregnant woman who was shopping with her husband and 2-year-old daughter in a Safeway in Beretainia, near Honolulu, was arrested and charged with theft after she ordered two sandwiches for a total of $5, ate one while she shopped and forgot to pay for them at checkout on Oct. 31.

Nicole Leszczynski, 28, and her husband Marcin, 33, were new to the state and had gotten lost on their way to the grocery store. When they came upon the Safeway, she was famished, the Associated Press reported.

The pregnant woman, a former Air Force staff sergeant, said she was embarrassed about the lapse and offered to pay for the sandwiches, but managers wouldn’t allow it.

Instead, the couple were handcuffed, searched then released on $50 bail each, and their daughter was temporarily taken away by the state Child Welfare Services, the AP said.

The incident caused furor across the nation. Safeway dropped the charges and apologized to the woman. The company also said it would re-examine its worker training polices, the AP reported.

**Mihais** · 26 Nov 11,, 21:58

Hopefully the girl is traumatised enough not to spend half of her adult life and most of her money on shopping.

I wish women my age were scared enough never to set foot in a shop again.Any shop.

**dave lukins** · 26 Nov 11,, 22:08

If I was that father the guard would be eating his meals through a straw for quite a while. To interrogate a 4 yr old should be illegal. The act of theft is specific that she has no idea of and as for her signing anything is unbelievable. The store wants it's ass kicking and they should sack all their drug taking alcoholic 'guards'

**Bigfella** · 26 Nov 11,, 22:20

“In this case, neither our policy nor commonsense seems to have been followed,” Safeway said in a statement.

...and the award for understatement goes to...

**JAD_333** · 26 Nov 11,, 23:29

Originally Posted by Mihais

Hopefully the girl is traumatised enough not to spend half of her adult life and most of her money on shopping.

I wish women my age were scared enough never to set foot in a shop again.Any shop.

Leave it to you to find the silver lining in all this.

**bonehead** · 27 Nov 11,, 00:21

Thats the kind of garbage that happens when you hire someone and pay him peanuts. Your left with the dregs of society who think what he did was acceptable. Until the wage scale bumps back up there will be a lot more events like this.

**omon** · 27 Nov 11,, 02:53

Originally Posted by bonehead

Thats the kind of garbage that happens when you hire someone and pay him peanuts. Your left with the dregs of society who think what he did was acceptable. Until the wage scale bumps back up there will be a lot more events like this.

nonsense, scumbag is a scumbag no matter what you pay him.

i'm sure he didn't think it is acceptable, he didn't think anything, he just felt he could do anything since he had a uniform on, uniforms\position brigs out the worst in some ppl.

**USSWisconsin** · 27 Nov 11,, 04:29

Originally Posted by dave lukins

If I was that father the guard would be eating his meals through a straw for quite a while. To interrogate a 4 yr old should be illegal. The act of theft is specific that she has no idea of and as for her signing anything is unbelievable. The store wants it's ass kicking and they should sack all their drug taking alcoholic 'guards'

I can think of better places to kick him, if he tried that with my daughter he'd never have to worry about having any children after that. They could have asked the father to pay for the apricots, but harrassing a 4 yr old for being hungry??? The right thing to do would have been to mention it to the dad and let him do the right thing. We occassionally eat things in the store, and then pay for the empty package on the way out.

**JAD_333** · 27 Nov 11,, 04:55

Originally Posted by bonehead

Thats the kind of garbage that happens when you hire someone and pay him peanuts. Your left with the dregs of society who think what he did was acceptable. Until the wage scale bumps back up there will be a lot more events like this.

Why are hitting on minimum wagers? Actually that's what happens when someone without a higher education gets handed a rulebook full of legalese and the supervisor doesn't explain what it means or keep an eye his people. I employ minimum wagers and they do just fine if you supervise them right.

Believe me, Safeway is covering their ass with the public apology and slamming the house-cop. They and a lot of retail stores are hot and heavy on shoplifting. I see cop cars in front of Walmart at least once a week hauling away a shoplifter. And the excuses they give would make a gown man cry.

Now, busting a 4 year old...that's over the top. But did the store say, no exceptions?

**bonehead** · 27 Nov 11,, 05:33

Originally Posted by omon

nonsense, scumbag is a scumbag no matter what you pay him.

i'm sure he didn't think it is acceptable, he didn't think anything, he just felt he could do anything since he had a uniform on, uniforms\position brigs out the worst in some ppl.

As long as you keep lowering the bar wage wise....only scumbags need apply. Thats the point. Those that are better than this guy are working elsewhere and getting paid better.
What so many businesses can't seam to understand is that all too often when you save some change on the payroll you end up paying a lot more when those cheap workers do stuff like this. If Safeway had paid to hire a better guard they would not have all this lovely PR now.

**bonehead** · 27 Nov 11,, 05:46

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Why are hitting on minimum wagers? Actually that's what happens when someone without a higher education gets handed a rulebook full of legalese and the supervisor doesn't explain what it means or keep an eye his people. I employ minimum wagers and they do just fine if you supervise them right.

Believe me, Safeway is covering their ass with the public apology and slamming the house-cop. They and a lot of retail stores are hot and heavy on shoplifting. I see cop cars in front of Walmart at least once a week hauling away a shoplifter. And the excuses they give would make a gown man cry.

Now, busting a 4 year old...that's over the top. But did the store say, no exceptions?

When you offer a bit more money you generally have a better workforce to chose from. I have been on both sides of the worker/management. I have seen great workers turned away while crappy ones were hired because a of a dime's difference in wages. Thats insanity. I really don't think education or lack of has any bearing. Its the actual person involved. What Safeway is doing now is general M.O. for businesses. Hire cheap and reap the profits. When it goes sour start attacking the fall guy and blame the workforce for whatever went wrong. In this case the guard is an ass clown. I'd bet the farm that his boss knew that from the beginning. Therefore, no matter how much back pedaling Safeway does they are going to have to shoulder at least part of the blame.

**JAD_333** · 27 Nov 11,, 06:36

Originally Posted by bonehead

As long as you keep lowering the bar wage wise....only scumbags need apply.

True in a booming economy with lots of jobs around. But when you've been laid off and can't find a job paying what you were making, a $7.25 an hour minimum-wage job beats watching TV all day. Besides, scumbags come at all wage levels...just look at Congress.

**JAD_333** · 27 Nov 11,, 06:46

Originally Posted by bonehead

When you offer a bit more money you generally have a better workforce to chose from. I have been on both sides of the worker/management. I have seen great workers turned away while crappy ones were hired because a of a dime's difference in wages. Thats insanity. I really don't think education or lack of has any bearing. Its the actual person involved. What Safeway is doing now is general M.O. for businesses. Hire cheap and reap the profits. When it goes sour start attacking the fall guy and blame the workforce for whatever went wrong. In this case the guard is an ass clown. I'd bet the farm that his boss knew that from the beginning. Therefore, no matter how much back pedaling Safeway does they are going to have to shoulder at least part of the blame.

Then Safeway will get what they pay for. In this case, a hefty lawsuit. I agree it's dumb to choose a so-so worker over a good one for a dime's difference in hourly wages, but that's what those Harvard MBAs are trained to do, and multiply a dime an hour times 15,000 employees and you come up with some real money. It's dumb, but hey... Anyway, these days like I said you can get some pretty good people cheap. In my case, if I had to pay $10-13/hr for a laborer like I had to during the housing boom, I wouldn't have one. But I can pay $8 and I have a good one. He's happy...but when the economy picks up I'll have to raise him or he'll quit and find a job somewhere else.

**Parihaka** · 27 Nov 11,, 07:48

Originally Posted by bonehead

As long as you keep lowering the bar wage wise....only scumbags need apply. Thats the point. Those that are better than this guy are working elsewhere and getting paid better.
What so many businesses can't seam to understand is that all too often when you save some change on the payroll you end up paying a lot more when those cheap workers do stuff like this. If Safeway had paid to hire a better guard they would not have all this lovely PR now.

It's a low paid job. His supervisor is much higher paid and his supervisor fell down on the job as well

**Chunder** · 27 Nov 11,, 09:04

Hiring better gaurds:
The Venue's that have their sort will retain them.
The Venue's that are crap won't retain one where he can get a better deal elsewhere.

Not a job I'd like to be doing by day thats for sure.
Bottom of the line is this: There are a lot of deadbeats in security that only do it because they have fallen through the net. The one's that aren't need to be placated with putting up with shit people, assholes for customers and fitting it in with something else. Shit them off and they go in a blink of an eye.

Safeway doesn't seem like an ideal post.