"The story I'm about to tell is 100 percent true. No embellishment at all. This used to be my favorite grocery store, simply because I live really close to it. I've been craving steak, so today I went there for that specific reason. I'm a social butterfly, so when I saw a homeless dude selling Real Change, I struck up a conversation. It was a pleasent conversation, until... An elderly woman burst out of the front door, followed by four young women. They tackled her and rifled through all of her pockets. They were quite violent. I used my best judgement to assess that the elderly woman wasn't in any real physical danger, otherwise I would've used my very large size and physical proweress to intervene. The old lady got away. I stuck around for quite some time to speak to police about the crime that I witnessed. It turns out that three of the women who physically assaulted this poor old lady are employees of the store. The old lady had shoplifted and the employees were getting back their lost product. Not only is it against the law for an employee to assault a shoplifter, it's just very bad optics, it can lead to possibility of lawsuit, and it's just morally wrong on so many levels. All I did was report a crime physical assault against an elderly woman. But the store has 86'd me. Holy ****, I am SO in the right on this matter. I've been working in the service industry for a LONG TIME and I'm really good at it. Store employees tackling an elderly woman for shoplifting is so f stupid. I just got off the phone with their corporate office, and I'm so offended by what I saw today that I absolutely am now on a mission to get those violent pieces of s fired. I don't know for sure, but I think it's a good guess that the shoplifter is a homeless person. In Seattle, there are lots of groups that advocate for homeless people. I'm not condoning the shoplifting, but a store employee ABSOLUTELY has NO RIGHT to ever put their hands on someone, unless intervening to stop an act of violence. Which, that's not what happened. And the employees almost look they enjoyed it. I spoke to the manager immediately, and not only did he not send the employees home, he reported ME to the police. Wow. The audacity. Please, do not shop here. Boycotts work. I told their corporate office that if these horrible excuses for oxygen aren't fired, I'm going to raise hell, and I plan to do that. I hope someone from HR reads this. You're on notice."
