This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/Malikissa on 2024-11-25 15:21:35+00:00.

So I used to be a manager for a fairly large CD/DVD store back in 2010 or so that was right next to an anchor store. For those who do not work in malls, the anchor stores are the very large stores at the ends, and sometimes the middles of malls, think Racy’s, Mordstrom’s, Delk, sometimes Barget, etc. Our store took up the same amount of space of about 3 or 4 small stores in the mall, and had an entirely glass front, minus two large open doors that had the slide down grates for closing.

The glass front gave us a perfect view of what was going on in the mall when it was slow, as it was on this particular Sunday evening, about 30 minutes before close. I generally set myself up at the front of the store, sorting new product on a cart, looking outward into the mall, so I could greet anyone who came inside. My employees were finishing up closing duties so we could close registers and get out the door as fast as possible.

Now, this particular mall had the usual security guards who tended to be the guys who fell into two categories. A, the young guys who really wanted to be cops, but probably failed due to psych evals, and were a little bit too excited to catch shoplifters, and B, the older guys who probably used to be cops and just wanted everything to be safe for everyone. And on weekends, we had a few cops that patrolled the mall. As employees, we did occasionally need to call security, and had good relationships with the security teams, as well as the loss prevention team at the anchor store right next to us, which I shall call Delk.

We also used to think that the cops that pulled mall patrol detail were probably bad at their jobs. How silly we were. As I was sorting CDs and hoping for a fast exit that night, all of the sudden, I saw a woman with a stroller *racing* out of Delk just as fast as she could go. Quickly in pursuit was one of the cops, and Bob, one of our favorite LP guys from the Delk team. Before I could even yell back for my employees to see the show, the following occurred:

The cop made a flying tackle on the woman, landed on her back, and slid *with* her almost 10 feet across the nicely waxed tiles, while the stroller went flying, and had both hands behind her back and handcuffed before the two of them slid to a stop. The stroller, before you worry, crashed and spilled its contents, not of a baby, but of probably a few thousand dollars worth of prom dresses and jewelry, also sliding out all over the nicely waxed tiles. Bob skidded to a stop by the stroller and began collecting the items and apparently sorting through the items to determine which ones were owned by Delk, and which were the property of other stores she had been stealing from so they could be returned.

And one of the young mall security guards strolled up from the other direction, saluted me, and said, it’s okay, we’ve got it taken care of.