Another story from my first job:
Another company policy was demonstrated with a sign on the wall. John had made the sign himself and placed it by the listening station. It said, “Here at CD Warehouse, if we catch you stealing, we will not prosecute to the full extent of the law. We will just beat the (tar) out of you.” I almost had to exercise that policy a couple of times.
The incident that stands out in my mind regarding the theft policy happened one evening as I was tending the store by myself. I was just waiting for the clock to strike nine, so that I could close and go home. It was about ten till when a guy walks in. He had a big leather jacket and jewelry on his face. You know the type; they have to dress really tough because they are just so cool. So this “cool guy” is the only person in the store and he starts perusing through the music. I have nothing to do so I just watched him. He would pick up a CD then pull it out of the case then put it back in, just to get me accustomed to his method of shopping. With just five minutes left I started giving him the evil eye hoping he would leave, by this time he had employed the old shoplifter’s tactic of not looking at me. If he can’t see me I can’t see him, right.
He pulled a CD out of the “M” section and in my mind I started thinking of what he might try to steal from that section. As I thought on that, my gaze drifted away for just a second and I looked back down to see him pull his hand out of his pocket while replacing a CD case with his other hand. I thought, “What could he be stealing? Is it Metallica, or Metal Church? Maybe it’s Mad Season.” That is if he was stealing at all. This kid had guts and he was pretty quick. He moved over to the “A” section and I thought, “Anthrax, Aerosmith or maybe Alice in Chains” At this point his back was turned to me so as to more easily hide any conspicuous activity.
At one minute to nine he turned for the door with a disappointed look, like we didn’t have what he wanted. As he got closer to the door I came out from behind the counter and headed for the door as well. He had reached the door and I was a few feet from him. He was going to turn out the door when he gave me the guiltiest look I’ve ever seen in my life. So I said, “Hey, ah, just go ahead and put those CD’s back.” But he didn’t. He acted like he didn’t hear me and walked out the door. So I ran out after him. The chase only lasted about five feet. I grabbed his jacket and was about to pull his wallet out by the chain he had on it, when he just quit. He almost went totally limp. I said, “Let’s see ‘em.” He handed me two CD’s and I just let go of him. I told him to never come back again. He was placed on our banned list.
As I was walking back inside I looked at the CD’s to find out what he had taken. Suddenly this wayward metal fan turned into a material girl. That’s right, he was stealing “Madonna” and “Paula Abdul”. I was baffled. Maybe he had a girlfriend that liked that stuff. I later found out that he did get away with one other CD or at least we found that we were missing the disc from a case when we were organizing CD’s later. To this day I am still troubled by the thought process of that individual. I closed up the store and went home, putting an end to that disturbing night.