If you've been a retail security guard, you'll know that you don't approach, detain, accuse a customer of criminal intent, without being able to establish probable cause, i.e. what I outlined above: you saw them select, conceal (or take away) and fail to pay for merchandise. There are aggressive security guards who get an adrenalin buzz from this kind of confrontation: the innocent customer is not there to provide them with this buzz, and should know his/her rights.tony ingram wrote:Speaking as someone who worked in security for twelve years, and started out as a retail security guard, I cannot see that the guard did anything wrong here, and I'm baffled by the apparent hostility being exhibited by some posters here to a man doing the job he is paid for. Nobody likes being stopped (and yes, I have in the past been stopped by a guard myself, in a branch of Focus Do-It-All as I recall) but the fact is, people do shoplift, it costs stores millions each year, and they are entitled to take precautions.
When did David say he was carrying a large *open* bag? He simply said he had a large bag.
"If you are wandering around a store for any length of time, carrying a large bag and showing no signs of buying anything, you are acting suspiciously." No, this is called browsing and is perfectly innocent and legal.
David said he was spoken to like a criminal; also, that he felt such a heavy hand on his shoulder he felt he was being mugged. The guard shouldn't have touched him at all. How would he know if David had recently had a shoulder operation? And presumably he'd prefer not to get the shop sued for assault.
There was clearly no probable cause to establish here, no reasonable grounds for the accusation. In these cases, the customer should be polite but assertive: demand to speak to someone in charge, demand to see the CCTV footage (of course, none exists because no crime was committed), etc. Don't be bullied.