The state of shoplifting these days is a little out of control. People just feel like they can get away with it, especially when store employees are told not to get involved. And that policy goes far - to the point that one UK supermarket worker has been fired for doing so.
According to the New York Post, 34-year-old Gary MacArthur had worked for Sainsbury's, a large UK supermarket chain known as one of the "Big Four". He was a seasoned employee, having worked in a store in southeast London for the past 15 years.
During that fateful shift on December 2025, he had a pretty crazy shift. "My security guard started at 1pm, and he didn't seem right in himself - he looked lighter in color," he explained in an interview. He was right - "he had a stroke on the shop floor" at around 2:30pm.
He rushed into action, giving him CPR and calling an ambulance for him. But, because they no longer had a security guard, MacArthur took over as that role. This meant he had to stay for an hour's overtime.
But, that's when things went wrong.
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Commotion Started In the Supermarket Just As His Shift Was Ending
"I finish up at 9pm. As I go to take my headpiece off, I've got all the girls screaming in my ear going 'come down, we've got an aggressive Champagne thief," he explained.
He ushered the thief out of the store, and ended up finding a bag filled with stolen items in a bush. But, the shoplifter ended up coming back to the store. And then, he got angry.
He was throwing bottles at the staff, including the manager. It took another customer to stop the thief from leaving, before MacArthur leaped into action and restrained him.
But that's when the supermarket did something drastic. You'd think they'd reward him for his brave actions in protecting his co-workers. But he was fired for gross misconduct in March of this year - and he even lost his appeal in April.
Supermarket bosses explained that he shouldn't have done anything. Instead, he should have been a "visual deterrent".
