As a store manager the fact that people steal scares the shit out of me

It’s the only time I don’t want to go to work. I’ve worked in retail for over a decade and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve thrown into a situation I didn’t want to be into. Shoplifting, fights, domestics, weapons, being shot at, coordinate with police on attempts… it’s scary. The scariest part is the unknown. Doesn’t matter what day it is, what’s going on, who’s in the store sometimes people just steal. Management is often given a target goal to reduce shoplifting. I don’t get it. It’s not like I can just throw someone in jail, or can just magically make people not steal. It’s a problem that will always be around especially in certain areas. The best you can do is work with your LP and police coordinate with attempts… and still you walk away thinking “what if.” I’ve heard so many horror stories of people being killed or beat up over shoplifting. You can attempt to stop them, call police, and hope they don’t get violent. The reality of LP in some stores are to simply document the theft and have police put a warrant out for them. That’s it. Two years ago I had a man who was using a handmade device to cut security tags off. He had around $500 in merchandise. My policy was don’t confront alone, but my LP person was on her lunch, and I knew if I didn’t stop him he would get away, and I’d be held responsible. I went out alone. I got a bunch of video of him taking tags off and concealing the merchandise. Right as he walked through the door I approached him, showed him my badge, and politely asked if he would come with me. I’m sure he was planning on stealing, but I’m also sure he didn’t think I’d stop him. He came with me. I called police, got a confession, and they put out a warrant for him. I was praised for doing a good job, but the reality of it is I would not do that again. The reality of it is I could have gotten myself killed. So when you see someone on Chambers claiming they got beat to shit over stealing something just remember there are consequences. With that being said, I can’t stop everyone. I hope for my sake you aren’t violent. The last coordinate with police I had the guy literally had a knife. He was arrested and police told me given my license to carry I would have been in my right to shoot him. I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t want to live with that. I’m also glad he didn’t coordinate with police because I could have definitely been killed. So the next time you think about stealing something remember all the possibilities. You could be arrested, you could be beat up, you could be shot. And I’ll be on the other side coordinate with police, trying to make sure I live through my shift.