When you work for a large company, you need to follow the policies carefully, otherwise you can get in a lot of trouble.

What would you do if your job was to prevent theft in a store, but you weren’t allowed to chance any thieves?

That is what happened to the asset protection worker in this story. He spotted a thief, and jogged to catch up to him to see which direction he went.

That ended up being a big mistake. Let’s read all about it.

Asset Protection Fired for Doing His Job

Our store employs plain clothes asset protection associates, as we call them.

Their job is to follow thieves and witness every step of the theft, from picking up the item, to concealing it, to attempting to leave without paying.

If they miss even one step, they will be unable to accuse that person of theft, so they have to be on it.

He better watch him like a hawk.

An AP associate named “Jake” was doing his job one day, and following a teenaged boy who had just concealed an item from the sporting goods department in his jacket.

Well the thief had an inkling that he was being followed, so he started to walk faster.

Jake did too.

The thief started heading toward the exit. Jake followed. The thief broke off into a dead sprint out the front door. Jake… well, this is where things get complicated.

What a stupid policy.

This is a very large company, and they are wary of lawsuits. They have a “no chase” policy for thieves.

Now, Jake did not really “chase” the thief, but he did run a bit, he stopped at the door, made a mental note of the direction the thief was heading, and called the cops.

The cops managed to catch the guy, amazingly.

It isn’t Jake’s fault that this kid is an idiot.

Job well done, right?

Well, it would have been, but the kid’s parents called corporate. Apparently, in his effort to escape with his ill-gotten goods, the thief jumped a fence, ran across four lanes of traffic, and jumped another fence before the cops picked him up.

His chest and stomach was all scraped up from all that fence jumping, and his parents were threatening to sue.

How pathetic.

Management checks the camera, sees Jake “chasing” the thief for a total of twenty feet. Decides at that moment that he has to be fired.

Jake had worked at the company for about four years prior to this.

Today, Jake works as a prison guard in a far Northern California prison.

Our existing AP associates are effectively useless, for fear of losing their jobs for doing much of anything to actually curb shrink.

This is what happens when you fire people for doing their job. People learn quick and stop doing the job properly, at which point, there is really no reason to have them at all.

Let’s see what the top commenters on Reddit have to say about this story.

These parents are the worst.

Yeah, why put in any effort at all?

Yup, the company is completely stupid.

These types of policies make no sense.

Sadly, this is exactly what will happen.

What’s the point of having loss prevention if they can’t prevent loss?

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.