A supermarket suspended a longtime employee for sitting on an alleged shoplifter.
According to Daily Mail, a 15-year-old boy went to a Gloucestershire, England branch of the Co-operative Food store at around 8:20 pm on October 17 to steal wine and beer.
The teen left the store with alcohol twice without paying that night, but on his third attempt, the teen was taken down by 52-year-old employee Adrian Weekes.
Weekes, who worked at the store for 16 years, sat on the thief for several minutes while he appeared to call the police.
This shoplifter, he ney going nowhere! (Co-op, Slad Road) Posted by NUFS - Not Unusual For Stroud on Monday, October 19, 2015
Once Weekes got up, the thief was taken to an office in the back of the store where he was held until police arrived.
Police ordered him to come to the police station the next day, and he did with his mother.
After assuring the sergeant he was of "previously good character," the thief was issued a Restorative Justice Level 1 order -- a kind of low-level, informal punishment -- and banned from the store.
The boy also additionally paid for every item he stole.
Weekes is currently suspended from work as the Co-operative investigates his handling of the thief.
Weekes reportedly said,
If you do your job and arrest somebody for shoplifting and the images are put on the Internet, you have no control over it. It's not your fault.
Daily Mail reports Weekes experienced a physical confrontation in June as well when two teenage boys attacked a man with disabilities outside the store. He was allegedly harmed when he engaged the two boys, who stopped their bicycles in front of the car of the man with disabilities.
Of the incident, Weekes reportedly said,
They started smashing [the disabled man's] car with their helmets and then the driver got out and they assaulted him. I started shouting at them to stop it and then grabbed one of the guy's arms round his back to stop the fight.
A customer of the Co-op described Weekes as "grumpy" but also a "bit of a ledge," which is short for "legend."
Citations: Co-op SUSPENDS 'legend' supermarket worker who was snapped sitting on alleged shoplifter's head as he made citizen's arrest (Daily Mail)
