A longtime Safeway employee from San Mateo, California, has won a court victory after she was terminated for trying to stop a suspected shoplifter, FOX-KTVU out of Oakland has reported.
Antoinette Baez was fired Feb. 2, 2023 after she attempted to stop an alleged shoplifter. Safeway policy prohibits employees from chasing, touching, or pursuing a suspected thief, according to attorney Neil Eisenberg who represented Baez.
Baez had noticed a woman attempting to leave the store without paying and subsequently contacted her supervisor, David Arevelos, who then confronted the woman.
In a video released by Baez's attorney, she recounted the events that unfolded.
"I said, 'Your transaction is still on the screen. You haven't paid for anything,'" Baez recalled telling the woman, who denied the allegation and tried to leave with the merchandise.
In the video, Baez is shown trying to grab the grocery bags the woman was holding. Baez says she was aware of the store policy regarding theft and tried to remain calm during the incident.
"That kept playing in my head, like don't go outside, don't go after her, and don't touch her," Baez explained.
It was then that the altercation became physical, as Arevelos attempted to prevent Baez from being punched by the alleged shoplifted.
The woman left the store without any of the groceries and Baez then called the store's director.
"He was very understanding, compassionate; he's like: 'I'm sorry that happened; I'm glad everyone's OK,'" Baez recalled, adding, "No disciplinary actions were taken against me."
Less than a month later, both Arevelos and Baez were eventually dismissed.
Following a lengthy legal back and forth, Baez and her attorney won the claim they filed with the state Employee Development Department. The new ruling awarded Baez unemployment back dated to her point of termination, almost a full year.
However, Eisenberg confirmed his client has not received an apology from Safeway, nor an offer to have her employment reinstated.
"This is probably the dumbest, cruelest incident I've seen in my entire practice," he said, adding that he feels Safeway has created an open-door policy for theft.
"You are better off stealing from Safeway than paying for your goods or your groceries, because when you pay for your goods or your groceries, you are absorbing the cost of shoplifting," the attorney said.
"If you're shoplifting, you get to go free, no consequences."
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