Ok... so that memory kicked in after Allen's story.

I was an Assistant Manager at a Walmart in the middle of Amish country.
The police department there was top notch. Great guys. They liked us a
lot because we gave them something to do (and because we treated them
well too...).

We rarely had a full time Asset Protection Manager (salaried AP) and
sometimes didn't even have an Asset Protection Associate (hourly AP). I
was a computer guy, so I got the duty of looking things up on camera. Especially if there was no AP. When the police needed something, I made
a point of dropping what I was doing to expedite whatever they needed
(which helped me build a good relationship with them).

So anyway, this particular day they ask me if I can look something up on
the cameras for them. Turns out they had caught a suspected shoplifter
in the parking lot and wanted to make sure all the ducks were in a row.
(When the police catch a shoplifter that's even better because there is
less paperwork for us and it doesn't have to be done immediately, so it
can wait for AP while the police can still process the criminal...)

Generally the way this works is that we usually start with where we know
they left the store, work backwards until they come in, and then watch
the story unfold.

A woman in blue sweatshirt and beige pants (the "uniform" at the time as
this was during the "no vest" years) walks into the store and downt he
action alley. She borrows one of the "associate use only" L-Carts (which
she gets from one of my associates) and goes around the corner where we
have some big screen TV's on display. She loads two on to the cart....

... and walks downt he action alley, right around the corner and right
out the door.

The police became suspicious when after two officers in two cruisers who
were talking in the parking lot (you know, how they park in opposite
directions next to each other and chat for a bit).... noticed a Walmart associate having trouble loading two big screen LCD tvs into "a
customer's car" and when they offered to assist she refused... got into
the car... drove to the other side of the parking lot (with the LCD's
hanging out mostly unsecured) and got out and began to try to get the
LCD's in again (it was a small car, way too small for 2 big LCD's).

Sure enough, she had "found" a name badge at another store close by, and
had been wearing that along with the proper "uniform" and my associate
who was generally a higher performer, just assumed she was a new hire or
help from another store.

So I called the other store... to let them know we had found TIM's name
badge.

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