Remember the story about the Target security guard who was fired for stopping a teen from stealing booze from the store? The guard has contacted HR Blunders to tell his side of the story.

First, a recap of our earlier story. Target security guard Dean Babcock saw a 16-year-old girl trying to steal a bottle of tequila. Only certain guards were authorized to stop suspected shoplifters, but Babcock, a retired police officer, wasn’t one of them.

In fact, none of those guards were on duty. So Babcock worked around the problem and contacted the girl’s father instead of police. Four days later he was fired from the Lake Geneva, WI store.

In an e-mail, Babcock tells HR Blunders this was the first time he had been told he violated any Target policy and that he’d never been disciplined for doing anything else wrong at the store.

The former Target guard says the girl’s father was pleased with the way he handled the situation and went to bat for him with the store.

Babcock says in Target’s policy book, it states that the proper action was to call the parent.

He also emphasizes that at the time of the incident, only one person in the store was authorized to stop such shoplifters. That employee was in a different store receiving training.

And a note from the editor: Once upon a time, I had a part-time holiday season job as an “associate” at a regional department store. I worked in the men’s clothing department.

We knew who the undercover “loss prevention” employees were. One day, I saw one of them bolt out an exit in pursuit of someone who had allegedly stolen an expensive article of clothing.

This was in 1988. Have things really changed so much since then?

Tags: fired, policy, shoplifters