'Outstanding' Walmart employee Bruce Florence dies after trying to stop thief in Texas store

[RamboLiberal]

Bruce Florence, a longtime “outstanding” Walmart employee, died after trying to stop a man from stealing a TV from the store, AZCentral.com reports.

On June 14, Florence - who had worked at the Westworth Village, Tex., Walmart for more than a decade - saw a man trying to sneak out of the store with a $348 TV he had not paid for. Florence tried to stop the man, but the thief knocked him down and then escaped into a waiting SUV (he was later apprehended by police). Florence, a father of a 14-year-old girl, sustained a head injury and died on Father’s Day.

"Bruce was a good man who left behind a loving family and good friends," Darrell Bartell, a Walmart co-worker, told the site. "He didn't die defending his country or saving someone's life. He died because a coward wanted a television set."

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The alleged thief, William Alan Kennedy, 37, of Fort Worth, Tex., is currently in jail. He has been charged with aggravated robbery in the Westworth Village case. Police also suspect that he was involved in six other thefts. Should Florence’s death be ruled a homicide, the district attorney will consider other charges for Kennedy.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/24/2010-06-24_outstanding_walmart_employee_bruce_florence_dies_after_trying_to_stop_thief_in_t.html

Shame. Walmart security is a joke. Should've just let the thief run.

[Mimosa]

1. That's why Wal-Mart, Home Depot etc fire employees for trying to stop thieves n/t

[grantcart]

6. exactly

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. And if he'd lived, and had he been fired...

I'm sure people would be criticizing Walmart over it.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

10. And if the guy stealing the TV died.....

....there'd be bitching about that too.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. And rightfully so.

Having a policy of firing employees over this would be unnecessary if employees were properly trained on the reasons why the store doesn't want them to intervene. It's just much cheaper and easier to deal with it by the threat.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. What if they explained why it's unnecessary, and they still tried to intervene?

Seems rather simple to me. Don't intervene, or you're fired.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. If they still try to intervene then obviously there should be a stiff penalty.

Firing regardless of the level of intervention is a blunt response. Chasing someone out of the store is different from trying to tackle the person and hold them for security yet both may be violations of the store policy. In the former case, why not a suspension or some other intermediate disciplinary action for a first offense? It seems to me that in the case of stores like Walmart where team-building is a core training tool they are setting up employees to want to help out in situations like shoplifting, yet they punish them severely for reacting that way.

[WinkyDink]

29. Serfs protecting the profits of the mega-millionaires. WHY???????????????????

[tammywammy]

13. Exactly. n/t

[melm00se]

2. fired is better off than dead

[Sherman A1]

3. It's very sad that this man is now dead and his family

suffered such a loss. That said, he was exceptionally foolish to do any more than get a description and perhaps a license number. It simply is not worth risking your life over anything in a Walmart or any other retail store. The items in the store can be replaced, the life cannot.

[elocs]

4. There is absolutely nothing in Walmart that is worth risking your life to save

unless it is another human being. Everything else is just stuff.

[Toucano]

18. +1 n/t

[lpbk2713]

5. Wally World will mail his widow his last pay check.

He violated their rules. They won't do anything more than that. Lowlife bastards.

[seabeyond]

9. they have the rules in place so someone wont die over a tv. cant see walmart being the "bastard". nt

[lpbk2713]

12. I'm saying they won't deliver it in person ..

and I'd be surprised if they even send flowers, unless they were from a voluntary collection from among his former co-workers. Walmart has no semblance of humanity. THAT is why I regard them as bastards.

[seabeyond]

14. hm. well, i am clueless. i have no idea how "walmart" feels or what/if they do anything

so i wont pretend like i have a clue.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. "Should've just let the thief run."

Actually, that's standard Walmart security policy.

[Swamp Rat]

11. This is a win-win for Wal-Mart

1. They will collect life insurance money for the dead employee
2. They will collect insurance money for the stolen TV
3. They will hire someone else at a lower salary

[murdoch]

15. dead peasants

That's what Wal-Mart calls its policy of taking out life insurance policies on its workers - the dead peasants policy

If you think about it, it is to Wal-Mart's financial advantage that its employees wind up dead. There's a warped incentive.

[TexasObserver]

17. They will pay seven figures to the widow in settlement, too.

This is a case Walmart cannot afford to try. They have to settle it.

[Swamp Rat]

24. I seriously doubt it

but I hope you are right

[TexasObserver]

25. Juries are notoriously generous and pliable for the widows of such decedents.

There are several theories of liability that can be used against Walmart, from defective design resulting in the fatal head injury, to failure to properly find and stop the TV theft, to failure to properly train the decedent not to chase after the thief.

All the plaintiff has to do is get the case to the jury. That means having a theory of liability that will make it past motions to dismiss, sufficient facts to make a cause of action pled, provable damages, and a chance to have a jury slap that on the defendant.

This case has to be settled. Now, or two years from now, I can't see Walmart letting the case go to a jury.

[Swamp Rat]

26. Thanks for the explanation

I'm not a lawyer, but I see how this could play out: Wal-Mart settles for 1-2 million, avoids a trial, then collects on the employee life insurance policy.

[TexasObserver]

27. Let me add: if anyone is stupid enough to try the case, it's Walmart.

They got their ass kicked hard in Houston a few months ago.

Take a look at this story is you want to celebrate Walmart getting its butt kicked.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6932914.html

[Swamp Rat]

28. HAHA!!

Thanks! That was just the right amount of schadenfreude I needed. :D

[TexasObserver]

30. Walmart - guest appearing on the hit show "Ow, my balls!!"

It couldn't happen a bigger bunch of assholes.

You think you hate Walmart? These guys have been notorious for anti union practices for decades. They're brutal, and they've flashed their ass in litigation before. The old man got hit with a million dollar sanction back in the 1980s for failing to show up for a deposition. They got it reversed, but it was the talk of the town back then.

Wal‑Mart Stores, Inc. v. Street, 754 S.W.2d 153, 155 (Tex. 1988) (granting mandamus to overrule location of deposition of Sam Walton).

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. really sad. Hope Wal-mart provides death benefits for the daughter

[Lucian]

20. Fuck. I work at Walmart and if someone tried stealing a tv...

I'd let him/her walk right out the door with it. One, I don't care if someone steals from Walmart, and two, it's not worth risking your life to stop someone from stealing something so insignificant like a tv.

[Yeahyeah]

21. Maybe the Walmart billionaires will come up with some kind of medal.