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A California Judge just ruled in favor of a grocery store employee who was fired after an attempted shoplifter punched her in the face and refused her unemployment benefits.

According to Yahoo News:

A California judge has ruled in favor of a longtime Safeway employee who was fired after she attempted to stop a shoplifter from stealing more than $500 worth of groceries, her attorney said.

Last year, the grocery retail chain terminated Antoinette Baez from her job at a Safeway in San Mateo, claiming she violated the company’s shoplifting policy. The policy, according to lawyer Neil Eisenberg, prohibits employees from chasing, touching, or pursuing a suspected thief.

The termination stemmed from an incident in which Baez intervened during an alleged shoplifting attempt on Feb. 2, 2023.

Baez was nearing the end of her shift as a cashier manager when she noticed a woman with a packed shopping cart acting suspiciously in the self-checkout area.

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 surveillance video, Baez was seen attempting to grab the grocery bags that the woman was holding.
Arevalos, also seen in the surveillance video, said the woman was told to let go of the bags and leave the premises. "Just drop the bags, either pay or leave," the supervisor recounted.

Baez said she attempted to redirect the woman back to the checkout lane, being careful not to touch her, and only keep her hands on the bags that the suspected shoplifter was holding.

The former manager said she was very aware of Safeway's policy regarding handling shoplifting cases and that led to how she conducted herself.

"That kept playing in my head, like don’t go outside, don't go after her, and don’t touch her," Baez explained.

The situation got more heated when the woman got physical and tried to punch Baez, Arevalos recalled. That’s when he stepped in to try and block the woman in an effort to protect his fellow employee.

Because the robber attempted to punch Arevalos, he was fired. Baez was also fired three weeks later.

She was accused of misconduct, and the company said that made her ineligible to receive unemployment benefits.

When companies do things like that, it makes it hard to be on their side when they get robbed in the first place. Not only do officials favor the criminals or victims of crimes, but now it appears that so do many corporations.

Rather than making sure their employees were safe, they punished hard workers for the actions of a shoplifter.

It is extremely exhausting that it is becoming far too frequent that people are being punished for doing the wrong thing.

But this is not surprising considering this is the status quo in California and a direct result when you get a bunch of progressives pushing “criminal justice reform.” Which is anything but “justice.”

Safeway has made it very clear what sort of customers they want in their stores. And it appears they will be offering them a five-finger discount.

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