The culprit was captured twice shoplifting. The first incident occurred on May 16th. Northington was told by his supervisor that he noticed the man stick a tube of toothpaste into a bag after already paying for other items. Later the store manager allegedly said that he knew the man because they had participated in an NCAA March Madness pool together. They all decided to wait to see if the man returned. On May 27th, the man returned. A videotape showed the man take a full cart to the pharmacy register but only pay for half of the items. He then took the rest outside.
Northington field a police report and says that a Leesburg sergeant came to the store and watched the video. He says that the detective said “I know who that is . . . This is pretty serious” because the man was an officer.
Later he was fired by Target officials who told him that he had violated procedure by not filling out the proper paperwork before contacting the police. However, Northington says that he was never required to file such paperwork in the past.
The police insist that they are still investigating and added encryptically that “there might be some extenuating circumstances.”
Regardless of this “extenuating circumstances,” the burden is on the police to explain its actions and the delay in any charge in the case. As for Target, there are records of Northington making charges in his capacity as an employee in the past. Given his length of employment and past practices, the termination does raise obvious concerns.
Source: Washington Post
Kudos: Michael Blott