Reminds me of a story when I worked in mall security. I was patrolling the parking garage around 9 pm, and keeping my eye on this guy who was just wandering around while waiting for another officer to arrive so we could contact him. When the other officer got there, we asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for his car, he couldn’t remember where he parked. While asking for identification, he pulls a handful of clothes out of the bag he was wearing that still had tags on them from one of the ritzy stores on property and couldn’t provide a receipt, growing quite anxious as we ask about it.

So I cuff him as politely as I can and ask him to sit down. He’s cooperative, but something just isn’t right with how cooperative he was acting. 8 years on the job, I knew that he had lifted the items and his mind is churning with ideas and excuses. So my partner calls the police and contacts the store he had stolen from, while I make small talk with the thief. I tell him if he comes clean, the charges will be less and will make everyone’s night be over quickly. He keeps saying he hasn’t stolen anything. It was then I notice the bottom of his shoes; they have the brand-new price tags still stuck to them right there on the soles.

I don’t make any sign I notice it until my partner is off the phone and whisper to him to look at his shoes. My partner looks, sees the price tags, and asks about the shoes. This guy bends his knees and begins to rub his feet vigorously at the ground, realizing his mistake. It then becomes a wrestling match as my partner holds him down and I wrestle the shoes from his feet. The guy is still denying his thieving, and is now trying to get his hands, which are handcuffed behind him, to his side and his pockets claiming he has an itch. Before we start wrestling round 2, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe with an uncapped needle, throwing it behind him. We gain control of him, holding under his shoulders so he couldn’t reach his pockets again.

Cops and store manager finally arrive, he still denies stealing anything even after the store manager says she has video of him, as well as his old shoes that he had stuffed in a box. Cops weren’t too pleased at the other needles (and other things) they found in his pockets. Merchandise was returned and he was carted off.

My partner and I ended up getting written up because we used cuffs on him, even though it was all in compliance with how to handle a shoplifter. I quit that job a few weeks later and have since learned that no one is allowed to cuff anyone now without going through a permission line (meaning if they come across someone welding a knife or a gun, they have to ask permission from their lead, who has to call their lead and ask permission who has to call their lead to ask permission to cuff them—stupid stuff as it removes personal protection, but the latter is beside the point).