Four men were charged with stealing $7000.00 in merchandise from a LuluLemon store in Georgia. Yet the employees who called the police were fired, when they should have been given raises.

According to the Post Millennial, Bayo Allen, 19, Quintavious Gooch, 19, Braylon Shivers, 20, and Nicholas Lynch, 26, were arrested two days after the April 24 clothing store robbery. The incident was also caught on camera.

Former assistant manager Jennifer Ferguson said she was fired for calling the police. Her husband, Jason posted video footage of the robbery on Facebook. It featured masked and hooded thieves grabbing armloads of clothing and running out of the store. The Facebook post said the store had been robbed multiple times by the same culprits and that no action had been taken to keep Lululemon employees safe or stop the situation from continuing. Jason Ferguson wrote;

“This was this group’s fifth (maybe close to 10th) time robbing the store with NO ACTION TAKEN by Lululemon to curb the robberies and keep the employees safe.”

Store associate Rachel Rogers was also fired from her job. She recorded video footage of the robbery and said that the same group of robbers had been stealing for weeks. The pattern was the same, they would grab merchandise closest to the door and then run to their get-away vehicles.

The employees did not try to stop the thieves but according to some reports were fired for interfering with the four shoplifters.

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A Lululemon spokesperson said the stores customers and employees are a top priority,

“The safety and security of our employees and guests is always lululemon’s top priority, and we have policies and protocols in place to uphold a safe environment.

We take thefts and vandalism very seriously and our focus right now is supporting our educators, as well as continuing to collaborate with local partners and law enforcement.”

It seems odd that the store has seemingly done little to protect customers and employees, allowing a volatile situation to continue week after week. And then opted to punish the employees.

According to the two employees, the companies policy directs employees to report robberies internally rather than contacting law enforcement. But the employee handbook directs staff to call 911 when the suspects have left the store.

Lululemon has stated the the employees were fired for engaging with the perpetrators, not for calling the police. Whatever the real reason is that the two women lost their positions, companies that are not serious and prompt about handling crime put their employees and customers at risk.

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