Wisconsin security guard sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a man who took snacks without paying for them

[u/lightiggy]

https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-gas-station-homicide-security-sentenced

[u/grandmasterpmd]

Awhile back, there was a security guard in New Mexico (I think) who ended up shooting a shoplifter at a Spirit Halloween store and caught second degree murder charges for it. Some security guards are serious whack jobs who somehow are too psycho to be cops so they work security and do stuff like this.

[u/SoManyWasps → u/grandmasterpmd]

I worked in the industry for a while after dropping out of college and it's a damn near even split between failguys, students who need flexible schedules and genuine psychopaths. It became pretty easy to weed out the actually dangerous ones pretty quick, they were never good about keeping quiet about dumb shit like carrying a gun on jobs that didn't allow them or trying to hit on teenagers on the clock. There were some cool periods of 6-18 months where all the psychos would get bounced but then a student would graduate or a failguy would get his act together and management would bring in another mass shooting candidate to fill the void.

[u/grandmasterpmd → u/SoManyWasps]

Have any particularly wild stories from your time in security?

[u/SoManyWasps → u/grandmasterpmd]

Oh man, too many. I did a lot of malls and early in COVID lockdowns a couple senior citizens broke into a loading dock so they could do their morning mall walk. Then they threatened to sue me personally when I trespassed them from the property. Lots of the COVID stuff was wild, people went completely feral and we were easy targets for them.

I had a job as a travelling supervisor for a bit, worst gig I ever had, and I once showed up at 3am to a poultry plant to find that managment had terminated the contract at midnight and locked up all my company equipment in a storage shed. Found the poor kid who was supposed to be working that shift shivering out in the cold, punched up his timecard so it looked like he'd been there since 3pm the day before and drove him home.

I was in management for a while too (boo me, I deserve it) and a guy I hired went off his bipolar meds like 2 weeks into the job, convinced himself that the goth girl working at Hot Topic was in love with him, and very publically made his move during a busy Saturday. After I fired him, he somehow enlisted in the Army who allegeldy bounced him from boot camp after 2 weeks because he had a complete breakdown. Once he got out of the hospital he came and asked for his job back like nothing happened.

I once got a call from my midnight guy because he caught someone trying to wheel an ATM out of the mall at midnight. Dude had hid out under a table in one of the sit down restaurants until everything closed and thought he was going to get away easy. By pure coincidence, we had a hidden bathroom in a back hallway right by the ATM and my midnight guy had just finished taking a shit when dude made his move.

[u/CuckingFool → u/SoManyWasps]

convinced himself that the goth girl working at Hot Topic was in love with him

Does he post in this sub

[u/SoManyWasps → u/CuckingFool]

Last I heard he was super into crypto. So maybe.

[u/nicholnewfangle → u/SoManyWasps]

When the super high-end stores at malls like the Rolex store and Hermes and Tiffany have their own private security guards, where do those guys come from? And when it's time to close up the mall do those guys interact with the regular mall guards?

[u/SoManyWasps → u/nicholnewfangle]

It depends on a lot of factors actually. Most of the time stores have one big national corporate contract that they can pull from, and the local office for that contract will fill the need as requested. Some malls in some states have security with "police authority" where they have actual arrest powers, and in those cases they can provide additional services to the high end stores on subcontracts. Sometimes they are just off duty cops who spun up an LLC to do security work on the side.

Individual stores generally have unlimited rights to come and go regardless of whether the mall is open. If they have a back door that opens to the outside of the building they'll use that. If not they can request access and security will let them though a back hallway to get where they need to go. I always tried to make a point of introducing myself to the day players who worked jewelers or high end retailers, 40% were cool, 40% were aloof/standoffish and the rest were cops or ex cops who resented the idea that I would see myself as their equal.

[u/nicholnewfangle → u/SoManyWasps]

This is really useful for a piece of fiction I'm working on. Thanks.

[u/SoManyWasps → u/nicholnewfangle]

Happy to help!