Home Depot worker’s son calls for action against retail crime after father’s death by shoplifter.

Son of Elderly Home Depot Employee Demands Action Against Rising Retail Crime

The son of an elderly Home Depot employee who died last year after he was shoved to the ground by a shoplifter is demanding action against the rising retail crime crippling businesses across the country.

Gary Rasor, 83, died on October 18th after he walked up to a man leaving the Home Depot where he worked with three pressure washers worth about $800. His father was doing his job and making sure the man had paid for the pressure washers when he was forcefully shoved to the concrete floor, according to Jeff Rasor. The elderly Rasor died on December 1st due to complications stemming from the injuries, and his son is now demanding action so what happened to his father does not occur to employees around the country.

Consequences Must Fit the Crime

“There have to be consequences in my mind, and the consequences have to fit the crime,” Rasor said Thursday. “I can’t imagine that any piece of equipment in Home Depot is worth a life — and so when you find out it’s $837, it’s just pretty bad.” Police must employ more stringent punishments to mitigate the risk of shoplifting and crack down on organized retail crime, he said.

Combatting Retail Crime

Safety measures implemented by Home Depot to combat rising retail crime include the addition of more cameras, the hiring of more security guards, and the implementation of anti-theft tracking technology. “We want them to feel safe when they come to work,” Home Depot Vice President of Asset Protection Scott Glenn said regarding Home Depot’s nearly 500,000 workers.

Rising Retail Crime

Such crime has crippled major retailers throughout the United States, from Nordstrom in San Francisco and grocery chain Giant across the East Coast. Two Lululemon employees at an Atlanta location also claim they were fired after they called police when shoplifters tried to rob their store. “More and more we’re seeing the risk being brought into the stores, and people being hurt or people even being killed in many cases because these folks,” Glenn said. “They just don’t care about the consequence.”

Remembering Gary Rasor

“He loved working at Home Depot,” Rasor said regarding his father during his push for “appropriate measures” to be enacted to combat retail crime. Along with the 83-year-old Rasor, 26-year-old Blake Mohs died after he was shot in the chest at the California Home Depot where he worked. The suspects in the Mohs case were shortly detained by police and charged, and Terry McMillian is charged with Rasor’s murder, according to the report. Rasor’s father would not want McMillian “to be in jail the rest of his life,” Rasor said. “He would rather that guy be graduating from law school and be on an internship right now somewhere. That’s what he’d want. But he’s not, he’s sitting in jail.”

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• Implement more stringent punishments to mitigate the risk of shoplifting and crack down on organized retail crime
• Add more cameras, hire more security guards, and implement anti-theft tracking technology to combat rising retail crime
• Remember the victims of retail crime, including Gary Rasor and Blake Mohs

It’s time for action to be taken against the rising retail crime that is crippling businesses across the country. Let’s honor the memory of those who have lost their lives and protect the safety of employees in the retail industry.

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