I worked for an autozone store before transferring to its distribution warehouse back when I was in college, under the employee guidelines it strictly says during a robbery do nothing, give up the register and run out.
There is no Insurance on employees unless the employee pays for it - problem is the legal problems that goes with having insurance/no insurance - say an employee decides to foil a robbery and gets shot, then they are on the hook for lawsuits and medical bills. Plus the employee also gets workers comp and everything else.
What is so hard to understand? RUN AWAY give up the register... Autozone stores have insurance for robberies, whatever gets stolen can be recovered.
Think about it for a minute - use surveillance cameras to I.D. the person and let the police handle it, or rather have an untrained person whose job is to "sell merchandise" to confront criminals?
What people are not thinking about is that the young man ran from the store, grabbed his personal weapon from his vehicle and returned to protect his go-workers, one of whom thought that the young man probably saved his life.
Another point is that this shoe can fit both feet... People have been sued for NOT intervening in robberies where they could have prevented a death or injury.
Some have argued that the robber had robbed as many as 30 businesses and had not shot anyone. Stupid argument, at best. How could the victims know the robber's past behavior, and what promise is there that today, he won't panic and shoot someone?
The reality is that the employee feared for the lives of his co-workers and customers. Thus, he used the means at hand to protect them, and did so successfully without discharging his firearm. Inasmuch as he did not break the law, and used restraint, who, having not walked in his shoes that day, can criticize his actions?
If Autozone displayed some wisdom, they would have fired him to satisfy their poorly thought-out policy, and then rehired him immediately.
Here's a true example of corporate stupidity. A mid-size specialty defense company, a subsidiary of a larger corporation, had a zero tolerance policy for work place violence. You strike or fight with anyone on company property, and you're terminated. No exceptions. Their leading defense sales guy was assaulted in the office by a drunk janitor with a knife. He defended himself, wrestling the janitor to the floor and restraining him until the police arrived. The janitor was charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. However, the company fired the salesman for fighting in the work place. No reasonable argument would deter the enforcement of policy, which did not even allow for self defense from a deadly attack. The salesman was hired by a competitor. Some important customers, having heard of the incident, took their business to the competitor, following the sales rep. The company, having lost considerable business, failed to make their numbers by almost 40%. Within 18 months, Corporate decided to close the subsidiary and move the balance of the work 600 miles to another subsidiary. 365 employees lost their jobs... The unfairly treated sales guy? He's now VP of Business Development for the competitor.
Stupid is as stupid does....
(edit for grammar)
