A King Soopers worker, Santino Burrola, recently captured three men fleeing the store he worked at with hundreds of dollars worth of laundry detergent on video.
Santino Burrola filmed the three shoplifters stealing the items on Father’s Day, June 18, around 6:40 p.m.
The video shows three men in a parking lot hastily transferring laundry detergent into a vehicle. Burrola approaches the vehicle with his phone recording, playfully taunting the thieves.
“Look at them stealing,” he says off-camera. “Really, bro? You gotta resort to this? The economy’s not that bad.”
Burrola followed the men outside to their car as the shoplifters hopped in the car and started to drive away. Burrola manages to pull off the aluminum foil covering the license plate.
In a statement, King Soopers said it values its hardworking associates, and “nothing could be more important than their safety and that of our customers.”
“We appreciate that, in this instance, their actions may have been well intended,” King Soopers said. “However, they violated the policies that are in place for everyone’s safety. Nothing in our stores is worth sacrificing that core value and their safe return home.”
At a different King Soopers location in the same state, five employees were fired last year after restraining a man armed with a box cutter from stealing from inside that store. Surveillance video shows how they held the man down until police could arrive. They’ve since appealed their terminations.
The company told CBS Colorado it has “security measures in place to help prevent crime and deescalate such confrontations to minimize the risk to our associates.”
“While we cannot comment on personnel matters, we value our hardworking associates and their return home,” the company said.
In California, the state passed a bill to prohibit businesses from asking employees to confront shoplifters or active shooters has passed the state Senate, despite opposition from retailers who say it would add to the state’s escalating retail theft problem.
Under SB 553, employers would be prohibited from forcing their workers to confront active shoplifters and would set standards for companies of all kinds to address workplace violence prevention.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council applauded the California Senate for passing the legislation on May 31.
“It’s unacceptable that workers in California wake up each morning afraid that they will be assaulted or killed on the job and won’t make it home that night,” Jim Araby, director of strategic campaigns for UFCW Local 5, said in a statement.
Last year, Aurora lawmakers passed a law that would sentence shoplifters to 3 days in jail for more than $300 worth of stolen merchandise.
The proposal’s sponsor, Danielle Jurinsky, said the law is meant to support businesses that have become the victims of crime.
“This ordinance is really to start standing up for business owners in this city and start talking about the victims, and addressing something to help the victims, and stop doing everything in our power to help the criminals,” Jurinsky said.
Burrola posted an impromptu “press conference” on his TikTok account in which he provided both the questions and the answers.
Burrola said his employment with King Soopers limited his ability to engage with the shoplifters physically. He added that race did not motivate him to record the shoplifters.
“I didn’t see color when I confronted them. I’d seen criminals. White, black, brown, purple, It didn’t matter. A crime was being committed, wrong is wrong, and a crime is a crime,” Burrola said in an expletive-laden TikTok post.
“And for those of you that are like, ‘mind your business,’ let me tell you something: If something is happening right in front of me, I’m going to make it my business,” Burrola said.
