http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/sw_mich/judge-upholds-firing-of-armed-Walgreens-pharmacist
Back in May, 2011 Pharmacist Jeremy Hoven was working for Walgreens in Benton Harbour MI when he was confronted by a armed robber. Jeremy had in his possession a firearm that he was licensed to carry. The confrontation with the robber, resulted in Jeremy having to pull his pistol and discharge it to protect himself, the employees and customers in the store.
No one was harmed, but the robber elected to flee the scene. Walgreen’s response to this heroic effort… THEY FIRED HIM… quoting company policy about not carrying a firearm in the store.
Here is a post that I made about it https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=1027
and here is a quote from a news release about the incident…
From the article:
We’ve made significant investments in security technology in recent years, including increasing the number of digital surveillance cameras at our stores,” the company said. “We continue to invest in state-of-the-art security measures and high-definition surveillance equipment and hope that the apprehension of robbery suspects in the Benton Harbor area will prevent future crimes.”
From this quote from the Walgreen’s spokesperson… catching the robbery suspect is the most important thing that they can do.. Of course, if a employee or customer is killed/harmed in such an event… I am sure that the person harmed or the family of those who were killed will have great comfort in knowing that Walgreens’ “state of the art security measures” will (MAYBE) help in the apprehension of the guilty party.
AND.. just this past week… Auto Zone fired an employee that noticed that there was a robber at the front register… left the store by a rear door… retrieved a gun that he was licensed to carry from his car .. and foiled the robber in progress.. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/autozone-employee-and-veteran-fired-for-using-his-gun-to-ward-off-armed-robber/
Apparently this Auto Zone employee was a veteran .. which one would presume was well trained in handling a firearm.. It is shameful that this veteran was good enough to protect our way of life.. but .. not good enough to protect the employees of Auto Zone.
There is a lesson for all corporate employees…
* The reputation of your employer is more important than the life of any employee or customer..
* You need to know the corporate policy and procedure manual forward and backwards.. and when management asks/tells you to do something that is against the company’s P&P .. that the company has demonstrated that they have “zero tolerance” for their P&P being broken. If management wants P&P broken then he/she should be reasonable that HR be asked to fire those involved in requesting that you violate the company’s P&P. Zero tolerance is zero tolerance !
Filed under: General Problems
[…] Of course, if this had been a chain employee.. the RPH… would only had the option to “smile for the store video camera”.. so that the corporation can help arrest those who would kill/harm their employees or customers… or as some other chain RPH’s have found… protect yourself from a armed robber and you get fired https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=2412 […]
I’m sorry to hear his case didn’t end in his favor. Hoven’s story was one I wrote about as well and I received a flood of responses supporting him. It’s a shame corporations can just fire someone like that after what should be his right to defend himself. I read about the AutoZone story on a gun forum the other day. That is another story that makes me angry. Both these stories are just a sign of the times I’m afraid.
I would absolutely want pharmacist Jeremy on my team. He cared enough about human life to protect his life and the lives of his co-workers. Things could have turned out very differently had he not been responsibly armed.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/23/new-york-pharmacy-shooting-suspects-wife-did-it/