A loyal Waitrose shop assistant was sacked from his role at the shop’s Clapham Junction branch in south London after intervening to stop a thief stealing Easter eggs.
Walker Smith, 54, had worked for the supermarket chain for 17 years before losing his job following the incident.
The confrontation began when a customer alerted Mr Smith that someone had filled a Waitrose bag with the chocolate eggs, which sell for £13 each.
Mr Smith recognised the individual as someone who had previously stolen from the store.
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After deciding to intervene, the assistant seized the bag from the shoplifter, who immediately tried to reclaim it.
A brief tussle ensued until the bag tore apart, sending the Easter goods tumbling to the ground.
The shoplifter fled towards the exit as one of the chocolate bunnies shattered on the floor.
Mr Smith picked up a fragment and hurled it at some trolleys in frustration, but the loyal worker insisted he was not aiming at the thief.
A Waitrose worker of 17 years was sacked after stopping a shoplifter from stealing Easter eggs
|Despite his brave intervention, Mr Smith was reprimanded for the incident.
Staff at the store had been instructed not to confront people stealing goods, but the worker admitted that years of watching theft go unchallenged pushed him to act.
"I've been there 17 years. I've seen it happen every hour of every day for the last five years," he said.
Mr Smith described witnessing everyone from drug addicts to teenagers walking out with stolen items, adding: "We're not allowed to do anything."
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Walker Smith intervened in the raid, which attempted to steal items such as luxury chocolate bunnies
|GETTY
Days later, the loyal worker was summoned to a meeting with two store managers. Sensing what was coming, he made a final appeal to keep his job.
"Waitrose is like my family," Mr Smith told his bosses, but the dismissal went ahead regardless.
"I tried to stay strong, and I didn't say a word, but inside I was crying. They led me out the back door by the bins. I just felt demoralised," he told The Guardian.
His managers were aware that he suffers from diagnosed anxiety.
The veteran worker admitted that years of watching theft go unchallenged pushed him to act
|GETTY
Mr Smith now fears he could be made homeless, having only recently moved into his own studio flat after spending 25 years living with flatmates.
"I'm not too sure what's going to happen with this place now. I might be homeless. My confidence is on the floor right now," he said.
Retail theft cost an estimated £2billion last year, while more than 40 per cent of shop workers reported experiencing hostility or abuse in the past six months.
The rampant practice has led retail leaders to warn that thieves frequently operate "with impunity".
They have urged stronger action against record levels of shoplifting and warned that offenders have grown "more brazen, more organised and more aggressive" in their treatment of employees.
Jo Causon, who leads the Institute of Customer Service, representing 350 UK businesses, said there had been "no real engagement" from ministers on surging high-street crime, which she described as a serious threat to economic growth.
"We've got a workforce that is really frightened about going to work, which is not OK," she said.
A Waitrose spokesman told GB News: "The safety and security of our Partners and customers couldn’t be more important to us, and we have policies in place to protect both.
"We’ve had incidents where our Partners have been hospitalised when challenging shoplifters. Luckily, they have always recovered, but that might not always be the case.
"There is a serious danger to life in tackling shoplifters. We refuse to put anyone’s life at risk and that's why we have policies in place that are very clearly understood and must be strictly followed. As a responsible employer, we never want to be in a position where we are notifying families of a tragedy because someone tried to stop a theft. Nothing we sell is worth risking lives for.
"The reporting on this does not cover the full facts of the situation. While we would never be able to discuss an individual case, we can assure you the correct process is being followed, which includes a standard appeals procedure.
"We have campaigned for some time for more to be done to protect shop workers from offenders, including retail crime being made into a specific stand alone offence."