Conservatives<\/a> reaffirmed their commitment to \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d protections for employees like retail staff and bus drivers in instances like this one. Shadow Justice Minister Kieran Mullan said that \u201cpunishing people who step in to stop crime is wrong\u201d and said people doing the \u201cright thing\u201d were being punished.<\/p>\nAnd Reform UK leader Nigel Farage responded to Mr Smith\u2019s story on X, saying: \u201cWe are now a country that favours criminals over law enforcers. Britain is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Why did I do that’<\/p>\n
After the altercation with the shoplifter, Mr Smith told the Guardian: “\u201cWhen I got home, I was punching myself and thinking: \u2018Why did I do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling the incident during the interview, Mr Smith said: \u201cI tried to stay strong and I didn\u2019t say a word, but inside I was crying. They led me out the back door by the bins. I just felt demoralised.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWaitrose is like my family. My friends are there. I was there for 17 years, I must have been doing something right. I\u2019m not a bad or violent or aggressive person. I just got frustrated seeing this day in and day out and not seeing Waitrose do much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Smith has reportedly been diagnosed with anxiety, which he said his managers were aware of.<\/p>\n
Waitrose defends stance<\/p>\n
Waitrose has said the \u201csafety and security\u201d of their workers and customers is the reason they have policies in place to stop actions like those of Mr Smith.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Press Association, they said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had incidents where our Partners have been hospitalised when challenging shoplifters. Luckily, they have always recovered, but that might not always be the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a serious danger to life in tackling shoplifters. We refuse to put anyone\u2019s life at risk and that\u2019s why we have policies in place that are very clearly understood and must be strictly followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing we sell is worth risking lives for. The reporting on this does not cover the full facts of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
They noted that while they would not discuss Mr Smith\u2019s case specifically, the \u201ccorrect process\u201d was followed, including an appeals procedure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waitrose has continued to defend sacking an employee who stopped a thief in a store despite mounting criticism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,3519,3631,3188,3630],"class_list":{"0":"post-6923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-clapham-junction","10":"tag-mr-smith","11":"tag-waitrose","12":"tag-walker-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116354262167189646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Waitrose](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0d9c67c431b48acdd34eb0ce509b1989.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n