When I worked at Kmart years ago I was just a layaway employee. Since I was kind of fat and and of average height, the security guy asked me to stand-in while he dealt with this huge dude, maybe 6’3", as some kind of intimidation tactic while he asked him questions. My job was apparently to block the security office door to prevent the guy from leaving. Security guy starts asking about warrants and the guy is like “Fuck this” and rapidly approaches me at the door. Towering over me. This job paid minimum wage and I had zero training to deal with Brute Squads. I just let him go past me while the security guy desperately chased after him, asking him to stop repeatedly.
Security guy talked a lot of shit about me after that. Couldn’t give less of a fuck. Not my job to get knocked out by giant dudes who got caught trying to steal a pair of Basic Edition sweat pants.
Obviously this has nothing to do your situation or how you handled it, but it definitely speaks volumes about what the point of Security even is if the train security officers can’t even do anything.
EDIT: Looking back, that job was pretty fucked. It was on the bad side of town and Sears Holdings wound up getting rid of security entirely. Word got out extemely fast and it became a free-for-all for shoplifters. Groups of middle-aged women would come in with huge purses, fill them to the brim and casually walk out, laughing and saying “Nothin’ for us today, thank you!”. Got to the point where friendly deterrent didn’t even help. We just stopped giving a shit. I had been threatened with violence over refunding a TV that had been forced into a back seat so hard that the box still had red paint on it, had a gun flashed at me over making eye contact with a dude I recognized, and used to have to chase a kid around who would ride the bikes, steal candy and kick fragile shit off of shelves. That job is why I will never work at a department store again. Picked up some great customer service skills, though.
When I worked at Kmart years ago I was just a layaway employee. Since I was kind of fat and and of average height, the security guy asked me to stand-in while he dealt with this huge dude, maybe 6’3", as some kind of intimidation tactic while he asked him questions. My job was apparently to block the security office door to prevent the guy from leaving. Security guy starts asking about warrants and the guy is like “Fuck this” and rapidly approaches me at the door. Towering over me. This job paid minimum wage and I had zero training to deal with Brute Squads. I just let him go past me while the security guy desperately chased after him, asking him to stop repeatedly.
Security guy talked a lot of shit about me after that. Couldn’t give less of a fuck. Not my job to get knocked out by giant dudes who got caught trying to steal a pair of Basic Edition sweat pants.
Obviously this has nothing to do your situation or how you handled it, but it definitely speaks volumes about what the point of Security even is if the train security officers can’t even do anything.
EDIT: Looking back, that job was pretty fucked. It was on the bad side of town and Sears Holdings wound up getting rid of security entirely. Word got out extemely fast and it became a free-for-all for shoplifters. Groups of middle-aged women would come in with huge purses, fill them to the brim and casually walk out, laughing and saying “Nothin’ for us today, thank you!”. Got to the point where friendly deterrent didn’t even help. We just stopped giving a shit. I had been threatened with violence over refunding a TV that had been forced into a back seat so hard that the box still had red paint on it, had a gun flashed at me over making eye contact with a dude I recognized, and used to have to chase a kid around who would ride the bikes, steal candy and kick fragile shit off of shelves. That job is why I will never work at a department store again. Picked up some great customer service skills, though.