Grocery manager tries to get firefighter arrested for shoplifting after responding to call

Firefighters from Engine 38 got a surprise on Wednesday when they got paged to a structure fire in the middle of grocery shopping. They got a second surprise when upon their return to the store the manager called the police.

According to the police reports Tony Hillsabeck, Manager at Richards’s Fine Grocery, felt the firefighters were trying to pull some scam on him. After about a thirty second investigation responding officers refused to make an arrest.

Mr. Hillsabeck had filed a complaint against both the police and fire departments.

“This is a clear case of theft. Those firefighters filled two carts with food, some of it meats and frozen items. They then took off from the store without an explanation to any of my employees. The carts were left in the middle of an isle. The meat got warm and the frozen items melted. I don’t know what the scheme is but they were trying to con this store somehow.”

Battalion Chief Earl Young explains why they left. “We got a call to a structure fire. When that happens we don’t have time to flag down an employee and explain what is happening, we just run out the door. At most every other grocery store in town the manager knows enough to find our cart and put it in the back room walk-in coolers. We always come back and we always pay.”

Manager Hillsabeck is not happy with that explanation. “Look I am no idiot… I took a class in Business Law when I was working on my MBA. I also took Intro to CJ as an elective credit as an undergrad. I know how the legal system works. They left perishable items out that now can not be resold, that is theft and I demand they be charged.”

The police officers involved are not allowed to go on record due to the complaint filed against them. One officer, off the record, did how ever share how the FD would now do all their grocery shopping at competitor grocery stores.