Morrisons manager Sean Egan branded ‘hero’ sacked for tackling shoplifter
A Morrisons manager who was sacked for tackling a shoplifter who spat in his face, has been branded a ‘hero’.
Support is flooding in for a former Morrisons manager who was sacked for tackling a shoplifter. Sean Egan has been branded a ‘hero’ by his local MP after losing his job of nearly thirty years.
The 46-year-old was dismissed as the local branch manager at the Morrisons store in Aldridge after he challenged a serial shoplifter who spat in his face while trying to steal alcohol. Wendy Morton, the MP for Aldridge-Brownhills near Walsall in the West Midlands, wrote an open letter to the chief executive of the supermarket, Rami Baitieh.
The letter, posted on social media, read: “Throughout my tenure as the Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills I have worked with Sean on a number of occasions, and I have always found him to be diligent and most pleasant. I was therefore shocked to learn that he had been dismissed for apprehending a shoplifter.
“Sean has been a loyal employee of your company for some two decades, and I believe Morrisons should rethink this position, and re-instate him to his former position forthwith. I believe it is incumbent upon retailers to support their staff when taking a stand against criminal activity and not to punish them in such manner.”
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was “bewildered” by the case. He said: “If (store managers) feel able to intervene and they feel they can do that safely, we always want them to do that. We want the public to be part of the fight against crime.”
Mr Egan told Good Morning Britain: “The support I’ve had from the nation is outstanding. I lost my job of 29 years with Morrisons because I was in a challenging situation where a shoplifter spat at me several times.
“I reacted in a way where I had to defend myself and I was put in a situation where, not only to defend myself, but to ensure that the customers and the staff around me, that they were safe also.”
Mr Egan said the shoplifter was “strong as a bear” and “aggressive” before they had an altercation and “clashed heads” in December.
In a media statement, a Morrisons spokesperson said: “We have very clear guidance, procedures and controls in place to protect our colleagues and customers from the risk of harm, which must be strictly followed. These include detailed procedures for handling shoplifting incidents, which are in place to protect both the colleague involved and surrounding colleagues and customers, and which seek to de-escalate and calmly control the situation.”