Five gallon buckets at the newest Academy Sports + Outdoor store Oct. 6, 2016, in Pearland. ( James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle ) (Photo by James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Michelle Sutton, along with two other unidentified workers at the Academy Sports + Outdoors in Metairie, Louisiana, said that the shoplifting incident happened Dec. 16.
The sales associates said that they thought they were about to make a sale and were showing a customer a pistol, when he took off with the firearm.
“I just took off,” Sutton told local TV news station WGNO. “I knew I needed some form of way to help the police.”
The Jefferson Parish Sherriffs Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Sutton said that they were let go due to Academy Sports + Outdoors policy on loss prevention, which states that employees are not allowed to chase or physically restrain a fleeing person suspected of theft.
“Because we did run out of the building, even though I and the other associate did stay on the sidewalk, it fell under [that] we left the front porch, as they call it,” Sutton explained.
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Katy, Texas, based Academy Sports + Outdoors did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
