The son of a Home Depot worker who died after confronting a shoplifter last year says there needs to be "consequences" for these crimes, which are at an all-time high according to some retail experts.
Employee Gary Rasor asked a shoplifter for a receipt as he was exiting a North Carolina Home Depot store last October when the 26-year-old suspect Terry McMillian Jr. violently shoved him to the floor. Rasor died from his injuries a few weeks later after turning 83 years old.
Jeff Rasor told ABC's "Nightline" on Thursday that his father Gary loved his job and never dreamed it would endanger his life.
Rasor wants authorities to crackdown on the growing threat of organized retail crime rings, ABC reported. Law enforcement and retailers say these criminals have become more violent.
"There has to be consequences in my mind, and the consequences have to fit the crime," he said. "I can't imagine that any piece of equipment in Home Depot is worth a life -- and so when you find out it's $837, it's just pretty bad."
Rasor believed his father would rather see the man who fatally shoved him be doing something productive with his life rather than sitting in jail. But he also thinks his father would want people to realize how dangerous these crimes have become.
"I would like very much for people to understand that my dad would want, right, people to focus on this and say, 'we’ve finally gone too far,'" he told "Nightline."
The man who shoved Rasor has been charged with robbery and first degree murder and his case is currently pending, the Hillsborough Police Department said.
MULTIPLE HOME DEPOT THIEVES NABBED AMID WAVE OF ORGANIZED RETAIL CRIME
Just a few months after the attack on Rasor, another Home Depot worker was killed by a shoplifter in California.
Loss prevention worker Blake Mohs, 26, intervened to stop 32-year-old Benicia Knapps from stealing at a Bay Area store last April when he was shot during the struggle. He was due to marry his fiancée on Aug. 12, according to his wedding website.
Home Depot's Vice President of Asset Protection Scott Glenn told ABC that emboldened criminals have become more violent.
"More and more we're seeing the risk being brought into the stores, and people being hurt or people even being killed in many cases because these folks, they just don't care about the consequence," Glenn said.
Organized crime also impacts consumers' pocketbooks through worsening inflation.
Retailers told ABC that the estimated losses from theft results in the average American family spending an extra $500 a year.
"It's growing double-digit, year after year," Glenn said, costing the home repair company "billions" of dollars.
Like many retailers, Home Depot has locked up items frequently targeted by shoplifters, as well as employed more security cameras and guards. The business has also started adding tracking technology to items to deter criminals.
But Glenn argued that certain parts of the country weren't taking the growing problem "seriously," and called on law enforcement and Congress to take action.
"There are certain parts of certain states that have taken it very seriously. But there are other pockets of the country where this problem still is not taken seriously day in and day out," Glenn said.
