Grandmother Jane Pilborough, 62, was sacked for gross misconduct after she tried to stop a teenager leaving a Newark Morrisons with ‘chicken bites’ in hidden in his pockets
A karate-trained Morrisons worker has been sacked after 30 years of service – for tackling a teenage shoplifter. Bosses of the popular supermarket chain said Jane Pilborough put the company’s reputation at risk for failing to follow their “deter-not-detain” policy.
Grandmother Jane, 62, was the only staff member who tried to stop the young thief from smuggling chicken bites out of the Newark store in his pockets.
She claims to have followed the company’s guidelines and tried to persuade him to go back and pay for the food. But when the crook got near the exit, he “made a sudden movement” and her “natural instinct” caused her to grab hold of his backpack.
She says she can’t recall what happened next as she entered “fight or flight mode”, but CCTV footage showed the teen spinning to shake her off before she fell to the ground.
Jane said she thought the thief was 18 or 19 years old, but it later transpired he was 14 or 15. She suffered minor injuries to her hand and knee and was helped to the canteen by her colleagues.
Days later, supermarket bosses started disciplinary proceedings against her and she was sacked for gross misconduct in August 2024 despite having a 30-year unblemished record.
Jane, who was accused of trying to yank him back into the store in what was described as a “tug of war”, told the Daily Mail she felt like she had been dumped on the scrapheap, adding: “I still feel resentful of the way I was treated.”
She was acting team leader and was heard her duty manager call on headsets asking staff to intervene when a group of youths were suspected of shoplifting.
She added: “The term she [the duty manager] used was that there was somebody in the store who had concealed. She actually stated that she wanted him stopping, and she said to block the doors.
“Obviously, this was for everybody on a headset. But security didn’t respond. I found myself in an impossible situation where I saw the individual just walk straight through one of the checkouts past the last point of payment”
It comes after former Morrison’s store manager Sean Egan publicly shared his account of being sacked after tackling a repeated shoplifter.
Referring to Sean’s sacking, Jane added: “I thought ‘yeah, it’s still happening. They’re still getting rid of people’. I mean, I wasn’t the only one.”
A spokesperson for Morrison’s told the Mail: “We recognise that difficult situations like this can cause real challenges for colleagues in store.
“That’s why, when dealing with a shoplifter, a colleague’s safety is always the number one priority and why we have clear procedures in place to de-escalate incidents, to prevent any of our colleagues being put at risk in a physical struggle and coming to harm.
“We believe colleague safety always outweighs the protection of stock. We cannot ignore the potential for violence, and it is essential to remember that only the police are authorised to intervene in these situations.
“Unfortunately, the former colleague’s actions and the evidence to the disciplinary hearing showed that, although she had been trained on how to respond to a theft situation safely just a few weeks before the incident, she did not follow that procedure and that led to a physical altercation with a juvenile shoplifter.
“The matter was investigated thoroughly and, regretfully, the recommendation of the disciplinary panel was that she be dismissed. This was upheld on appeal.”