A Georgia Lowe’s employee attempted to stop shoplifters making off with $2,100 amount of merchandise, leaving her unemployed and with a black eye.
Donna Hansbrough, 68, saw three people loading up a shopping cart at a store in Rincon, about 30 minutes north of Savannah, and then leave without stopping to pay, police said.
The veteran employee then grabbed onto the cart allegedly being pushed by Takyah Berry — who slugged the older woman in the face three times, according to authorities.
Berry, who was with her uncle, Joseph Berry and another man police identified as Jarmar Lawton, then made off with the goods, the Rincon Police Department said in a news release.
Hansbrough was then canned from her job of 13 years for violating company policy by interfering with the crooks, according to a report.
“They say that if you see somebody stealing something out the door, not to pursue, not to go out. I lost it,” Hansbrough told the Effingham Herald.
“I grabbed the cart. I don’t actually remember going out but I did. And I grabbed the cart that had the stolen items in [it].”
The former store employee said she became overwhelmed by instinct, but never thought her employer would let her go.
“I didn’t expect to get terminated,’ she told the Herald.
“Maybe a reprimand or a suspension.
“I just got tired of seeing things get out the door. I just, I lost it. I basically lost all the training. Everything they tell you to do, I just…I just lost it.”
Hansbrough is currently looking for a new job.
“I can’t sit at home. I’m not that type of person,” she told the Herald.