Hmm. (1) Speaking as someone who works in grocery retail, I can say that Acadia most likely -did- see all the action. Until someone steps through the doors and outside the store, you can't really make a charge of theft stick. You either catch them at the door or just outside, where the 'but I forgot I had it' and the 'I was on my way to pay for it' bullshit is worthless. If the lady in question had struck store security -inside- the store, they would have stopped her and had her arrested for assault. And drunk or sober, shoplifters do try and not draw too much attention to themselves; It makes the job harder... (2) The Rambo Run is heavily discouraged, for the simple reason that you never know when someone will pull out a piece and shoot their pursuer....or the asshole in the getaway car might decide to run down the pursuer....and any soccer moms and little kids who happen to be in the way (the lawsuits from =that= would eclipse the loss of merchandise by quite a few orders of magnitude...and as it comes out of corporate's piggy bank and not the store's.....) (3) The Vic Mackey wanna-be might very well have been an off-duty cop; many moonlight in 'soft' jobs like that to supplement the income. In which case he could be in very deep shit, depending on if the thief pushes brutality charges and witnesses corroborate. If it was a rent-a-cop, then he could very well lose his job, and deservedly so. (4) Acadia, if you want to pursue this, write a letter to a). the actual store, b) Safeway corporate, and c), provide a written statement to the local police if neccesary. If this guy's one of their own, they may cover for him...but also let him know that he was out of line big time. If he was a rent-a-cop with anger management issues, they will want to know, as that type can make a bad situation much worse. Send the first two letters for sure, and be ready to give that written statement (but you might just settle things with the letters; corporate is not going to like the image of their security beating up an unarmed woman 2 on 1). And don't be afraid to be specific in what you saw, or use proper medical terminology. Establish the fact that you know what you are talking about.