Depending on the state the (ex)employee is in, it can be illegal to withhold wages of any reason not prior authorized by the employee. As this was an involuntary termination(firing) the employee likely did not known it was coming. Depending on how she was normally paid it may have required payment at time of termination(depending on state again) so the employer may not have been able to deduct anything from a final check already processed/created.

With that said, everything ever in any company, security and HR basics book ever says you let the person walk with something and if you want to pursue theft charges you do so as a company. Most companies know people who are being fired experience a lot of emotions and it can put them in a state where they may act unpredictably. It may escalate into violence, retaliation by the (ex-employee), cause a scene, etc., none of which are anything approaching "worth it" for a company unless you're talking about trade secrets or the like and not a $1.14 vest. Many employees/humans, when given the chance to take a breath and leave the situation would have returned the vest, but being treated like a caged animal yields predictable results for corporations who sees their employees as such.

Horrifying and unsurprising from Walmart where customers are/were funneled into violence chutes(black Friday) to save $50 on TVs each year with no thought to the bigger picture or safety basics.

In a world where cops will harass individuals to stop them from being able to serve the owners of a store and shit like section 1201 of the DMCA exists, giant corporations will find a way to inflate a civil issue into a criminal one.

I have two of them. I worked for Walmart for about six months when they swapped the dark blue vests for the light blue ones. I initially got one dark blue vest, but they gave me a light blue one, and never asked for either back even after I finished out my two weeks. Why is this only just now a thing?...

They are taught nothing else.

They get taught things like Killology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grossman_(author)

because they exist for the purpose of protecting capital.

They get to kill with impunity. You miss every shot you don't take, so escalate!

• Michael scrote

Poor quality or no training because there are no training and education standards & no filtering for violent candidates

poor quality or no internal affairs oversight to prosecute unnecessary escalation and police crimes

police unions that abuse the idea of worker unions to protect police from facing charges for committing crimes while wearing a badge

no charges for turning off body cams during arrests or interrogations

immunity laws that privilege police to protect them from facing liability for crimes they commit while on the clock

failure to hold trainers and leaders accountable for the ill prepared and violent individuals they pay to put on the street with a badge who constantly escalate

no licensing to revoke so when a violent criminal is fired they can move a state or county over and get hired into police again

I think they get a higher score the more they act like a complete douche and shitrag. Unsure what the score is for but seems to be a safe assumption

It's not about the vest. It's about making sure the people know they are nothing

MFs won't stop buying in Walmart because of this.

Nice, got the shitty 🟫🟥🟩🟦⬜ rainbow collected

There is no fucking way that those vests cost Walmart more than like $2 each

Child labor that people jump to defend because it somehow normalized.

A teenager who was employed by that store? Its pretty self-explanatory.

A 16 year old employee. Or simply, an employee.

Discrimination isnt helping no one, the problem is unfair treatment of workers.

https://xcancel.com/omoelerinjare1/status/2064014387883753919

Agreed, but nobody should be arrested for this. Just issue her a fine or something.

Eat shit homie???