eight years in the U.S. Navy. Once he completed his eight years in the Navy, Ruger, his wife and their newborn moved from San Diego California back to his home city of Dallas Texas. Three days after leaving the Navy he went to work in Dallas as an adult probation officer for the State of Texas. His probation case load consisted completely of felons. The felony cases he supervised ranged from minor felonies to drug use, drug distribution, fraud, extortion, rape, murder as well as other felonies. Ruger and his wife, Lee-Ann, had made a plan when starting work with the State. Ruger would work for the state for one year and determine if he was going to work in the government sector or go to work in the private sector. Ruger had tested and processed with a number of government and state agencies and was waiting to determine which group he would work for. Ruger received several rejection letters so he reached out to find out to find out why he was being rejected. He received the same answer from several agencies related to why he was being rejected. He was told that even though his test scores were superb, his fitness tests went well and his psychological all went good he was not being hired because he was a white male. The agencies were focused on hiring racially diverse candidates and Ruger did not fit the bill. Once the year with the probation department was over Ruger went to work for an upscale national retailer. He started with the retailer as an internal investigator and promoted to the position of assistant loss prevention manager responsible for internal investigations, supply chain/logistics, physical security and credit card fraud. Ruger’s team faced a number of different types of crimes. One of the serious threats was the internal crook – the employee that always seemed to think he or she was entitled to certain goods. They also dealt with credit card thieves, cargo theft, fur theft, armed robberies and a vast assortment of other crimes. Ruger intended to stay with the retailer and eventually to retire with them. One day he received a phone call from a head-hunter wanting to discuss a manager’s position with another company in the Dallas area. Ruger was very loyal to his boss and found the phone call very unnerving. After several days Ruger told his boss, Gary Smith, about the call from the head-hunter. Gary informed Ruger that Gary was the one who gave the head-hunter Ruger’s name. Gary explained that it was his job to get Ruger promoted and that the company did not have a position to promote Ruger into nor did he see a promotional opportunity on the immediate horizon. Gary said that it was time for Ruger to promote and that Ruger would be foolish to not move on this position. Ruger followed Gary’s input, interviewed with the company and was hired as a Loss Prevention Manager by Lawson’s Emporium in Dallas Texas. Ruger and Lee-Ann thought the position at Lawson’s would be great for the family. The office was only two miles from their home which meant Ruger could make it home for lunch with his wife and with Elizabeth their baby daughter.
Ruger reported to work at Lawson’s in this newly created position with an understanding of several key elements. Lawson’s was a long-term American company that had 8,300 domestic store locations, they also had outlet stores, repair centers, hardware stores, credit centers, automotive repair stores and 500 distribution centers and warehouses across the United States. Ruger was responsible for all aspects of loss prevention and safety for the Dallas Logistics Center. The key elements were physical security, investigations, shortage reduction, inventory control and safety. Six weeks after Ruger was hired the company had also hired an LP Manager in Los Angeles by the name of Brandon Donoghue. Brandon and Ruger were told by their boss that both of them were test cases for the company. Prior to Brandon and Ruger beginning work with Lawson’s, when there were issues within the supply chain then the company would send store side loss prevention personnel to deal with the problem. All actions taken by store side personnel were reactive with zero thought at being proactive or long term solutions related to loss prevention issues. The company realized that specialization within the supply chain was needed so Brandon and Ruger were hired to determine what the real issues were and what programs were needed to move the company forward. Ruger had two bosses. He reported to, Kathy Moore, who was the Dallas Director of Operations. Ruger also reported to Samuel (Sammy) Black from the corporate office. Sammy was the Director of Loss Prevention for Supply Chain and Sammy also had two bosses. Sammy reported to the Vice President of Loss Prevention and he also reported to the President of Logistics. Brandon and Ruger spoke with each other every week but did not actually meet in person until they had worked together at Lawson’s for eight months. Brandon and Ruger were operating in uncharted waters for Lawson’s. Some of the cases that they would work made it seem like they were fighting fights in the old west.
From his first day at Lawson’s Ruger found a multitude of issues and challenges. Kathy had a number of questions and concerns related to loss prevention and how it would blend within the operational structure. Kathy was completely supportive from day one and was intrigued to have a specialist to deal with multitude of delicate issues. The good news for Ruger was that he did not have anyone who had served in this capacity prior to him. This meant that he was not being forced to follow someone who had established bad habits related to professional loss prevention, security or safety. Ruger had a security staff that encompassed eighteen Lawson security associates and a third party guard service that had responsibility for the inbound and outbound trailer security as well as trailer yard security.
Ruger uncovered two major issues within days of beginning with Lawson’s. The first thing that he discovered was related to the Lawson security associates. He noted on day one that the security associates all wore security uniforms that were identical to the local police department. The guards carried all of the same items on their belts that police officers carried except for guns. Ruger asked the guard supervisor, Russ, why the guards carried mace and handcuffs. Russ explained to Ruger that the guards needed these items in case they had a problem with an employee and were forced to subdue the employee. Russ further explained he defined a good day at the office when security was forced to chase down an employee. A great day was defined as a day when security chased down an employee and was able to physically fight an employee. Ruger told Russ that they were likely to have some problems with the philosophy that Russ described. Ruger thought about the situation and after three weeks brought the entire loss prevention team in for a meeting. Ruger collected everyone’s badge, handcuffs, mace and all other items on their belts. Ruger also told everyone that beginning the next day no one would be wearing one of the existing security uniforms. Going forward everyone would be wearing Docker pants and loss prevention golf shirts that Ruger had designed and purchased. Ruger passed out the new shirts to everyone on the team. Three people quit on the spot saying that they could not do the job without their badges, handcuffs and other items. Ruger accepted the resignations effective immediately and shared his philosophy with the team. He made it clear that this facility was one hundred percent staffed with employees and that everyone in the facility would be treated with the deepest respect.
The second issue that Ruger had to deal with was related to the third party guard service. Speedy Quick guard service was the true low-end guard provider in Dallas. It would have been nice to say that Lawson’s was getting what it paid for but that just was not true. Ruger lived very close to the facility which made it very easy for him to observe and drop in on the facility at all hours of the day and night. He had uncovered and addressed multiple times with Speedy Quick. Speedy Quick had not followed the policies and procedures as laid out by Ruger. One night around midnight Ruger stopped by to check on the guard. It happened to be during a particularly low volume level for the facility so there were only a few trailers on the property for the guard to watch. Ruger was able to drive onto the trailer lot, park his car and enter the guard shack without the guard even knowing that Ruger was present. Ruger found the guard in a rather compromising position with a lady. Ruger removed the guard from the property immediately and gave Speedy Quick one hour to send a supervisor to replace the guard. Ruger fired the guard service the following Monday and replaced the guards with his own people.
Ruger had been working at Lawson’s for about forty days when one of those “delicate” matters showed it’s ugly face. He was in his office working on a budget report when he received a radio call from one of the security associates. The guard stated that there was a workplace violence issue in the warehouse and that he needed immediate help. Ruger grabbed his radio and ran to the location in the order filling area of the warehouse. Ruger found a crowd of about twenty-five employees standing around and looking at a single, male employee. Matthew, the employee, had a large pair of cutting shears in his hand. Matthew
