Best Buy worker stops alleged thief and gets – you thought maybe a reward? Try fired

Meant to post this yesterday, but international events overtook the news for awhile. Now we’re back to normal, by which we mean the very strange crimes that show up on the websites and in the pages of Montana newspapers every day.

Here’s a classic from the Billings Gazette about a man named Roger Kline (in photo at right):

Until Tuesday, the 51-year-old Kline worked in the computer department at Best Buy in Billings. He had held the sales job for over three years, he said, and was among the store’s top performers without so much as a blemish on his employment record.

“I believe I was one of the highest-regarded employees there,” he said.

But Kline ran into problems on March 28 when a would-be thief tried to run out of the store with two laptop computers.

Kline said his instincts took over, and instead of letting the man dash away without paying for the $1,600 in merchandise, Kline grabbed him and threw him to the ground.

The man, 45-year-old Brent Carter Latendresse, was arrested and has been charged in Yellowstone County District Court with felony theft and misdemeanor drug possession.

Kline, however, got fired.

Apparently a company police says not to interfere with a crime in progress.

Gwen Florio