Son of Home Depot employee, 83, who was killed on the job calls for crackdown on rampant theft

The son of an elderly Home Depot employee who died after being pushed to the concrete floor by a serial shoplifter he tried to stop has called for a crackdown on the rampant theft that is on the rise across the country.

Gary Rasor, 83, died Dec. 1 after confronting the thief who stole three pressure washers worth $800 from the store’s garden center on Oct. 18.

Jeff Rasor said in a new interview with Night line his father would “just ask him for a receipt” for the attack and called on authorities to take tougher measures to deter thieves and end the rapid rise in organized retail crime.

His father had worked at the store in Hillsborough, North Carolina, for nine years and was in and out of the hospital in the weeks following the incident before being transferred to hospice care, where he celebrated his 83rd birthday.

Terry McAnthony McMillian Jr., 26, was arrested in January and charged with first-degree murder and robbery following Rasor’s death.

The grandfather confronted the suspect and held out his arm to stop the man from rolling away a cart full of stolen pressure washers.

He was seen on surveillance footage being pushed to the ground by the thief, who was dressed in a Calvin Klein hoodie and face mask.

Unable to walk, Rasor suffered a mild heart attack after the incident and died six weeks later as a result of the injuries.

His wife Yovone said she and her husband had plans to retire, travel and meet their new grandchild for the first time before his death.

Their son revealed that they had asked him to retire on his 80th birthday because there was no financial necessity to work, but he declined because he loved working at Home Depot so much.

He trained young employees and loved interacting with the customers, so he continued to work there for two years before the violent incident happened.

“He was just going to ask him for a receipt,” Jeff said ABC news.

It is believed that Rasor was attacked during organized retail crime, the large-scale theft of goods that are then illegally resold.

Jeff is calling on authorities to crack down on this growing trend, saying, “There has to be consequences in my mind, and the consequences have to fit the crime.

“I can’t imagine a device in Home Depot being worth a life — and so when you find out it’s $837, it’s just pretty bad.”

And he added that his father would like “appropriate measures” to be taken to discourage shoplifting and prevent people from taking up a life of crime.

Jeff spoke about the man accused of his father’s death and said, “Him [wouldn’t want] that this man will spend the rest of his life in prison.

“He’d rather that guy graduate from law school and get an internship somewhere.

‘That’s what he would like. But he’s not, he’s in prison.’

Another Home Depot employee in California was killed after confronting a shoplifter just five months after Rasor’s death.

Loss prevention worker Blake Mohs, 26, was shot in the chest in April and two people have been arrested on murder charges over his death.

It comes as law enforcement officials have warned of an increase in violent and brutal attacks as the number of organized retail crimes continues to rise.

Retailers are reporting a 26.5 percent increase in organized crime between 2020 and 2021, according to a report released by the National Retail Federation in April.

Home Depot’s vice president of asset protection told ABC News, “It’s growing in double digits year over year.

“We don’t have enough resources to act, [so] we need to prioritize the biggest impacts.

“Increasingly, we see the risk that the stores will be brought in, and that people will be injured or even killed in many cases because these people just don’t care about the consequences.”

In January, a Walmart employee was hit on the head after two thieves attempted to walk out of the store while shoving some shopping carts filled to the brim.

A thief stole more than $1,700 worth of goods from a Duane Reade in Manhattan last June before attacking two employees with a bicycle chain.

And two Lululemon employees were fired for “violating employee policies” after brazen thieves stole armfuls of expensive yoga gear and tried to stop them.

Shocking footage shows masked robbers snatching merchandise from the front of the store in Peachtree Corners, Atlanta, before running to their getaway car.

The incident took place in early May and the Lululemon store where assistant manager Jennifer Ferguson worked has been hit by a spate of robberies.

Jennifer and another employee named Rachel Rogers, who worked the front, claim they were released because they tried to stop them and “violated the employee handbook policy” not to interfere in a robbery.

Stores across the country have experienced a surge in crime and some major retailers have been forced to close stores over millions of dollars in losses as rampant thefts plague businesses.

Shoplifting has reached alarming levels and major retailers, including Target, Macy’s and Best Buy, are now making good on the threats to chain stores if crime is not reduced.

By 2021, retailers lost a total of $94.5 billion to shrink, a term used to describe theft and other forms of inventory loss. And the number of organized retail crime incidents rose 26.5 percent in the same year, according to the 2022 National Retail Security Survey.

Brutal daylight robberies and self-checkouts have also made it easier for people to walk out without paying for items.

Employees at a San Francisco Target store say they get stolen every 10 minutes.

Employees say they saw people actively “shoveling” goods into bags before leaving.

Goods, including trays of lipstick and nail polish, are cleared by shoplifters on a daily basis.