Toys R US evacuated for Fraud Suspect by SWAT

Okay...not sure really what to say about this incident that began just a few hours ago. The suspect is in custody currently but the response to a fraud call from a mall is a little bit out there. They closed down the road, called in tactical units (all sources originally reported these teams as SWAT) all for a guy who ran across a highway after getting caught for fraud at a shopping mall. Images in the new stories don't show a lot of police officers but according to one of the news reports, the "tactical units" were behind the store. Another report declares the man had a gun when there was no report of whether the man was armed or not and their own reporter stated that later in the same footage.

So, this wasn't a case of some obviously armed guy running into a store. Pretty heavy handed response for a fraud suspect though. It's also very interesting that the news articles changed from reporting it as SWAT in the title to "police" or "tactical units" except for the Oregonlive and KATU links. Bad PR, I guess.

www.koin.com...
www.oregonlive.com...
www.kptv.com...
www.katu.com...

reply to post by WhiteAlice


This is getting quite pathetic. A SWAT swoop for fraud.

Yesterday it was SWAT hits Alaska gold miners for water violation.

Before that it was SWAT for a shoplifter.

And before that... well too many to list. However we should continue to post new threads for each asinine escapade they pull just so we have an undeletable list. The SWAT clowns are out in force and the US will continue to suffer.

Stealing money from TPTB is VERY serious ya know, they'll chase you all around the world for it.
Killing someone - no probs.

Isn't there a good chance they knew who he was and the guy has a history of violence? Seems premature to act like the cops were being overzealous.

A lot of the guys committing fraud are well known to Loss Prevention teams. They see the guy come in, know him, call the cops and the cops respond. If the guy is dangerous it makes sense to deploy SWAT. We were allowed to apprehend people for fraud, but if there was someone that was known to carry a gun or something they wouldn't want us fighting with them on the floor so we had to call police to arrest them.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


I'm fighting a knee jerk reaction to get pissed at the absurdity of not only the situation, but the response from the police as well. But rather than open my mouth ans say something stupid, I'll opt to hang back and see how it plays out. I hate giving blanket judgements, but its very tempting.

flagged it. Ill star it too as soon as i can figure out this insane new interface..

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Yawn... This is getting to be tiresome. (not the post or the OP but this scenario)

They deploy SWAT for shoplifters, fraudsters, etc...

If someone is dangerous, apprehend them with ordinary police or are they too valuable to endanger? We all know they think they are but when did we choose to agree with that assessment?

Seems like SWAT teams cost more and take longer to deploy to me.

reply to post by greencmp


SWAT gets to stroke ego with everyone dressing up like a hard core Devgru or Delta operators with a bunch of new high speed and unnecessary gear ,tactical beards included.

Now everyone that didn't make it into SF from their position as ARMY cook became a cop and joined SWAT. Now they can take the boot to Haji here in America!!

Wait.........Not Haji...I mean Americans.. I should have seen that coming.

G. Gordon Liddy was right when he called Swat a bunch of Navy Seal wannabe's.

I do know some SWAT guys personally from my former job in security, and some are the real deal. The rest, well....they are what you would imagine a cosplay kid would be.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


My current theory on the rush to use SWAT for every little thing is this:

They're getting us used to it. Fairly soon, there will be no 'regular cops' but only SWAT looking cops. Just an opinion.

There was a swat raid on a guy in texas a few days ago after being in a domestic dispute with the wife and then she called the cops. Next thing you know swat team arrived and the guy managed to avoid them somehow. It was on the local news but then the story got dropped. Couldn't find it in the local google news.

What country do we live in?

Didn't you guys get the memo? First step is to deploy SWAT to every call possible. Second step is to start a new program called "Judge Dredd".

reply to post by Domo1


I understand the desire to have more information about the story, especially since another similar story turned out to have the individual being recognized as a violent offender. However, this particular suspect left the mall before police ever arrived and was spotted running across the highway by witnesses towards the Toys R Us.

The fraud suspect left before police could get there – and fled on foot across Oregon Highway 217 to a Toys R Us.

www.koin.com...

I actually worked with Loss Prevention a long time ago so yep, know the drill. However, even when one of the members of the team was stabbed several times by pursuing a shoplifter, they didn't call SWAT. Of course, that was 20 some odd years ago but yeah, SWAT wasn't called in and the individual was apprehended without them (and yes, the guard lived but was fired for pursuing the guy off-property). Having SWAT called in is not the normal for this particular area.

Let's put it this way...there was a bank robbery maybe 15 minutes down the highway this morning and there's no mention of SWAT being called in for that: www.oregonlive.com...

Next thing SWAT will deploy on is speeders, jaywalkers, illegal parking individuals.
Just wait til they serve you with a civil summons for child support, etc...