LOS ANGELES—A former shift manager at the Walgreens store in Huntington Park is suing the pharmacy store chain, alleging she was wrongfully fired in 2023 for calling the police on a person she suspected of being a shoplifter and who later threatened to file a lawsuit.
Marisela Ramos’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges wrongful termination, retaliation and failure to provide a safe place of employment. Ms. Ramos seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A Walgreens representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Jan. 5.
Ms. Ramos was hired as a shift manager in September 2004 and often dealt with unsafe work conditions due to shoplifters, looters, and hostile customers at the Pacific Boulevard store, the suit states.
Last July, a Ms. Ramos co-worker told the plaintiff that someone in the store could be a shoplifter, the suit states.
“Plaintiff stared at this suspected shoplifter to determine whether this person was indeed shoplifting,” according to the suit.
Noticing Ramos’s gape, the suspected shoplifter began yelling at the plaintiff, then approached Ms. Ramos and said he “would be waiting for her outside,” according to the suit, which further states that Ms. Ramos called the police “in fear of her and everyone in the store’s safety.”
The police dispatcher heard the alleged shoplifter yelling and told Ms. Ramos to remain on the line until police arrived, which they did shortly thereafter and arrested the man, the suit states.
In September 2023, a Walgreens asset protection specialist told Ms. Ramos that the suspected shoplifter was threatening to sue the company, the suit states. That same month, after Ms. Ramos began her work shift, her supervisor fired her for calling the police on the accused shoplifter, according to the suit.
Ms. Ramos has suffered financial losses and experienced emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, and embarrassment since being fired, the suit states.
