Kline landed on top of the man and intended to hold him there until police arrived.

But the store manager approached and told Kline to back off.

“Roger, you have to let him go,” Kline said he was told.

Kline followed his boss’s direction, while an unidentified customer took Kline’s place and held Latendresse until a police officer arrived.

Kline said he didn’t have time to think before he grabbed the fleeing thief, but he recalls clearly how he felt at the time.

“Someone steals from you, you stop them,” he said. “That’s the way I was brought up. I felt like the guy was stealing from me, not just the company. I guess I took it a little personal when I saw the guy run out of the store with two computers.”

The fallout

Kline says he knew better than to interfere with a crime-in-progress. It is against company policy at Best Buy to intervene in such cases. Kline said he accurately described his actions in a written statement he was asked to give by his boss the same day.

He was told that his actions would be reviewed.