‘A Better Defense Than Your Favorite NFL Team’: Viral Video Of Best Buy Employees Forming NFL-Style Defense To Stop Shoplifters

A video went viral on Monday showing a group of Best Buy employees rushing into an NFL-style line defense attempting to stop three would-be shoplifters from exiting the store.

Security footage from the store showed the would-be shoplifters ripping out cell phones from a display table, which prompted seven employees to rush in front of the exit doors and form a line while squatting with their arms raised, blocking them.

“While one hooded thief appears to have got away slightly before the linebackers formed their D-line, the other two bounced on their feet and then tried to run to the side before they were tackled,” Newsweek reported.

This Best Buy has a better defense than your favorite NFL team pic.twitter.com/pBlilzeAj9

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) May 9, 2022

Best Buy employees lined up in cover 3 defense to stop them from leaving pic.twitter.com/ywCZJtq5Um

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 9, 2022

In September 2020, Best Buy employee Summer Tapasa-Sataraka, 24, wrestled down a thief at the store in Waimulu, Hawaii, but was later fired for violating Best Buy’s shoplifting policy. UFC president Dana White saw the video of the incident and flew her to Las Vegas in January to see Conor McGregor’s victory over Donald Cerrone, where he offered her a job as a staffer as a security guard for the league.

Social media users praised the seven Best Buy employees for their quick response with comments such as these, according to The Daily Mail:

You got to give credit to the game plan, preparation, and execution.

7 dudes lined up with the bend but don’t break defense. Classic. You even got one guy going so fast he’s is turning into a phantom. I can see the soda machine through his body thanks to his 99 speed.

This dude don’t care. He’s trying show he’s in a good tackling stance for the league. 

This guys lateral movement is elite.

Mfs study this play all day at orientation.

The speed of the safety coming over the top is elite.

I was most impressed by the fella in the black shirt, comes in and just blows the whole play up, blue shirt across from him does a great job of being disciplined and setting that edge.

Best buy defense is better than Brooklyn Nets.

But others disagreed:

Back in my days at BBY you didn’t touch thieves unless you wanted to deal with corporate trying to shitcan you for putting the store at risk… especially not people trying to snatch company-provided demo units that likely aren’t even legit phones with useable IMEIs.’

If you’re a Best Buy employee, are you really going to try and stop these guys? For what?

If that was me, I’m not stopping those kids. I’m not putting my life or health at risk for a gigantic box store like Best Buy that has insurance for these kind of incidents.

How valuable is a stolen phone that can’t be activated on any network?

Whether or not the would-be shoplifters were ultimately apprehended has not been clarified.