By Alexandra Nickel-Milstone, News Correspondent

Wollaston’s manager Bob Peredna picked up on a customer’s siezure before it started earlier this week, preventing a bad situation from getting worse. Peredna keeps a close eye on his store, and is just as good at catching thieves.

“We have video surveillance,” Peredna said.  “I can go back quite a ways, but I do not stop anyone unless I am 100 percent sure [they stole something].”

Most would-be thieves are cooperative once Peredna confronts them, he said, but some try to escape.

Peredna remembered one instance a few years ago when he stopped a Northeastern student as he was leaving the store.  The student denied the allegation and punched Peredna before running through the Marino center back to his dorm. Peredna called NUPD, gave them a full description and a look at the security tape. The police found the student and prosecuted him.

Peredna’s success in catching shoplifters comes partly from the Massachusetts Shoplifting Statute. It states that a customer does not have to leave the store’s premises as a precondition to a conviction of larceny. So long as customers conceal merchandise they do not intend to pay for, they can be prosecuted.

Verneisha Vivira, who has worked for Peredna for about a year, said he is fair with everyone – even those who try to steal from the store.

“If someone unintentionally [steals something], they are usually receptive to it when I explain that they cannot conceal items,” Peredna said.  “I do not have to wait, though; once [an item] is concealed, I can approach them.”

Most of the merchandise stolen from the store consists of small, petty items, Peredna said. Items range form medicine, like Tylenol, Advil and Aspirin, to sandwiches.

Despite these occurrences, Peredna has still managed to form close relationships with his regular customers. Regular customers and store employees know Peredna not as the manager who chases down thieves, but as a fair and organized store manager.

“He is very systematic and organized,” cashier Ankitha Rao said.

On Tuesday, during an interview with The News, a regular customer who Peredna is friendly with approached the counter, and when Peredna tried to have a conversation with him, the man was unresponsive.

“I know him pretty well,” Perenda said, “so when he was not talking or responding, I knew something was wrong.”

Perenda went around the counter and helped when the man began to have a seizure. Peredna safely eased him to the ground and kept him calm while NUPD officers and Northeastern medics arrived on the scene.