Wrongfully Detained at Wal Mart

  • Thread starter Thread starter PreserveFreedom
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

PreserveFreedom

Guest
As much as I have supported Wal Mart, this is the second time a store has gone out of their way against policy to piss me off. I stopped to get a roll of tape on the way home from work. After waiting in line to pay, I was forced to wait in line to leave! They locked all but one door on my end of the store and made everyone wait single file while a half blind old woman drew a line on everyone's reciept. I didn't have a refrigerator or even a case of soda under my cart. I didn't even have a cart. I had one blue wal mart bag with one roll of Scotch tape in it. When I went to exit the other door, a clerk approached me with a tape gun that had a blade at the end! :eek: I was forced to wait about fiv minutes AFTER PAYING before I could leave. Their manager on duty, Eric, thought this was a laughing matter. Both calls to Wal Mart's corporate headquarters were taken very seriously though. They are supposed to have a real manager call me by next week to straighten things out. They cannot stop you from walking out of any exit unless it is designated as a fire exit only. The only way for them to legally detain or make an attempt to touch you is if they witness you commit a crime. Corporate headquarters understood this very well and couldn't understand why yet another moron manager of theirs would take it upon himself to create a new policy. Want to let Wal Mart know how you feel? Call 1-800-WAL-MART. Choose option 1, then option 3, then wait on the line. Say you were shopping at theTucson, AZ Super Wal Mart on Valencia when this happened.
 
I support mom and pop joints when I can. Sometimes it's not possible, sometimes it isn't convienent, it usually costs a little more, and mom and pop joints aren't open 24hrs. But when I can (which is more often than not) I go to a locally owned place. I vote with my dollars. We all do.
 
Another thing in the whole chain store thing... Big chain stores feel compelled to take sides on the issue of RKBA. Why they do this is beyond understanding. Kmart is eternally boycotted from my standpoint. But is Wal-Mart any better?

Three years ago I ordered a Ruger P-95 from a local Wal-Mart. It had to be ordered because they refused to put handguns on display. When I picked it up, I was told that I could not buy ammo for it. I was then escorted all the way to MY TRUCK with my new pistol like a common criminal. That particular Wal-Mart no longer offers special orders for handguns. Why? No given reason. Just a political whim.

Mom and pop joints could give a damn one way or the other. They don't issue public statements about RKBA. They don't just up and refuse to offer a service that they had provided in the past. They don't escort people to THEIR DAMN VEHICLES when they buy certain merchandise. They are usually friendly people, instead of a bunch of minny wagers who could care less if the place burned to the ground.

Screw Wal-Mart. I heard a rumor the other day that Wal-Mart is now filling out Brady papers for muzzleloader sales. No joke.
 
These jerks really have no sense of decency, ya know?
As for the manager that stopped you, I would have stomped on his instep and kept on truckin'. Eric would have wound up stuffed into a shopping cart.:p
 
Its a total KYA move. Its better for them to lose money on a sale or inconvenience the customer, then risk any sort of legal action against them (which they lose face and money over).
Kinda like the company I work for. The security measures are a joke.
But as one astute co-worker told me,
"...as for other types of crime I think corporate policy is based primarily on insurance type actuarial tables, which don't consider the protection of individuals, but long term cost/benefits of policies. That's why we don't have armed security here, they reason that the cost of a low-wage armed employee causing a problem outweighs the cost of replacing dead personnel in some unlikely crime. How does that make you feel?"
Corporate America at its finest.
 
A friend of mine was stopped in the parking lot of Wal Mart a few months ago, by two store security people, after leaving the store.
He had been looking at wallets, but didn't purchase one. The security guys said that he saw my friend reach under his shirt, and accused him of stealing a wallet. He lifted his shirt to show them why. When he was leaning down to see the wallets on the rack, his Beretta and in the pants holster moved up. He showed them that he had none of their merchandise under his shirt, or anywhere else on him. He said they didn't even appoligize, for accusing him. Before he was able to get his car and drive to the exit, a police car came screaming in, and stopped him. The security people came over to talk to the police. After a brief interrigation, and showing the police his concealed weapon license, he was allowed to leave. The cop told him that he had done nothing wrong, and would talk to the security guys about it.
 
According to dad, the Wal-Mart just south of here sold a .22 while he was there and the girl behind the counter insisted that she had to walk the customer out the door because "that's the law." What she did not do was make him wait the required 24 hours before he could take his long gun home, which makes them both felons. :rolleyes:
Dad said figured he had done his part by stepping in to tell 'em that .22 magnum is NOT just "strong .22's."
 
Next time, simply walk briskly and determinedly toward the door, passing everyone, and if they say that you have to wait, simply say, without breaking stride, "I don't choose to wait, thank you. Good day." and continue on your way. Their only choice, at that point, is to physically detain you. Just think of all the ways you will spend all of that settlement money and how many of your favorite firearms you buy at those mom-n-pops.
 
At least I know I'm not alone in this matter, a while back something similar happened to me, I purchased coin wrappers to wrap 18 years worth of coins. On the way out their was a couple employee's at the exit stopping everyone and checking the bags and receipts, as I walked passed them one of them grabbed my arm and restrained me, demanding to see my bag and receipt, at which point I pulled out my cellphone and called the local police. When they arrived I informed the officer that I was carrying a concealed weapon, and of what had happened and informed him I wanted the individual arrested for assualt and and for detaining me against my will. The employee was arrested and my attorney contacted Walmarts corporate offices of my intent to sue Walmart for the assault and restraint. To make things short, the Employee was found guilty and sentenced to 180 days in jail with 150 suspended, $500 fine and 40 hours of community service. Walmart settled with me out of court, they paid all attorney fee's, paid off my Walmart mastercard and added an additional credit to my card account. As this was a Mastercard, I spent all the additional credit at Sears, K-mart, Target, Penneys and last but not least, with the last $1795 on the card I purchased a RRA limited match 1911A1. I have yet, to this day to ever set foot in Walmart or Sam's club, and I never will again.
 
Way to go Sousana!!! I love to hear stories such as this.

While I sympathesize with their needs for inventory control, I do not apprecaite being held up, searched and tagged on the way out. The property is already paid for and I don't see any legal grounds for them to search what is then MY bag. Is there?

If they tried to escort me to my car (after buying a gun or something), I think I would keep doing laps around the lot until they caught on that the joke was on them. Note to self: Bring walking shoes and a water bottle next time I buy something at Wallmart.
 
I'm sorry sousana but I can't support what you did.

You sent a guy to jail for 30 days for what amounts to petty BS. All you had to do was inform the WalMart employee that he is not allowed to touch you and then walk out the door.

Instead you threw a guy in jail who's only crime is not knowing the law...this is the same kind of abuse of the law that we've all been complaining about for years :mad:

Sure going after WalMart in civil court is fine...they should train their employees properly, but you just screwed this poor sap pretty hard over nothing.
 
I've wondered about this myself. If you are detained on suspicion of shoplifting, but are innocent, is that an automatic lawsuit or settlement in your favor? Is the store protected by any doctrine of reasonable cause? Othewise, what keeps a person from purposely acting as suspicious as possible, faking putting stuff under his shirt, etc., then when he gets detained, launching a lawsuit against the store?
 
People need to understand what the Constitution is all about. Charging someone for assault when they assault you is proper. Everyone knows that forcefull physical contact with another person is assault. Maybe if enough people go to jail for actions like these the companies will back off. Maybe they will belly up to the bar and spend some bucks properly training their workers.

I applaud the actions sousana took. He should have known better. Sousana did the proper thing. Now if the employee that assulted sousana decided to take revenge for getting him fired and sousana is forced to to use deadly force, the police department has the assault on record and will be used in sousana's defense before a grand jury.

I report every questionable action for that very reason.

Way to go sousana.
 
Maybe if enough people go to jail for actions like these the companies will back off.
Yeah...let's screw the little guy so we can "send a message" to "the man" :rolleyes:

Maybe they will belly up to the bar and spend some bucks properly training their workers.
So do you honestly think WalMart cares about their employee any more then sousana does?

I'm all for suing WalMart for not training their employees properly, but the damage done to this WalMart employee is significantly greater then what was done to sousana.

I guess it shows that one can be technically in the right but still grossly off the mark ethically.
 
It seems store security can't find a balance....

They either have their version of the Mall Ninja out harrassing customers, or they refuse to get involved in anything.

A few years back I took two of my son's to the local Wal-Mart to pick up some things they needed for school. As we rounded the corner of an aisle we came across one of our local low lifes (I'd arrested him several times before) stuffing some items into his pants. I grabbed my boys and quickly steered them down another aisle before he looked up and saw me. I then ran into one of the managers. I knew him because at the time we were escorting them to the bank with their deposits. So I asked him if he recognized me out of uniform and he said; "Yes, you're the officer who usually takes me to the bank on Thursday nights." So I told him what I had seen and pointed the guy out to him. He told me he couldn't do anything about it, because policy was, that an employee had to see him stash the goods and keep visual contact with him the entire time he was in the store. I asked if he wanted me to do something when he left the store and he said no, Wal-Mart didn't want any liability if he dumped the stuff before he got out of the store. I just shook my head and continued shopping.

Seems they go from one extreme to another.

Jeff
 
Let me see if I have this straight.

People shop at Wal-Mart because of the selection of products and the low prices.

Wal-Mart is able to keep the prices low because they have a rather intensive security plan to reduce shoplifting.

Some of us who have better things to do than cooperate with Wal-Mart think it right to bull our way through their procedures, induce a poorly trained employee to touch us improperly, and then have that employee arrested. Said person is carrying a concealed weapon and knows she is morally obligated to avoid conflict that could escalate into use of deadly force.

Said person sees to it that improperly trained employee is sent to jail with a conviction for a violent misdemeanor, which in California will prohibit him from possessing firearms for ten years.

Said person sues Wal-Mart for a tidy sum which means Wal-Mart will have to ratchet up the prices for us others who are patient and courteous to people who are just trying to do their jobs.

Employees at Wal-Mart who know this incident and witness later other actual acts of shoplifting will say "Screw it, I don't want to go to jail," resulting in even higher prices.

Thank you, Sousana
 
Any time I can be of help Bruce, just let me know. One other thing Bruce, I DID NOT SEND HIM TO JAIL, HE DID THAT ALL BY HIMSELF. So basically what your saying is that if I was to place my hand on your arm and detain you unlawfully, you'd just smile and shrug it off? Be real here. IF a person is going to take it upon himself/herself to play cop, then they should be aware of the law. In this state, if a security officer of store employee detains you for suspected shoplifting, then they and the store is covered, suspected shoplifting meaning they actually SAW you conceal an item, now, if another shopper says I saw them conceal an item they can ASK me to remain in the store until local LE arrives, but since they didn't actually SEE the concealment take place, then by law, all they can do is REQUEST, not lay hands on anyone.

Zundfolge

If an employee placed his hands on YOUR mother and forcefully detained her, or your daughter, your saying you'd do nothing? Just let it ride? HAD they asked me to stop and show my receipt then there would have not been a problem, however I do object to being grabbed and detained against my will, which is what happened, wouldn't you say so Bruce? And by the way, I've been in LE for 20 years, both in the US and in Israel, I know better than to "induce a poorly trained employee to touch us improperly, and then have that employee arrested."

Out of this case, this particular store made ALL of it's employee's attend a 4 hour course covering the laws of this state, the same course given to armed security explaining the "do's and don'ts", another provision of our settlement.
 
At the Fry's Electronics, they do this. For many years now, I just stride right by and ignore the repeated pleas behind me. I hate their procedures at the checkout counter that can take up to half an hour. I avoid the store, but still go there on occasion.

At the Costco Warehouse club store, they do this. But it is very quick and I think more or less a show to discourage theft. I go ahead and let them ink my receipt and it is less than 5 seconds on average. I like Costco so tolerate it.

I did get an employee fired there for stealing cash at the snack counter.:D They jumped all over it, followed through and thanked me.
 
Last edited:
Way to go! As far as I'm concerned anyone associated with that monster should be taken out and shot. What I can't understand is WHY PEOPLE KEEP DEFENDING THIS STORE AND SPENDING MONEY THERE! Let's run down the list from recent threads.

Wal-Mart moves in and drives local stores out of business. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart replaces personal service with a hostile, impersonal, bleak, overcrowded hell hole. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart stops stocking handguns. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart asks why you're buying ammo. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart makes you go through a bag search. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart illegally detains people. Response?

Gripe, then spend more money at Wal-Mart. And complain about people who do something to stop the illegal detentions.

WHAT ON EARTH WILL IT TAKE?! DO THEY HAVE TO START ACTUALLY *KILLING* CUSTOMERS? For the love of MIKE!

The solution is quite simple:

STOP

SHOPPING

AT

WAL-MART!


Any questions?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top