It happened while she was checking out; the scanner malfunctioned. She asked for and was assisted and thought she was all cleared. Once she walked out the door loss prevention detained her back for $48. She was arrested, booked and photoed. She lost her job as a nurse before she was cleared but the damage was already done. Walmart was wrong….
Tbf, I think her employer should be liable in some way. She did nothing wrong and they should have at least held her on unpaid time, and then put everything back to normal once she was cleared.
@@orppranator5230 Well, the question would be is being accused of a crime a legal reason to fire someone. If not then she could sue and would have to proof that she was fired for that and no other reasons.
Walmart once sent a detective to my house looking for my roommate, accusing him of stealing a case of beer. It was a Sunday morning and he was going to attend an NFL game and stopped by a Walmart on the way out of town. The stadium is an hour and a half from our house. He had in fact purchased the case of beer but did not retain the receipt. The transaction was recorded in his checking account statement since he used his debit card. They must have gone the length of getting his plate number to track him down. It was insane because if they had just looked at the transaction log the whole issue could have been rectified. Come to find out, sale of alcohol in that county was illegal before noon on Sunday and the cashier had mistakenly sold my roommate the beer and was afraid of losing her job at Walmart so she told her manager he stole the beer. The accusation was even in the local newspaper.
What a stupid law. I never understood the hourly limit at night for liguor stores either as that apparently only works for those that buy alcohol in very small quantity apparently. You can go in at 11:59 tho and buy a case of 90 proof.
Interesting. So it's illegal too sell booze before noon Sunday. Is it illegal to purchase booze before noon Sunday? ie the vendor would be acting illegally, but the purchaser wouldn't? Just curious.
It's common in southern states to prohibit alcohol sales before noon on Sundays. It's a carryover from when "they" (the religious majority) didn't want people showing up to church drunk. Since the law prohibits the sale of alcohol, not the purchase of alcohol, the liability would be on the store. BUT... You'd think when some items are restricted they'd alert the cashier. They do it for spray paint and alcohol to request ID, why did the register allow the cashier to complete the sale without a manager override?
Their associates. I've seen the flyer instructions or whatever sent by home office as to what the door monitors should and shouldn't be doing. And it explicitly states that they are not there to check receipts. If ppl are, it's store manager or door monitor taking it upon themselves to disregard instructions from home office and do these things.
I ran a cash register at WalMart for sixteen years. Everything that WalMart says "It could not possibly happen" regarding a register malfunction, I've seen it happen.
Yeah you know those units that you swiper credit card with and now you use an electronic you know near field payment with? I program those the firmware for them, I know exactly how they work and how they malfunction and can always mouth off to any employee that tells me they think they know how it works, I can just say yeah what version are you running? Damn have a clue, I can tell by the way these things act whether or not they've updated their systems or how far behind they are in version just by the behavior of the machine and the unit. I don't look for it but I know when I walk into a particular store like a Walgreens or CVS a glance at the register I know what kind of problems I'm going to have when I walk up to that register and I'm ready for it, the God damn it you got to get your stores updated.
@@jasonbourne1596 I've been saying that for years ! ! If the customer complains loudly enough, they will get their refund. If there **really** was such a law, they couldn't refund without filling out some papers, at the very least. Even while I was still employed there, I was telling my fellow associates that WalMart was passing off company policy as state or federal law. I actually agreed with a lot of company policy, but it was not law !
@@DanLoFat I know that feeling. I once fixed a computer modem at my local public library that wouldn’t connect from a wholly different room, just by listening to the handshake tones. Wrote a note, asked for a manager, explained why they were having trouble, and gave him the note with a simple fix on it. Their next try after he went back there connected flawlessly.
There was a man who owed another man $500. The man who was owed $500 was complaining to a friend of his that he couldn't collect the money because he didn't have proof that the man owed him $500. His friend told him to write a letter to the man demanding his $1,000. The man promptly wrote back and said he did not owe him $1,000 but $500. Now he had it in writing.
"Allow"? Of course they don't allow this practice! They actually have pretty strong procedures in place to prevent precisely this for precisely this reason. The problem is … all of that depends on humans.
@@knghtbrd : That's absolute BS... the CEO not only "allows" such behaviour, he likely "encourages" it. In short: it's Company Policy, it's orders. If Walmart had "pretty stong procedures in place", this would never ever happen. The fact that it does happen, shows, that it is at the very least tolerated. The fact that it happens so often, is more indicative of it being standard operating practice.
@@SirBrass More people game the welfare system. Capitalism works but it isn't capitalism if the government gets involved. Socialism is a colossal failure throughout history yet the morons vote for it over and over again and the government is more than happy to oblige.
Remember the it's WALMART that has ALL OF THE RECEIPTS from ALL OF THE REGISTERS and can likely determine exactly what has been paid for (within seconds if they inquire into their system) and what is not paid for in any specific situation. They have cameras to tell which checkout stand was used for any purchase.
●●● Ronald. According to news reports on the story, she used a "self-checkout" register and she claimed it "froze". If I was using a "self-checkout" register and it "froze", I would call a store employee or manager over to straighten it out. I certainly wouldn't just pay what the register said IF I thought/knew that it had "frozen". From the way I read the stories about it, it sounds like she just paid what the final receipt said. In other words, if she scanned a head of lettuce and it read $2.59, and then the machine "froze", saying EVERY item from then on cost $2.59, you should realize that there's a problem. Now, maybe you might think that you can get away with paying $2.59 for the 30-pounds of lobster (because the machine said that was the price), but I wouldn't chance it. I'd call over a manager to straighten it out.
@@edhartgrove7552 From the sound of it, none of that matters. Whether she actually did something wrong or not was not the question. The question was, did Walmart do something wrong? Now I have not read up on this case and the article Steve was reading from sounded so poorly informed that I see no reason to read it but I see no way a jury is going to award 2.1mil in damages for a letter. There has to be more to it like constant harassment, reporting the debt to credit agencies destroying her credit score, etc. That has to be what the case is about, not anything she did or did not do.
@@edhartgrove7552 While i tend to agree with you, i also want to say its not my problem in a situation like that. If i use one of those stupid self checkouts and i scan an item that i know to be $10 and it says $2.59 oh well not my problem. I'm getting sick of these stores, including others, putting in self checkouts and removing cashiers to make it the customers job to do their work. Maybe if they want better control they should have cashiers again?? I don't understand how they are operating lately either, my local Wal-Mart took out a half dozen registers to put in self checkouts, yet most of them aren't open when you need to check out, chained off and out of service, so everyone is forced to wait in line for a few self checkouts or wait in crazy long lines for an actual cashier. And if you have a cart load of groceries good luck, there is three of the belt conveyer self checkouts but only one is ever open in all the times i have been through there. So yeah, if i scan an item and the price is wrong, tough, not my job.
from Nytimes reporting: “During the civil trial, which lasted about three weeks, the judge criticized Walmart for the “intentional loss” of the security camera footage, according to court records. The judge, James T. Patterson, said that the court would advise the jury that the videotapes “were destroyed by the defendants with the intent” to deprive the plaintiff of the benefit of seeing them “and that the jury therefore is to presume that the content of the missing videos would be adverse” to the defendants.”
I used to work Asset Protection for Walmart. Sounds to me like they didn’t meet all of their steps to even approach her. You have to be seen selecting the merchandise. You have to be seen dispossessing/concealing the merchandise. You have to walk through the store with the merchandise. You have to pass the last point of sale(usually the alarm towers) with the merchandise without paying for it. They must observe you doing all these things in order to stop you. With Walmart, that person stopping you must be authorized. Only a salaried manager and asset protection can stop you per Walmart Policy. Furthermore, if you did in fact pay for the merchandise, every transaction is saved into their system. There’s record of every transaction for a set amount of time. On top of that, there’s cameras over the very single register both scan & go and manned. Many of us in AP are by the book but many more are not. Some will take risks and bypass steps just to get a “stat”. I’ve been pushed about my stats and did not budge about being 100% by the book. I was harassed about it until walking off the job for another company. Do I believe her case? Hell yeah I believe her case because I’ve witnessed a bad stop blatantly happen right in front of me more than once. Worse yet was one engaged in that behavior, that person replaced me at my first location.
As I understand, most major retailers have a similar set of rules, and lawsuits like this (plus the associated bad PR) are precisely why. Snopes even has a story (confirmed true) of a pregnant woman who was wrongfully detained after being accused of stealing a basketball and awarded a fat sack of cash.
This actually doesn't have anything with the arrest/detainment/stop which you outline perfectly. This case is about the collection process under Alabama law. That whole law should be struck down. You can't collect from innocent folks.
@@hedonismbot1508 doesn’t take a fact check for me to confirm this is true. I see APs circumventing those policies all the time either in person or by video. I’ve been associated with Security for just over 17 years with 11 of it in Asset Protection. Part of the problem is that Walmart has become too big to control its own stores on an individual level. Worldwide they have over 14,000 locations and well over 2,000,000 “Associates”. There’s way too much internal politics associated with that company. I got retaliated against, micromanaged, and ultimately forced to walk off the job simply for discovering internal activity regarding the wrong person. It’s not who you are but who you know. They let internal dishonesty slide if that person can throw enough weight around. They made my life a living hell for 3 years and I’m still hanging on to evidence of all of it should I ever be called to testify. Attorneys wouldn’t take my case because of how big they are even though I witnessed sexual harassment and disability discrimination which factored into what I passed up the chain. It’s been 2-1/2 years since I left so I doubt I can revisit the idea of filing a case on them.
@@KabobHope what my point is that had Walmart Asset Protection at the Store Level like the APA or AP ASM done their job by the book per their own policies, she wouldn’t have been the subject of those collection notices. It all starts with the surveillance process which must be done properly. Had it been done properly, none of this would happen.
Home Depot faced a class action lawsuit several years ago for exactly the same thing. The HD clerk would ring up a flatbed cart of items with the wireless scanner, the customer would pay, then another employee would accuse the customer of "stealing" something that the cashier didn't ring up. No charges would be filed, but then the demand letters started. Then came the lawsuit.
I do not understand how you can be held liable on a purchase that was checked out by an employee, then paid for by the customer, especially if the customer did not realize that something had been missed. If the merchandise is in front of the store employee, it isn't the customer's fault
Reminds me of an experience I had long ago. I went to a now defunct home improvement/lumber store. I bought a half pound of small nails and paid a little over $3. At the exit, Barney Fife stopped me and wanted to see what I had bought. He had a clear view of me buying these at the register but wanted to be an AH. I told him it was my property and it was no longer any business of his. When he still blocked me from leaving I dumped the paper bag on the floor and told him to count them. He went ballistic, threatening me with prison terms for stealing from his store. I laughed and walked out. It was worth $3 to see him pick up all those trim nails.
@@Maximara I think it was a Sutherlands store. At the time we had that and PayLess Cashways. Both were gone when Home depot came along, and later Lowes. I still miss being able to buy nails and screws by the pound though.
I kept waiting to hear if something was actually stolen by this person or not. He kept saying they were accused of stealing from Walmart,but that doesn't mean they actually stole.
@@joshuagibson2520 @pizzafourlife that still doesn't answer the question. Charges get dropped for all sorts of reasons, only *one* of which is the accused not being guilty.
@@ElectroDFW well considering she won a court case, I'd assume she wasn't guilty. Also the fact Walmart refused to show the video footage makes me suspect they just use this as a cash making operation rather then stop-loss
I just watched a news report about this and they brought up a good point, there's cameras at each self checkout, but Walmart never produced a video showing she shoplifted 🤔
Years ago my family had something similar happen. My mother and younger brother, 14 at the time, were shopping at a department store, that no longer exists, and at the end she asked him to go get a large sack of dog food that was shelved on a pallet on the sidewalk in front of the store while she waited in line. After about ten minutes he hadn't returned so she went looking and eventually found him in the security office being accused of shoplifting. She left without making any purchases and we discontinued our patronage. About two weeks later a letter much like what you describe arrived demanding $200. We are in CA so there's something about that value that seems oddly consistent. We have a family lawyer retained and asked them about it and they suggested we send the company a letter redirecting further communications, that was the last we heard of it. Our lawyer also explained that what was going on amounted to a legalized scam. The key thing to understand was that bit about "or their agents." The security agency hired by the company has part of their compensation tied to an enforcement quota, perfectly legal apparently since they are private security and not leo's. So they set up the displays exactly like they do to catch people doing exactly what my brother did, taking a full cart over to the heavy merchandise that happens to be outside the store, and accuse them of stealing.
The other day, I walked out of Walmart and the guy at the door asks, "Do you have a receipt?" I answer "Yes." Guy at door asks, "Where is it?" I replied, "It's in my pocket." All while I just kept walking.
gee you must be so popular.. did everyone look and you and say “you are so awesome for standing up for the right to shop but not have to follow store policy!”
@@PaleoWithFries Goes to the conversation at the door...The person at the door say's "got a sales slip?"....The customer says "got probable cause?"...usually dries up the conversation...
Okay, I work in retail for a long time whenever a Walmart employee accuses someone of theft it is usually the other way around. The employee with the manager is stealing items and pocketing money off the items. The accused is a scapegoat.
I have sworn off Walmart. But...I help a church lady who HAS to shop there. Everytime I pull into the parking lot there are idiots driving crazy all over the place. Thats my first problem. Then you go into the store and there are employees all over the place...and they get in the way and act like nobody else is in the store. They have a thousand employees on the floor but TWO open registers. They are trying to get people to self checkout. I dont work for them. Each time I have to go into Walmart I let them know, while I'm standing in line, how horrible Walmart is. I swear...if it wasn't a waste of my time I have thought about going through the store in the morning and loading up the cart with all sorts of frozen stuff and other perishable items....and then just go sit in the shoe section where there is a place to sit and watch youtube videos for 5 or 6 hours until the stuff melts and then just walk out of the store
i’m glad there are people, like you, doing what ya’ll do. as an undergrad who sadistically signed up for constitutional law,. i found out PDQ it wasn’t for me. suffered 2 semesters. lol. promptly changed majors.glad you persevered and we need more just like you.
This happened to me on my son's 2nd birthday. I was tasked by my wife and others to remove my son so that they could decorate for his party. I took him to walmart to see all the toys and ride on the coin machines, etc. I did a little shopping too. When I was done checking out, a man walked up to me real close to my face and insisted that I show him my receipt and the contents of my bags. My son was scared of him because of his posture so I popped him up on another coin ride to calm him down. After searching my bags and comparing the contents to my receipt, the curmudgeon walked away without acknowledging me at all. Another employee refilled the bag with my items and handed the bag to me. No apology, no thank you, no nothing. I was pretty mad but it was my little guys birthday so I picked him up off the coin ride and took him to the playground until I was allowed to take him back home. TLDR: In my humble opinion, WalMart thinks everyone is stealing and treats customers like criminals.
The specifics of this case are really needed to determine the severity of Wal-Mart's indescretion. The spectrum goes from her actually shoplifting but the charges being dropped to some crazy cashier picking her out at random.
The procedural history resulting in the jury verdict would be interesting as to how she managed to give the jury the ability to award the penalty. As to how bad of a practice the jury was punishing, the whole issue is many states give retailers the authority to send a demand letter for civil theft and just by the manager approving the letter and it being mailed....it is legally enforceable. The only due process is the unknowing office clerk giving the bulk mailing to the USPS. It can then be issued a judgement and enforced from wages or assets
None of that matters in the slightest in this case. She was accused of shoplifting but all charges were dropped. Case closed, end of story. This lawsuit was about Walmart's conduct AFTER that incident. This case was about unlawful debt collecting, not shoplifting.
She is a nurse, she was at the self-checkout with her husband and three kids and the register malfunctioned. She said a Walmart sales clerk assisted her in getting checked out. Then as she was leaving she said an asset protection employee stopped her and detained her. She said they accused her of stealing the 48 dollars in groceries. She said she was arrested and charged. Walmart didn't show up for court. They refused to provide video of her at the register stealing anything. The case was dismissed. Then Walmart started sending her letters trying to get 200 dollars from her. She sued and they lost. They make 300 million a year doing this apparently.
ha, there was a walmart ad before the start of the video. on another note.. nancy walton bought the super yacht jubilee , a 110 meter vessel for 300 mil, sent it in for a refit ( basicly a remodel / update) for another 70 mil. operating costs are roughly 30 mil / yr ( not including if you want to go anywhere..) so a couple mil is really nothing...maybe a tender..
I got banned from Walmart for life. I was shopping and I used the restroom to empty my ostomy bag, don't remember what I ate to make it fill up like it did but it filled up fast. Washed my hands adjusted my bag in the mirror,so it wasn't a noticeable bulge under my shirt. Went out continued to shop. Got the items I needed paid for the items, left the store and was almost to my truck when there was a plain clothes security I guess,who grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around. I don't like to be touched and we had words about what the hell are you doing youngster? He told me he needed the item I had under my shirt. I asked him just what the hell are you talking about little boy? The kid was about seven foot tall, And continued towards my truck. He told me I was under arrest for shoplifting. I told him I have a receipt for every item I purchased. He replied he needed the item that was under my shirt. I told him it was none of his goddamn business what I had under my shirt now go away before it turns into a shitty day for you. He stated that he had watched me on the security camera that was in the bathroom and I definitely had something under my shirt. And I told him once again it's none of his business what I have under my shirt now go away before you have a very shitty day. About this time the local police showed up. And I was detained for suspicion of shoplifting. Handcuffed up against a cop car. And now the store manager is there demanding I be searched. And I keep telling them what is under my shirt is my business, not your business go away and leave me alone or you're going to have a really shitty day. The store manager took that as a threat and started screaming at the officers about me threatening him as he reaches under my shirt feels my ostomy bag about half full again and start yelling at me what is that under your shirt that's my store property. I told him once again it's not his business what I have under my shirt. It's not his store property. And if he keeps it up, he is going to have a really shitty day. So he reaches under my shirt grabs onto my ostomy bag and pulls it off me. Screaming okay what is this then? He just broke the seal where the bag snaps on to my side it didn't break the seal where it's fasten to my skin. And he is standing there with a beige Hollister ostomy bag half full of diarrhea. And he gets stupid and squeezes it. Now he has diarrhea running down his arm and dripping off his elbow screaming and yelling at me about what is this shit? And I told him exactly. You just assaulted me and removed my ostomy bag. Remember that shitty day I promised you? Now the cops are standing there laughing their asses off. I turn and explain to the officers while I was in the store I used the restroom to empty my bag, I adjusted it in the mirror after washing my hands, evidently Walmart has a camera in the men's room where numbnuts here watches people doing their business. Gee imagine what pervert they have watching little girls in the ladies room. And the manager start screaming that isn't true we do not have cameras in the restrooms. And I said numbnuts here the jolly green idiot told me he seen me doing something under my shirt on the camera. I made my purchases and if you could remove these handcuffs,I can provide you with the receipt. This man grabs on to me here in the parking lot. Threatens me with arrest,if I don't give him what's under my shirt and like I keep stating it's nobody's God damn business what the fuck is under my shirt. As you can see. The manager is still screaming because he has shit running down his arm. I assaulted him with a biohazard, he wants me arrested. I tell him shut the fuck up bitch, you're fucking whining is giving me a headache. I have two officers here that witnessed you reach into my shirt and forcibly remove my ostomy bag which is a medical device that I need to function daily. After I repeat it over and over that it's none of your business what I have in my shirt. Now go wash yourself up you're starting to stink. Reached into my back pocket pulled out a clean fresh bag and clip lifted up my shirt snapped it on, told the store manager you can keep that one. The officers are still laughing at the situation. We have known each other 20 plus years,we have coffee together some mornings. They know this isn't the first time this has happened because of my ostomy bag. And a security camera in the bathroom of a store. And one of the officers stated we clearly witnessed him assault you and remove your medical device ,do you want to press assault charges? I said yeah on both of them the jolly green idiot over here who grabbed me and spun me around and detain me. And the gentleman here that seems to be having a shitty day. Now the manager starts screaming about having me charged with trespassing because I am now considered a trespasser and banned for life from Walmart. I load my items in the back of my pick' em up truck and go to leave with the manager still screaming he wants me arrested for trespassing. The cops tell him drop it haven't you stirred up enough shit today now let's talk about these cameras in the restrooms. And that's the story of me being banned for life from Walmart. That Walmart, my town has two and then 7 miles away there's another one.
@@TheKuptis there is the supercenter that I have been banned from. It's the just closest one. And I didn't feel up to driving too my usual one. It's a strange crowd up there. And then there's the customers. But they have no problems with me going into the regular little Walmart in town my usual one a few more miles north that was built before the supercenter, we have two Walmart stores in this little town, when I first went there I looked at the entrance I said to the old lady, babe you know I used to grow Columbian right here back in '72, the guy at the sporting goods counter knows me by name because I'm in there every year buying us fishing license, for the last 20 years I can think of 15 he's been there,then I also buy worms, like weekly, during trout season on my way to the lake. knifes, fishing lures, line, weights,another rod I don't need, that she usually tells me no ,you can't have that,but I buy it anyways when she lets me out on my own, and she knows I'm going to buy it as soon as I'm let out on my own. drop down over the hill there's a Walmart that the old lady and I used to drop $500 a visit at least, per week, we had children's and dogs and they eat and require things,the grandbabies require things that the kids were never bought, because I am grandpa, Back when she used to dance down the aisles to the music. And I would follow pushing the cart because I enjoyed watching her. Now it's I throw my cane in the side of the cart use the cart to hold myself up and she gets one of the electric cart grocery baskets thingies. And all she can do is bitch about the price of everything.
After I got out of the army I went to work for time Warner cable as an installer. I had been told by my trainer multiple times keep track of your work. But he wouldn’t elaborate. I was doing well for about 3 months with no problems then someone broke into my house and stole a backpack with my work laptop in it. I figured no big deal I have a police report. After telling work and reporting to my boss, equipment I installed at customers homes some how were never got attached to the work orders. Work started demanding me pay them for the “loss” of equipment, equipment that was in use that had their own IP addresses all attached to the cable system. On the day I quit I had talked to my trainer again. He had said that this was a common problem any time that work wanted to update boxes. They would higher new people and randomly charge them with missing items
In my state, shopkeepers exemption allows Wal-Mart/thier employees to stop or hold a person accussed of theft only with R.A.S. accusing and holding someone without R.A.S. is still false imprisonment and defamatory.
We are here because we love this....when you say "I'm not gona get into it"...GET INTO IT! Noone is going to stop you from going deep. This is one of the best channels on UA-cam.
My wife (and I) was once accused of stealing her own breast milk by Walmart. I guess they thought it was formula and didn't realize formula is behind the counter with the cigarettes. It was in a clearly worn bottle. At least they stopped and felt like an idiot when we asserted it was breast milk.
This seems similar to speed camera operations. The big firm in my area sends false tickets in the mail, but is a firm out of Texas, and essentially has no jurisdiction, and discards the law in state that say a ticket must be signed to be valid. It has been discontinued but was essentially sanctioned blackmail. Thank you for what you do sir.
Just say no to Walmart ! Once you make it a habit , it feels good to drive past without stopping at a retailer that treats its customers and employees with disrespect. 💪🙂
All those times that particular Walmart used that outdated law thinking it was a cash cow, then get blasted for over two million bucks in litigation. A feeelgood story.
I wonder if a class action is in the works now that this case gives precedent for plaintiffs wrongfully accused and then extorted by Walmart to actuality be able to challenge the big corporation and reclaim funds
Nobody ever collects much of anything in a class action lawsuit. The lawyers get the major funds while the victims get a few cents. Class action lawsuits ought to be illegal for that very reason.
@@ralfie8801 More depends on how much damages are sought and how many members there are of the class. Also people do not have to participate in a class action if they want to pursue their own litigation, they just have to opt out and get their own attorneys
@@MonkeyJedi99 there are a lot of people this would harm. think if each and every person of a town with the population of 100 people had to file there own lawsuit for a chemical contamination. It take years for the class action to get through the courts. say on average it takes a week for each case to be heard. it would take 21 years for all of the cases to be heard. Just depending on where it happens that would be the same judge having to hear the same case over and over again for 21 years.Then the appeals would start and would take 21 more years so it would take 42 years for the last case to be heard by the appeals court.
AT&T has been an expert at putting wrong charges on my cell bill. When I contact them, they always say "oh, I see it, you're right, that shouldn't be there" and take it off but the mistakes are never in my favor....
@@mattobermiller5041 AT&T claimed I hadn't paid my bill for 6 months, went into the office with all payment receipts, month later they sent fraudulent bill to collections.. was a mess to get fixed, then collection agency wanted to collect their fees from me. Year later AT&T pulled the same stunt, I blew my top went straight to the office and let EVERYONE know what a bunch of idiots they were and where they could stuff their service and contract. second stop was collection agency. Was without long distance for a few years till another company offered long distance in the area. When AT&T bought direct TV I dropped direct TV.
She was arrested, had a mugshot and everything. She won her case because no one from Walmart went to court. They started sending her letters afterwards when it was already dismissed.
Had this same exact thing happoen to me and not a single lawyer in the entire state of maine wanted anything to do with the case ! in Maine you can get away with anything so long as you are wealthy not a single lawyer in sight will want to sue you.
Quoted from the expert witness (02:17): Walmart made "A couple hundred million dollars" over the past two years. If accurate, that's a racket in itself. A follow-up on the appeal amount will be of interest. Good show. Regards.
These laws were enacted in most states in the 90s. With all of the mandatory life sentences for a marijuana joint and 3rd strike lifetime sentences for what was otherwise a misdemeanor. Giving corporations the ability to demand civil remedies and back them up with civil courts was pitched as reducing the caseload in the courts and enabling alternatives to incarceration and saving the taxpayers money by leaving the government out of equation.
@@michaelsommers2356 Innocent until proven guilty. It is on the accuser to give evidence. If no evidence, then the presumption is the customers are in fact innocent.
Yeah I'm thinking it was constant harassment, credit reporting damaging her credit score, maybe even posting her pic in the store to be on the lookout for her, stuff like that.
@@metamorphicorder Well, if you believe the information in the comment section, then no, the judgment was higher then what they spend on defense. Apparently they didn't even show up in court.
This is good. Maybe they'll provide some training to their employees. You can't just accuse people of shoplifting. These are nuisance lawsuits that people can't afford to fight.
I suspect that the vast, vast majority of their accusations are correct and captured on video and that’s why people comply. This one must have not been and it’s gonna hurt!
@@MoneyManHolmes The vast majority just pay it even if they didnt do it.. Because they know they could go to court and still loose and be out more money
The article I read said that she was approached while leaving with her groceries and they said she didn't pay. It wasn't totally clear but she said she did self checkout but the register malfunctioned in some way. Apparently she decided to just leave instead of getting help. They stopped her and called the cops. It also said charges were dropped but didn't explain how or why. Walmart did say they were going to appeal. My understanding is that she didn't actually pay for the groceries but was stopped before leaving with them. Since she didn't technically take them her argument is she shouldn't have to pay anything and their argument is they lost money because they couldn't resell stuff she made it out of the doors with but not all the way home.
I was a store Detective a long time ago in MA and they started a new law under the 266 statutes [klepto statutes] separate from the shoplifting laws that stated that any retail store could sue in civil court for the costs of apprehending the shoplifter, [average of all costs], from $50.00 to $500.00 [determined by the Judge] whether or not the shoplifter was actually prosecuted or not. The 15 store chain I worked in 'profited' $40,000.00 the first year, [and they had the merchandise back] it was a message !! When making a stop, we always had to 'see' or have in our hand some merchandise before actually accusing them, and we would quietly say "I want to talk to you about the merchandise you forgot to pay for", this stopped a lot of fights. We rarely ever 'jumped' on them yelling "You're under arrest", even though we had arrest powers as it was too confrontational, why look for problems. A lot of pro's would bait us into stopping them for a 'false arrest' suit, it was usually $500.00 to $2000.00 settlement !!
""I want to talk to you about the merchandise you forgot to pay for", this stopped a lot of fights." This is incredibly smart phrasing both legally and psychologically.
@@bnorberg988 Yeah, most of them would then say, "Oh, I did, damn it, can I just go pay for it", to which we would say, "sure, but we have to go to the office to do it", and then we would decide to arrest them or not, mostly for attitude !!
@@dougwalk8034 And TBH I bet a fair amount of them just stopped coming to your store out of embarrassment. And some probably stopped shoplifting all together. Not saying all of them but I'd imagine a good portion of them.
I was working for an outside vendor but I did a lot of my work at Walmarts in MA. About a decade ago and had someone approach me. I swear he looked like he was only 12 or 13 years old. He opened his coat showing a badge and a walkie-talkie. He said he was store security. He wanted to know what was going on with a woman I'd been talking to earlier, she was clearly having some sort of mental illness episode. I just told him "I think she's off her meds or something!" and then he started following her. Just one of the many many weird things I saw in Walmart in the short 3 years I did that job.
@@dougwalk8034 when working retail during my college years, I caught store security stealing items 3 times. In each instance, the head of security ignored the incident and the thieves continued employment
We do have problem in Scotland where businesses frequently take a civil dispute and contact the police who turn it into a criminal case. It's so disappointing that specific retailers have lost the skills of negotiating with customers and agreeing how a disputed amount should be paid. Likewise I have seen a petrol retailer categorising a customer with lack of funds the same as one that fills up and drives off with no intention of paying. Ultimately its the retailers who are losing out as one bad experience like that and the customer never goes back.
During this holiday season i did something different at Wal-mart. Everytime i shopped there and was asked if i had my receipt while leaving, i would hold up my reciept but continue walking out the doors. Since i never said or did anything that could be construed as suspicious and the alarm never went off they couldn't order me to stop.
Walmart has an average of 200 cameras in every store, including at least one pointed at each cash register. If they need to see your receipt before you walk out the door, they're not using their cameras properly. When they ask me for my receipts, I pretend I'm deaf-mute and keep walking.
@willdwyer, how many people do you think watch those cameras? I guarantee you, not 200. If you think even 10 people can keep track of 30 customers all checking out at the same time and verify that all 10 to 50+ items each of them are buying (on average) are scanned before being put into the bags, then you don't know people.
@@ElectroDFW it's also what non thieves do. There is no law requiring you to stop for a Walmart employee. At Sam's you agree to it as a member. I don't stop to show a receipt to someone that watches me pay a cashier to check me out.
I recently had that encounter at a Walmart in the cold north. I am walking out and the"associate" jumps out and asks for my receipt. I tell her she hasn't asked the people before me for my receipt so she must go ahead and ask the people behind me for theirs. The associate countered with I had my goods in my hand and not in a bag. I counter with the absurdity of logic, so she tried to use the Costco argument. I told her I agree to that when I signed up there , but I have no agreement with Walmart. She then asked which cashier I cashed out at. I told her to go check her camera. After tearing a new one to the store at customer service, I left the store.
"If a person commits an act..." Isn't that the crux of the matter? Did Walmart prove the woman committed said act? What evidence did they have for the accusation of theft? If they had no evidence or at least no reasonable evidence, then they're just being a bully. Sue the bastards!
That's the whole reasoning behind the judgement; They didn't have any...In most 3rd world countries, people get beat/burned to DEATH for a theft accusation...
Well for those who think they will get rich if they don't show their receipt the first rule of Dunning Kruger Club is you don't know you are in Dunning Kruger Club.
Thing is she wasn't wrongly accused. The register malfunctioned and she didn't pay. No idea if she knew that at the time or not but is hard to believe she didn't. If you don't have a receipt that's a good indication you didn't pay.
Employees are prosecuted regularly. We had a manage here stealing money from the safe and he was arrested. I am sure it isn't the practice of the entire company to wrongfully accuse anyone of anything. Some stupid-ass employee went overboard and you morons want to bankrupt the company over it. Good grief.
It's like security at a Federal office building. They go over you with a fine-toothed comb to get in, but you can pretty much walk out with whatever you want. ;-)
When i worked there our bags were checked in the way out. I stopped carrying a purse because i thought it was a set up. Most of the things in my purse were purchased at Walmart. So i was being proactive against accusations you can say.
That law incentivises companies to make false accusations That also fits the definition of extortion. Exactly like those RIAA and ADA lawsuits, they are counting on people paying the demand without fighting. .
Walmart needs to get rid of their Barney fifes. Now keep in mind in my state it is either open or concealed carry, Walmart doesn't deny anyone the right to carry and don't tell customers they aren't allowed to. Well my wife and I went into a Walmart in Norman Oklahoma, we were in the process of moving and needed a few rolls of tape. I was armed like I always am, the Barney Fife comes up and tells me I'm illegally carrying a firearm, (at the time license required). Barney informed me he was going to be confiscating my sidearm, I then informed him that would constitute armed robbery since he was an armed security guard, I then informed him he needs to learn the law because if he attempted to rob me I would defense myself in kind. At this point the asm for that Walmart informed him there was no rules against me carrying, I then reiterated to the mgr he almost caused a deadly confrontation. Thankfully that one did wind up firing him.
I worked at a Sam's Warehouse for a few months. If Walmart got rid of all of its Barney's, customers would not only have to ring up their own merchandise, they'd have to do all of the stock work and cleaning, too. Virtually everyone I worked with would have been special yellow bus passengers. It was quite depressing.
I never use the self checkout lines because I figure if I screw up they can charge me with shoplifting. Now I see that might not be such a bad idea lol
Steve I saw that and still scratching my head over the whole story / truth. I had a machine freeze up at different places. Esp. now we have more kiosks around. One double charged and the other didn't. Almost all the time the Clerk watching the machines came over and was able to tell at the machine or the (main terminal?) what happened. If the payment went through or not. I can't even remember the last time I had to wave somebody down to help me out on a crazy kiosk.
Well, I had a bad experience with Walmart also,me my son and his mother went shopping together and my son went off by himself and grabbed a few things and went thru the check out and then met with us at the self checkout,as we were still at the check out they approach us saying we didn't pay for the things my son already paid for well he showed them the receipt and they still accused us of stealing,it was so embarrassing and furiating I will never go there again,if they apologized that would have been ok cause it was a honest mistake on their part but they didn't and still treated us like criminals even threatening us, I was so pissed 😡
Yeah don't forget about the little girl who apparently I think she either pick up a Barbie doll and took it with her through the store and was thought to have stolen it police showed up pointing guns at the people in their car after people had left the Walmart and driven to another location, swearing at her all kinds of unprofessional nonsense this is a famous case, I believe the mom had actually purchased the Barbie doll it wasn't actually stolen, so yeah Walmart got sued for that too not just the town and the police. That was not a settlement either that was a case that went through and then also civil rights violations were charged and those officers don't have jobs
The thing I don't get is it is $200 and this is walmart we are talking about, sure for a small business this might be worth pursuing, but even before losing this case walmart was probably spending more money to send these letters then they were taking in.
What's not to get? They do this millions of times a year and take in hundreds of millions of dollars. I think you understand, you just don't want to admit the system is BS.
The civil statute is at the state level so all they need to do is create a mass mailing from the same incident reports that are filled out during the encounter. The extra cost to send demand letters is about sixty cents including postage, materials, labor and overhead. These people presumably had reason to provide Walmart their identification details. $200 for written agreement that the matter is resolved would likely have a success rate that would shock the conscience. They have decades of experience fine tuning the letter and target audience. You better believe over half pay within a month. Send slightly different letters as follow up after 30 and 60 days and more will pay. Remember, they don't have to provide any information about the alleged theft. They can file small claims and likely get default judgments on the few who don't pay voluntarily. In the rare event the defendant attempts to challenge the case in small claims, the statutes specify the demand letter is valid and enforceable. This practice has made news before. It's been going on for many years. There is a reason the jury awarded so much money. They wanted to punish the company. This is easy revenue under cover of state law. There is a reason Walmart has always heavily invested in state legislatures. This is just another flavor of the beacon of freedom that is the United States.
Steve get your story straight before talking or maybe WKRG got their story wrong. WKRG printed that She was arrested, mugshot taken, but the criminal charge was dropped when no one from Walmart showed up to court
In Texas they tend to say if you'll pay us this amount we will drop or not fall through all the charges if threw all the charges. Basically you by your way simply out of a criminal complaint
i think for big corporations and businesses with a history of false arrests, false bans from store for stupid reasons that make no sense, should require a trial, evidence and jury and creating false fraud or stolen claims should be a instant fine from the individual store they do this in. stores in high crime areas need to be closed, and the check receipt policy should be a check cameras policy. where they stop you and see if you match the description of the shoplifter, and if you don't, they let you go, if you do, only THEN a store should be allowed to contact law enforcement, and footage should be accessible via a tablet for law enforcement so they can properly see it so police can properly conduct a investigation instead of relying on 2 parties just arguing without evidence. i also think for teenagers who try to shoplift, i think retailers should bring back the policy where they hire on teens to make up enough money for the items they stole, because i think thats what happened before the whole mandatory minimum wage thing got put into law, and that starved out criminal intent to shoplift in the first place.
If I got a letter like that I would tell them to file a small claims action and I will see them in court. Do you think they will waste a lawyers time on that?
@@mexicanspec And then they hand it over to a collection agency that not only calls you constantly but reports it to the credit agencies, damaging your credit score just as you were about to get a mortgage for a new house.
@@mexicanspec clearly they do, they also will negatively impact your credit score, along with whatever else they feel like doing. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they can even take this up in Civil Court without a conviction.
@@chubbysumo2230 I don't think they can. With a credit car you sign a contract. They can come after you for the money. In this case there is nothing but the stores word with no independent party to verify it. I think a huge law suit against all involved would stop it in its tracks. You can recover all you lost for the lower credit score among many other things.
Walmart computer check out will not allow sales of alcohol before appropriate Sunday time determined by your state legislative law. In Texas it is 10 am, previously noon.
They primarily ask when you have something not in a bag. This situation seems entirely different than anything I have heard of due to it being a local law being abused by walmart. But here the walmarts catch thousands of dollars of merchandise per day trying to walk out the door. So I dont feel bad for most people upset about receipt checkers. Now in Virginia they can't make you so I get that every state is different, clearly with this case lol.
Why not call out directly the media outlet for misrepresenting the facts. Granted it would cut into your available material but I think you’ll compensate.
There will be future updates because Walmart has enough money to appeal a few times. Typical when companies have lawyer on retainer so it doesn't cost anything to sue, until now.
Steve all this is interesting but the real question is Are you pulling for Michigan, Alabama or UGA? I've seen you wear the clemson shirt but they are out.
She could have possibly avoided that by not giving her name and adresss. They probably would have called the cops. I don't know if, in that situation when cofronted by cops inside the store, she can refuse to i.d. TThen the cops would no doubt arrest, then she could get the store for false arrest as well as the original false accusation.
They had her arrested and then didn't show up for court or provide any evidence. They probably got access to her information as part of those proceedings and intentionally didn't show up or take any steps because letters are cheaper than lawyers, paying employees to show up in court, or even checking the cameras. Also false arrest is not something you can get the store or the cops for as easily as you seem to think.
@@kerfluffle3781 I've seen people get awarded in small claims. I know it's a small amount but someone like wal mart would remember something like that.
Civil demand is in every state in one way or another. Every retailer with a loss prevention program does this. It's a kind of back door register. We seldom filed criminal complaints, just had them sign the civil demand letter, took a picture of them holding or sitting next to what they shoplifted, had them trespassed and escorted them out the door. Unless the subject refused to sign, show their ID, or the dollar was over 299 dollars. We collect on average 150k each year this way.
I was falsely accused of shoplifting at Walmart when I was 15. I brought an almost empty sun screen with me since that day was hot as hell. I was looking at the Georgia souvenirs and wanted to get my wallet to get my money then I decided to leave the store. I was totally immediately surrounded by employees and guys in suits. They took my sunscreen. Apparently they started to panic because I refused to give them my id because they really didn’t have the proof that I actually stole something. Without having a huge knowledge of Constitutional law back, I made them afraid because they were afraid of a lawsuit. I bet they are thinking that I’m an young attorney 🤣🤣
Hey Steve, legal question about debt collection. If I live in NJ and a debt collector from Pennsylvania harasses me for a debt I don't owe despite me providing proof that I don't owe it, whose jurisdiction would my legal complaint fall under - NJ or PA?
Must be nice to live where you can sue for false accusations. I get falsely accused of shoplifting all the time. Once in spite of BOTH a receipt AND a cashier backing me up
I have never been accused of shoplifting, but I did do it three times. Twice as a juvenile (gum once, a box of D&D miniatures the other time) WAY too long ago for charges to be levied now, and once by accident two years ago. In the accidental case, it was an item I forgot was on the bottom of my cart, and I went right back into the store from my car and paid for the item. The person at the service desk was stunned I bothered to come back in for a couple of dollars.
@@MonkeyJedi99 That's why it's often called "shrinkage" when businesses talk about product loss. It can be theft, unintentional missed items, or even crates that fell off the truck (I have seen a UPS truck blow several packages out the back and onto the curb, but kept driving even though I honked lol). The business doesn't necessarily know which; they can only tell by tally that the numbers don't add up. So the whole loss is referred to as "shrinkage." I shoplifted once when I was three (those Energizer batteries were super shiny) but not since then. Though, I don't really pay attention to what I did or didn't pay for, so maybe some things got missed over the years.
A few years back I bought several small items in walmarts electronics section , which had it's own register. Receipt in hand items bagged I went to leave. Stopped at the door for a receipt check the lady checked each item on the list against the bag. Now having been checked I start through the door and the alarm goes off, the lady springs into action grabbing the bag, an off duty police officer starts over ...I went to annoyed rapidly but held my tongue. The lady empties the bag on an unused register and proceeds to check each item off the list again, bag returned she tries to keep .my receipt ...I make a point on demanding it back, good thing as the alarm went off again. The cop is closing in ...the lady is walking toward me looking annoyed...I wave them both off with a raised forefinger. By now everybody is looking at me. So given I had an aduancy I decided to speak. My voice is somewhat quite, unless they awaken , my inner ,John Wayne...sounds of it never cease to amaze people. " Ladies and gentlemen, should you find yourself embarrased by this damn alarm after having showed your receipt, please follow my lead. Take your purchase to the service desk demand the manager and 110 percent of your purchase price. Some laughed some applauded others thought I was a thief... young lady at service desk the manager is busy, tell him the price goes to 120 percent in 2 minutes, at 5 mi utes it will go to 10,000 percent with my lawyer...got my 110 percent in 30 seconds...the smile on the service girls face was the best...yea I'm that kinda asshole.
It happened while she was checking out; the scanner malfunctioned. She asked for and was assisted and thought she was all cleared. Once she walked out the door loss prevention detained her back for $48.
She was arrested, booked and photoed. She lost her job as a nurse before she was cleared but the damage was already done.
Walmart was wrong….
thanks for the details
😞
Just shows that big corp has to be extremely regulated if allowed at all. Shit like that doesn't happen at the small private store around the corner.
Tbf, I think her employer should be liable in some way. She did nothing wrong and they should have at least held her on unpaid time, and then put everything back to normal once she was cleared.
@@orppranator5230 Well, the question would be is being accused of a crime a legal reason to fire someone. If not then she could sue and would have to proof that she was fired for that and no other reasons.
Wow, she can afford to start shopping at Target now.
At least for a month or two!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
OK, you win this comment section.
🤣🤣🤣☠☠
At Whole Foods.
Walmart once sent a detective to my house looking for my roommate, accusing him of stealing a case of beer. It was a Sunday morning and he was going to attend an NFL game and stopped by a Walmart on the way out of town. The stadium is an hour and a half from our house. He had in fact purchased the case of beer but did not retain the receipt. The transaction was recorded in his checking account statement since he used his debit card. They must have gone the length of getting his plate number to track him down. It was insane because if they had just looked at the transaction log the whole issue could have been rectified. Come to find out, sale of alcohol in that county was illegal before noon on Sunday and the cashier had mistakenly sold my roommate the beer and was afraid of losing her job at Walmart so she told her manager he stole the beer. The accusation was even in the local newspaper.
What a stupid law. I never understood the hourly limit at night for liguor stores either as that apparently only works for those that buy alcohol in very small quantity apparently. You can go in at 11:59 tho and buy a case of 90 proof.
If your roommate was named in the newspaper as a suspect, I hope Walmart paid him a sizeable settlement.
That's an incredible story. Your roomie should make his own video.
Interesting. So it's illegal too sell booze before noon Sunday. Is it illegal to purchase booze before noon Sunday? ie the vendor would be acting illegally, but the purchaser wouldn't? Just curious.
It's common in southern states to prohibit alcohol sales before noon on Sundays. It's a carryover from when "they" (the religious majority) didn't want people showing up to church drunk.
Since the law prohibits the sale of alcohol, not the purchase of alcohol, the liability would be on the store.
BUT... You'd think when some items are restricted they'd alert the cashier. They do it for spray paint and alcohol to request ID, why did the register allow the cashier to complete the sale without a manager override?
Walmart doing shady things? Well, I'm just shocked.
Their associates. I've seen the flyer instructions or whatever sent by home office as to what the door monitors should and shouldn't be doing. And it explicitly states that they are not there to check receipts. If ppl are, it's store manager or door monitor taking it upon themselves to disregard instructions from home office and do these things.
No worse then your elected government. Keep voting republican and democrat! It's working great!
i'm shocked that you're shocked!
@@mcfirebug It's a shockingly shocking situation!
😄
I ran a cash register at WalMart for sixteen years. Everything that WalMart says "It could not possibly happen" regarding a register malfunction, I've seen it happen.
Yeah you know those units that you swiper credit card with and now you use an electronic you know near field payment with? I program those the firmware for them, I know exactly how they work and how they malfunction and can always mouth off to any employee that tells me they think they know how it works, I can just say yeah what version are you running? Damn have a clue, I can tell by the way these things act whether or not they've updated their systems or how far behind they are in version just by the behavior of the machine and the unit.
I don't look for it but I know when I walk into a particular store like a Walgreens or CVS a glance at the register I know what kind of problems I'm going to have when I walk up to that register and I'm ready for it, the God damn it you got to get your stores updated.
@@jasonbourne1596 I've been saying that for years ! ! If the customer complains loudly enough, they will get their refund. If there **really** was such a law, they couldn't refund without filling out some papers, at the very least. Even while I was still employed there, I was telling my fellow associates that WalMart was passing off company policy as state or federal law. I actually agreed with a lot of company policy, but it was not law !
@@DanLoFat I know that feeling. I once fixed a computer modem at my local public library that wouldn’t connect from a wholly different room, just by listening to the handshake tones. Wrote a note, asked for a manager, explained why they were having trouble, and gave him the note with a simple fix on it. Their next try after he went back there connected flawlessly.
I worked for NCR where the registers come from and installed them. They mess up all the time.
There was a man who owed another man $500. The man who was owed $500 was complaining to a friend of his that he couldn't collect the money because he didn't have proof that the man owed him $500. His friend told him to write a letter to the man demanding his $1,000. The man promptly wrote back and said he did not owe him $1,000 but $500. Now he had it in writing.
That's brilliant. I will remember that one.
👍🏼
Who are going to believe me or your lying eyes
What if he wrote back telling him he was crazy?
I love it.
“Pay us $200 or bad thing will happen.”-Definition of extortion right there.
There should be criminal charges (Racketeering, Fraud and Conspiracy) against the CEO of Walmart for allowing this practice.
"Allow"? Of course they don't allow this practice! They actually have pretty strong procedures in place to prevent precisely this for precisely this reason. The problem is … all of that depends on humans.
@@knghtbrd : That's absolute BS... the CEO not only "allows" such behaviour, he likely "encourages" it. In short: it's Company Policy, it's orders.
If Walmart had "pretty stong procedures in place", this would never ever happen.
The fact that it does happen, shows, that it is at the very least tolerated. The fact that it happens so often, is more indicative of it being standard operating practice.
Yeah we need to hold CEOs liable if they want to claim they're a person and got rights
You know your country's legal system is a circus when this is a valid business model for a company.
@@TheBooban yea but the government looks out for big brands like walmart. So we can sue whoever for whatever but it wont go any where most times
@Welcome to Clown World! Same everywhere. There's always going to be folks gaming the system
@@Troll_vs. people Sue Walmart all the time and come out on top.
@@SirBrass More people game the welfare system. Capitalism works but it isn't capitalism if the government gets involved. Socialism is a colossal failure throughout history yet the morons vote for it over and over again and the government is more than happy to oblige.
@@jimlovesgina nothing you said I disagree with
Remember the it's WALMART that has ALL OF THE RECEIPTS from ALL OF THE REGISTERS and can likely determine exactly what has been paid for (within seconds if they inquire into their system) and what is not paid for in any specific situation. They have cameras to tell which checkout stand was used for any purchase.
You know Walmart's policy of checking receipts, everyone knows by now. If you don't like the policy, Don't go there.
@@shuffleB i don't even bother showing them i just walk right out i never signed any contractual agreement to show it to them
●●● Ronald. According to news reports on the story, she used a "self-checkout" register and she claimed it "froze".
If I was using a "self-checkout" register and it "froze", I would call a store employee or manager over to straighten it out. I certainly wouldn't just pay what the register said IF I thought/knew that it had "frozen".
From the way I read the stories about it, it sounds like she just paid what the final receipt said. In other words, if she scanned a head of lettuce and it read $2.59, and then the machine "froze", saying EVERY item from then on cost $2.59, you should realize that there's a problem. Now, maybe you might think that you can get away with paying $2.59 for the 30-pounds of lobster (because the machine said that was the price), but I wouldn't chance it. I'd call over a manager to straighten it out.
@@edhartgrove7552 From the sound of it, none of that matters. Whether she actually did something wrong or not was not the question. The question was, did Walmart do something wrong? Now I have not read up on this case and the article Steve was reading from sounded so poorly informed that I see no reason to read it but I see no way a jury is going to award 2.1mil in damages for a letter. There has to be more to it like constant harassment, reporting the debt to credit agencies destroying her credit score, etc. That has to be what the case is about, not anything she did or did not do.
@@edhartgrove7552 While i tend to agree with you, i also want to say its not my problem in a situation like that. If i use one of those stupid self checkouts and i scan an item that i know to be $10 and it says $2.59 oh well not my problem. I'm getting sick of these stores, including others, putting in self checkouts and removing cashiers to make it the customers job to do their work. Maybe if they want better control they should have cashiers again?? I don't understand how they are operating lately either, my local Wal-Mart took out a half dozen registers to put in self checkouts, yet most of them aren't open when you need to check out, chained off and out of service, so everyone is forced to wait in line for a few self checkouts or wait in crazy long lines for an actual cashier. And if you have a cart load of groceries good luck, there is three of the belt conveyer self checkouts but only one is ever open in all the times i have been through there. So yeah, if i scan an item and the price is wrong, tough, not my job.
from Nytimes reporting:
“During the civil trial, which lasted about three weeks, the judge criticized Walmart for the “intentional loss” of the security camera footage, according to court records. The judge, James T. Patterson, said that the court would advise the jury that the videotapes “were destroyed by the defendants with the intent” to deprive the plaintiff of the benefit of seeing them “and that the jury therefore is to presume that the content of the missing videos would be adverse” to the defendants.”
Instant federal crime by a judge.
I used to work Asset Protection for Walmart. Sounds to me like they didn’t meet all of their steps to even approach her.
You have to be seen selecting the merchandise.
You have to be seen dispossessing/concealing the merchandise.
You have to walk through the store with the merchandise.
You have to pass the last point of sale(usually the alarm towers) with the merchandise without paying for it.
They must observe you doing all these things in order to stop you. With Walmart, that person stopping you must be authorized. Only a salaried manager and asset protection can stop you per Walmart Policy.
Furthermore, if you did in fact pay for the merchandise, every transaction is saved into their system. There’s record of every transaction for a set amount of time. On top of that, there’s cameras over the very single register both scan & go and manned.
Many of us in AP are by the book but many more are not. Some will take risks and bypass steps just to get a “stat”. I’ve been pushed about my stats and did not budge about being 100% by the book. I was harassed about it until walking off the job for another company.
Do I believe her case? Hell yeah I believe her case because I’ve witnessed a bad stop blatantly happen right in front of me more than once. Worse yet was one engaged in that behavior, that person replaced me at my first location.
As I understand, most major retailers have a similar set of rules, and lawsuits like this (plus the associated bad PR) are precisely why. Snopes even has a story (confirmed true) of a pregnant woman who was wrongfully detained after being accused of stealing a basketball and awarded a fat sack of cash.
This actually doesn't have anything with the arrest/detainment/stop which you outline perfectly.
This case is about the collection process under Alabama law. That whole law should be struck down. You can't collect from innocent folks.
@@hedonismbot1508 doesn’t take a fact check for me to confirm this is true. I see APs circumventing those policies all the time either in person or by video. I’ve been associated with Security for just over 17 years with 11 of it in Asset Protection. Part of the problem is that Walmart has become too big to control its own stores on an individual level. Worldwide they have over 14,000 locations and well over 2,000,000 “Associates”. There’s way too much internal politics associated with that company. I got retaliated against, micromanaged, and ultimately forced to walk off the job simply for discovering internal activity regarding the wrong person. It’s not who you are but who you know. They let internal dishonesty slide if that person can throw enough weight around. They made my life a living hell for 3 years and I’m still hanging on to evidence of all of it should I ever be called to testify. Attorneys wouldn’t take my case because of how big they are even though I witnessed sexual harassment and disability discrimination which factored into what I passed up the chain. It’s been 2-1/2 years since I left so I doubt I can revisit the idea of filing a case on them.
@@KabobHope what my point is that had Walmart Asset Protection at the Store Level like the APA or AP ASM done their job by the book per their own policies, she wouldn’t have been the subject of those collection notices. It all starts with the surveillance process which must be done properly. Had it been done properly, none of this would happen.
@@KabobHope This story illustrates that you CAN collect from innocent folks if they pay you after you send them a demand letter.
Home Depot faced a class action lawsuit several years ago for exactly the same thing. The HD clerk would ring up a flatbed cart of items with the wireless scanner, the customer would pay, then another employee would accuse the customer of "stealing" something that the cashier didn't ring up. No charges would be filed, but then the demand letters started. Then came the lawsuit.
I do not understand how you can be held liable on a purchase that was checked out by an employee, then paid for by the customer, especially if the customer did not realize that something had been missed. If the merchandise is in front of the store employee, it isn't the customer's fault
Reminds me of an experience I had long ago. I went to a now defunct home improvement/lumber store. I bought a half pound of small nails and paid a little over $3. At the exit, Barney Fife stopped me and wanted to see what I had bought. He had a clear view of me buying these at the register but wanted to be an AH. I told him it was my property and it was no longer any business of his. When he still blocked me from leaving I dumped the paper bag on the floor and told him to count them. He went ballistic, threatening me with prison terms for stealing from his store. I laughed and walked out. It was worth $3 to see him pick up all those trim nails.
I hate picking up trim nails! I would of done the same thing.
I think we all know why that store is no longer in business. :-)
@@Maximara I think it was a Sutherlands store. At the time we had that and PayLess Cashways. Both were gone when Home depot came along, and later Lowes. I still miss being able to buy nails and screws by the pound though.
😂😂😂😂
How to avoid any type of negative encounters at Wal-Mart: Never shop at Wal-Mart
Oh how I wish I could afford not to
A lot of communities- like mine- have no choice. They ran all the other retailers away.
I kept waiting to hear if something was actually stolen by this person or not.
He kept saying they were accused of stealing from Walmart,but that doesn't mean they actually stole.
7:30 he said they were dropped
An article I read stated that the lady used self checkout and it malfunctioned which resulted in her being stopped.
2:43 charges dropped.
@@joshuagibson2520 @pizzafourlife that still doesn't answer the question. Charges get dropped for all sorts of reasons, only *one* of which is the accused not being guilty.
@@ElectroDFW well considering she won a court case, I'd assume she wasn't guilty. Also the fact Walmart refused to show the video footage makes me suspect they just use this as a cash making operation rather then stop-loss
I just watched a news report about this and they brought up a good point, there's cameras at each self checkout, but Walmart never produced a video showing she shoplifted 🤔
Years ago my family had something similar happen. My mother and younger brother, 14 at the time, were shopping at a department store, that no longer exists, and at the end she asked him to go get a large sack of dog food that was shelved on a pallet on the sidewalk in front of the store while she waited in line. After about ten minutes he hadn't returned so she went looking and eventually found him in the security office being accused of shoplifting. She left without making any purchases and we discontinued our patronage.
About two weeks later a letter much like what you describe arrived demanding $200. We are in CA so there's something about that value that seems oddly consistent. We have a family lawyer retained and asked them about it and they suggested we send the company a letter redirecting further communications, that was the last we heard of it.
Our lawyer also explained that what was going on amounted to a legalized scam. The key thing to understand was that bit about "or their agents." The security agency hired by the company has part of their compensation tied to an enforcement quota, perfectly legal apparently since they are private security and not leo's. So they set up the displays exactly like they do to catch people doing exactly what my brother did, taking a full cart over to the heavy merchandise that happens to be outside the store, and accuse them of stealing.
The other day, I walked out of Walmart and the guy at the door asks, "Do you have a receipt?" I answer "Yes." Guy at door asks, "Where is it?" I replied, "It's in my pocket." All while I just kept walking.
gee you must be so popular.. did everyone look and you and say “you are so awesome for standing up for the right to shop but not have to follow store policy!”
@@PaleoWithFries I was the shopping cart. I clapped for his bravery
@@PaleoWithFries Goes to the conversation at the door...The person at the door say's "got a sales slip?"....The customer says "got probable cause?"...usually dries up the conversation...
@@PaleoWithFries No, but they all clapped!
Are you okay? Is life that difficult that you can't deal with human interaction while shopping? I suggest sticking to mail order.
Okay, I work in retail for a long time whenever a Walmart employee accuses someone of theft it is usually the other way around. The employee with the manager is stealing items and pocketing money off the items. The accused is a scapegoat.
Good point. Thx.
Will always remember that.
My receipt is in my pocket.
I'm walking out with MY property.
I don't tolerate thieves.
i would recommend to avoid wallmart as much as possible
I have sworn off Walmart. But...I help a church lady who HAS to shop there.
Everytime I pull into the parking lot there are idiots driving crazy all over the place. Thats my first problem. Then you go into the store and there are employees all over the place...and they get in the way and act like nobody else is in the store.
They have a thousand employees on the floor but TWO open registers. They are trying to get people to self checkout. I dont work for them. Each time I have to go into Walmart I let them know, while I'm standing in line, how horrible Walmart is. I swear...if it wasn't a waste of my time I have thought about going through the store in the morning and loading up the cart with all sorts of frozen stuff and other perishable items....and then just go sit in the shoe section where there is a place to sit and watch youtube videos for 5 or 6 hours until the stuff melts and then just walk out of the store
@@williamgullett5911 male Karen moment kek
@@ungabungus01 dont you have a video game to play?
In the past 2 years I've been to Walmart once.
I have to admit I don't miss it at all.
So they can gouge money out of your wallet just from an ACCUSATION, that has not been confirmed?
i’m glad there are people, like you, doing what ya’ll do. as an undergrad who sadistically signed up for constitutional law,. i found out PDQ it wasn’t for me. suffered 2 semesters. lol. promptly changed majors.glad you persevered and we need more just like you.
Just saw an asset forfeiture case for 100k a (formerly active) Marine had siezed from him with no evidence. Disgraceful Gov't conduct .
This happened to me on my son's 2nd birthday. I was tasked by my wife and others to remove my son so that they could decorate for his party. I took him to walmart to see all the toys and ride on the coin machines, etc. I did a little shopping too. When I was done checking out, a man walked up to me real close to my face and insisted that I show him my receipt and the contents of my bags. My son was scared of him because of his posture so I popped him up on another coin ride to calm him down. After searching my bags and comparing the contents to my receipt, the curmudgeon walked away without acknowledging me at all. Another employee refilled the bag with my items and handed the bag to me. No apology, no thank you, no nothing. I was pretty mad but it was my little guys birthday so I picked him up off the coin ride and took him to the playground until I was allowed to take him back home.
TLDR: In my humble opinion, WalMart thinks everyone is stealing and treats customers like criminals.
That's a short-sighted policy. A good steady customer is worth more than $200.
Supposedly Walmart made hundreds of millions this way in the past two years, seems like legalised extortion.
Yes, but the mafia knows how to keep paying customers paying.
If I get a letter from a random company saying I owe them money I assume it is a phishing scam, and ignore it.
The specifics of this case are really needed to determine the severity of Wal-Mart's indescretion. The spectrum goes from her actually shoplifting but the charges being dropped to some crazy cashier picking her out at random.
The procedural history resulting in the jury verdict would be interesting as to how she managed to give the jury the ability to award the penalty.
As to how bad of a practice the jury was punishing, the whole issue is many states give retailers the authority to send a demand letter for civil theft and just by the manager approving the letter and it being mailed....it is legally enforceable. The only due process is the unknowing office clerk giving the bulk mailing to the USPS. It can then be issued a judgement and enforced from wages or assets
None of that matters in the slightest in this case. She was accused of shoplifting but all charges were dropped. Case closed, end of story. This lawsuit was about Walmart's conduct AFTER that incident. This case was about unlawful debt collecting, not shoplifting.
I don't think we still know if she indeed shoplifted.
Steve didn't provide a link or much real info in this case
She is a nurse, she was at the self-checkout with her husband and three kids and the register malfunctioned. She said a Walmart sales clerk assisted her in getting checked out. Then as she was leaving she said an asset protection employee stopped her and detained her. She said they accused her of stealing the 48 dollars in groceries. She said she was arrested and charged. Walmart didn't show up for court. They refused to provide video of her at the register stealing anything. The case was dismissed. Then Walmart started sending her letters trying to get 200 dollars from her. She sued and they lost. They make 300 million a year doing this apparently.
ha, there was a walmart ad before the start of the video. on another note.. nancy walton bought the super yacht jubilee , a 110 meter vessel for 300 mil, sent it in for a refit ( basicly a remodel / update) for another 70 mil. operating costs are roughly 30 mil / yr ( not including if you want to go anywhere..) so a couple mil is really nothing...maybe a tender..
A couple mil is the fuel costs to go from Gibraltar to the Azores.
Numbers most people can't imagine.
I got banned from Walmart for life.
I was shopping and I used the restroom to empty my ostomy bag, don't remember what I ate to make it fill up like it did but it filled up fast.
Washed my hands adjusted my bag in the mirror,so it wasn't a noticeable bulge under my shirt. Went out continued to shop. Got the items I needed paid for the items, left the store and was almost to my truck when there was a plain clothes security I guess,who grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around. I don't like to be touched and we had words about what the hell are you doing youngster? He told me he needed the item I had under my shirt. I asked him just what the hell are you talking about little boy? The kid was about seven foot tall, And continued towards my truck. He told me I was under arrest for shoplifting. I told him I have a receipt for every item I purchased. He replied he needed the item that was under my shirt. I told him it was none of his goddamn business what I had under my shirt now go away before it turns into a shitty day for you. He stated that he had watched me on the security camera that was in the bathroom and I definitely had something under my shirt. And I told him once again it's none of his business what I have under my shirt now go away before you have a very shitty day. About this time the local police showed up. And I was detained for suspicion of shoplifting. Handcuffed up against a cop car. And now the store manager is there demanding I be searched. And I keep telling them what is under my shirt is my business, not your business go away and leave me alone or you're going to have a really shitty day. The store manager took that as a threat and started screaming at the officers about me threatening him as he reaches under my shirt feels my ostomy bag about half full again and start yelling at me what is that under your shirt that's my store property. I told him once again it's not his business what I have under my shirt. It's not his store property. And if he keeps it up, he is going to have a really shitty day. So he reaches under my shirt grabs onto my ostomy bag and pulls it off me. Screaming okay what is this then? He just broke the seal where the bag snaps on to my side it didn't break the seal where it's fasten to my skin. And he is standing there with a beige Hollister ostomy bag half full of diarrhea. And he gets stupid and squeezes it. Now he has diarrhea running down his arm and dripping off his elbow screaming and yelling at me about what is this shit? And I told him exactly. You just assaulted me and removed my ostomy bag. Remember that shitty day I promised you? Now the cops are standing there laughing their asses off. I turn and explain to the officers while I was in the store I used the restroom to empty my bag, I adjusted it in the mirror after washing my hands, evidently Walmart has a camera in the men's room where numbnuts here watches people doing their business. Gee imagine what pervert they have watching little girls in the ladies room. And the manager start screaming that isn't true we do not have cameras in the restrooms. And I said numbnuts here the jolly green idiot told me he seen me doing something under my shirt on the camera. I made my purchases and if you could remove these handcuffs,I can provide you with the receipt. This man grabs on to me here in the parking lot. Threatens me with arrest,if I don't give him what's under my shirt and like I keep stating it's nobody's God damn business what the fuck is under my shirt. As you can see. The manager is still screaming because he has shit running down his arm. I assaulted him with a biohazard, he wants me arrested. I tell him shut the fuck up bitch, you're fucking whining is giving me a headache.
I have two officers here that witnessed you reach into my shirt and forcibly remove my ostomy bag which is a medical device that I need to function daily. After I repeat it over and over that it's none of your business what I have in my shirt. Now go wash yourself up you're starting to stink. Reached into my back pocket pulled out a clean fresh bag and clip lifted up my shirt snapped it on, told the store manager you can keep that one. The officers are still laughing at the situation. We have known each other 20 plus years,we have coffee together some mornings. They know this isn't the first time this has happened because of my ostomy bag. And a security camera in the bathroom of a store. And one of the officers stated we clearly witnessed him assault you and remove your medical device ,do you want to press assault charges? I said yeah on both of them the jolly green idiot over here who grabbed me and spun me around and detain me. And the gentleman here that seems to be having a shitty day. Now the manager starts screaming about having me charged with trespassing because I am now considered a trespasser and banned for life from Walmart. I load my items in the back of my pick' em up truck and go to leave with the manager still screaming he wants me arrested for trespassing. The cops tell him drop it haven't you stirred up enough shit today now let's talk about these cameras in the restrooms. And that's the story of me being banned for life from Walmart. That Walmart, my town has two and then 7 miles away there's another one.
So are you banned from all Walmarts, just the one that this incident occurred, or just the 3 in your area?
Probably none at all if Wal-Mart has fired those two idiots.
How much did you get from the lawsuit
@@TheKuptis there is the supercenter that I have been banned from. It's the just closest one. And I didn't feel up to driving too my usual one.
It's a strange crowd up there.
And then there's the customers.
But they have no problems with me going into the regular little Walmart in town my usual one a few more miles north that was built before the supercenter, we have two Walmart stores in this little town, when I first went there I looked at the entrance I said to the old lady, babe you know I used to grow Columbian right here back in '72, the guy at the sporting goods counter knows me by name because I'm in there every year buying us fishing license, for the last 20 years I can think of 15 he's been there,then I also buy worms, like weekly, during trout season on my way to the lake.
knifes, fishing lures, line, weights,another rod I don't need, that she usually tells me no ,you can't have that,but I buy it anyways when she lets me out on my own, and she knows I'm going to buy it as soon as I'm let out on my own. drop down over the hill there's a Walmart that the old lady and I used to drop $500 a visit at least, per week, we had children's and dogs and they eat and require things,the grandbabies require things that the kids were never bought, because I am grandpa,
Back when she used to dance down the aisles to the music. And I would follow pushing the cart because I enjoyed watching her. Now it's I throw my cane in the side of the cart use the cart to hold myself up and she gets one of the electric cart grocery baskets thingies. And all she can do is bitch about the price of everything.
I think the kid lied to you, I can't imagine where it's legal to have a security camera in a restroom.
After I got out of the army I went to work for time Warner cable as an installer. I had been told by my trainer multiple times keep track of your work. But he wouldn’t elaborate. I was doing well for about 3 months with no problems then someone broke into my house and stole a backpack with my work laptop in it. I figured no big deal I have a police report. After telling work and reporting to my boss, equipment I installed at customers homes some how were never got attached to the work orders. Work started demanding me pay them for the “loss” of equipment, equipment that was in use that had their own IP addresses all attached to the cable system. On the day I quit I had talked to my trainer again. He had said that this was a common problem any time that work wanted to update boxes. They would higher new people and randomly charge them with missing items
In my state, shopkeepers exemption allows Wal-Mart/thier employees to stop or hold a person accussed of theft only with R.A.S. accusing and holding someone without R.A.S. is still false imprisonment and defamatory.
We are here because we love this....when you say "I'm not gona get into it"...GET INTO IT! Noone is going to stop you from going deep. This is one of the best channels on UA-cam.
My wife (and I) was once accused of stealing her own breast milk by Walmart. I guess they thought it was formula and didn't realize formula is behind the counter with the cigarettes. It was in a clearly worn bottle. At least they stopped and felt like an idiot when we asserted it was breast milk.
That's just ridiculous I'd have been really upset
This seems similar to speed camera operations. The big firm in my area sends false tickets in the mail, but is a firm out of Texas, and essentially has no jurisdiction, and discards the law in state that say a ticket must be signed to be valid. It has been discontinued but was essentially sanctioned blackmail. Thank you for what you do sir.
Thanks again Steve awesome work 👏 👍
I saw this earlier and was like I hope Steve does a video on it.
Just say no to Walmart ! Once you make it a habit , it feels good to drive past without stopping at a retailer that treats its customers and employees with disrespect. 💪🙂
YES!
If nobody shopped there for a week, they'd go bust.
All those times that particular Walmart used that outdated law thinking it was a cash cow, then get blasted for over two million bucks in litigation. A feeelgood story.
According to another poster, that department made over 200 mil last year. Drop in the bucket.
Not really, because it hardly brings justice for the thousands who have paid up.
Apparently this woman lost her job as a consequence also.
I wonder if a class action is in the works now that this case gives precedent for plaintiffs wrongfully accused and then extorted by Walmart to actuality be able to challenge the big corporation and reclaim funds
Nobody ever collects much of anything in a class action lawsuit. The lawyers get the major funds while the victims get a few cents.
Class action lawsuits ought to be illegal for that very reason.
@@ralfie8801 More depends on how much damages are sought and how many members there are of the class. Also people do not have to participate in a class action if they want to pursue their own litigation, they just have to opt out and get their own attorneys
@@ralfie8801 If a class action suit was ONLY for injunctive relief (changing things instead of seeking money), it would be a useful tool.
@@MonkeyJedi99
OK, but that wasn’t OP’s statement. It was about getting other Walmart victim’s money back.
@@MonkeyJedi99 there are a lot of people this would harm. think if each and every person of a town with the population of 100 people had to file there own lawsuit for a chemical contamination. It take years for the class action to get through the courts. say on average it takes a week for each case to be heard. it would take 21 years for all of the cases to be heard. Just depending on where it happens that would be the same judge having to hear the same case over and over again for 21 years.Then the appeals would start and would take 21 more years so it would take 42 years for the last case to be heard by the appeals court.
So corporations are more important than the citizens. Brought to you by D's and R's.
Dang wish I would have got a lawyer when AT&T filed fraudulent debt claim against me, I could have retired with lots of money many years ago.
AT&T has been an expert at putting wrong charges on my cell bill. When I contact them, they always say "oh, I see it, you're right, that shouldn't be there" and take it off but the mistakes are never in my favor....
@@mattobermiller5041 AT&T claimed I hadn't paid my bill for 6 months, went into the office with all payment receipts, month later they sent fraudulent bill to collections.. was a mess to get fixed, then collection agency wanted to collect their fees from me. Year later AT&T pulled the same stunt, I blew my top went straight to the office and let EVERYONE know what a bunch of idiots they were and where they could stuff their service and contract. second stop was collection agency. Was without long distance for a few years till another company offered long distance in the area.
When AT&T bought direct TV I dropped direct TV.
She was arrested, had a mugshot and everything. She won her case because no one from Walmart went to court. They started sending her letters afterwards when it was already dismissed.
Ben between the two electron tubes behind the Coast Guard plaque.
Had this same exact thing happoen to me and not a single lawyer in the entire state of maine wanted anything to do with the case ! in Maine you can get away with anything so long as you are wealthy not a single lawyer in sight will want to sue you.
Portland Maine here... I just wrote about how this works in our state
Easy solution, be wealthy yourself. Lawyers will line up to take your money no matter how frivolous the lawsuit.
@@wingracer1614" easy solution... be wealthy" indeed. Your enlightened thoughts have made Charles Dickens so proud. Merry Christmas kind sir 🎩
Quoted from the expert witness (02:17): Walmart made "A couple hundred million dollars" over the past two years. If accurate, that's a racket in itself. A follow-up on the appeal amount will be of interest. Good show. Regards.
These laws were enacted in most states in the 90s. With all of the mandatory life sentences for a marijuana joint and 3rd strike lifetime sentences for what was otherwise a misdemeanor.
Giving corporations the ability to demand civil remedies and back them up with civil courts was pitched as reducing the caseload in the courts and enabling alternatives to incarceration and saving the taxpayers money by leaving the government out of equation.
By calling it a racket, you're assuming that the people being accused did not in fact steal anything.
@@michaelsommers2356 Innocent until proven guilty. It is on the accuser to give evidence. If no evidence, then the presumption is the customers are in fact innocent.
@@nowthatsjustducky It's not a question of innocence or guilt; it's a question of whether the person stole something.
@@michaelsommers2356 Exact same damn thing. If you have zero evidence that the customer stole from you, just leave them the hell alone.
Once I pay for my merchandise, it is my private property and I do not have to prove ownership to anyone.
I don’t know what happened. But I would assume Walmart did something particularly egregious for the jury to spank them with 2.1 million dollars.
Yeah I'm thinking it was constant harassment, credit reporting damaging her credit score, maybe even posting her pic in the store to be on the lookout for her, stuff like that.
Or the jury just didn't like Walmart.
Or perhaps they all agreed that extortion is extortion no matter if it is protected by state law.
Wal mart probably spent more on their defense than they did on that award.
@@metamorphicorder Well, if you believe the information in the comment section, then no, the judgment was higher then what they spend on defense. Apparently they didn't even show up in court.
hey! this is my city! this was a big deal from beginning to end, glad you covered it!
This is good. Maybe they'll provide some training to their employees. You can't just accuse people of shoplifting. These are nuisance lawsuits that people can't afford to fight.
It’s called civil compromise and Walmart leads the industry in these claims. Once they get your identity they threaten legal action if you don’t pay.
@@JCCreations2009 How uncivil and uncompromising
I suspect that the vast, vast majority of their accusations are correct and captured on video and that’s why people comply. This one must have not been and it’s gonna hurt!
@@MoneyManHolmes > big corporation
> "legitimate" claims
🤑
@@MoneyManHolmes The vast majority just pay it even if they didnt do it.. Because they know they could go to court and still loose and be out more money
The article I read said that she was approached while leaving with her groceries and they said she didn't pay. It wasn't totally clear but she said she did self checkout but the register malfunctioned in some way. Apparently she decided to just leave instead of getting help. They stopped her and called the cops. It also said charges were dropped but didn't explain how or why. Walmart did say they were going to appeal. My understanding is that she didn't actually pay for the groceries but was stopped before leaving with them. Since she didn't technically take them her argument is she shouldn't have to pay anything and their argument is they lost money because they couldn't resell stuff she made it out of the doors with but not all the way home.
I was a store Detective a long time ago in MA and they started a new law under the 266 statutes [klepto statutes] separate from the shoplifting laws that stated that any retail store could sue in civil court for the costs of apprehending the shoplifter, [average of all costs], from $50.00 to $500.00 [determined by the Judge] whether or not the shoplifter was actually prosecuted or not.
The 15 store chain I worked in 'profited' $40,000.00 the first year, [and they had the merchandise back] it was a message !!
When making a stop, we always had to 'see' or have in our hand some merchandise before actually accusing them, and we would quietly say "I want to talk to you about the merchandise you forgot to pay for", this stopped a lot of fights.
We rarely ever 'jumped' on them yelling "You're under arrest", even though we had arrest powers as it was too confrontational, why look for problems.
A lot of pro's would bait us into stopping them for a 'false arrest' suit, it was usually $500.00 to $2000.00 settlement !!
""I want to talk to you about the merchandise you forgot to pay for", this stopped a lot of fights." This is incredibly smart phrasing both legally and psychologically.
@@bnorberg988 Yeah, most of them would then say, "Oh, I did, damn it, can I just go pay for it", to which we would say, "sure, but we have to go to the office to do it", and then we would decide to arrest them or not, mostly for attitude !!
@@dougwalk8034 And TBH I bet a fair amount of them just stopped coming to your store out of embarrassment. And some probably stopped shoplifting all together. Not saying all of them but I'd imagine a good portion of them.
I was working for an outside vendor but I did a lot of my work at Walmarts in MA. About a decade ago and had someone approach me. I swear he looked like he was only 12 or 13 years old. He opened his coat showing a badge and a walkie-talkie. He said he was store security. He wanted to know what was going on with a woman I'd been talking to earlier, she was clearly having some sort of mental illness episode. I just told him "I think she's off her meds or something!" and then he started following her. Just one of the many many weird things I saw in Walmart in the short 3 years I did that job.
@@dougwalk8034 when working retail during my college years, I caught store security stealing items 3 times. In each instance, the head of security ignored the incident and the thieves continued employment
Steve do a video on your thoughts on UA-cam removing public "Dislikes!
We do have problem in Scotland where businesses frequently take a civil dispute and contact the police who turn it into a criminal case. It's so disappointing that specific retailers have lost the skills of negotiating with customers and agreeing how a disputed amount should be paid. Likewise I have seen a petrol retailer categorising a customer with lack of funds the same as one that fills up and drives off with no intention of paying. Ultimately its the retailers who are losing out as one bad experience like that and the customer never goes back.
There is a saying I've been taught when I worked in retail. "A happy customer may tell one other person. An unhappy customer will tell everybody."
I gas not...
Wow I didn't even think of that angle.
If it truly is a civil matter, calling the police wouldn’t do anything, since they lack jurisdiction.
@@bergmanoswell879 The police may try to act like it is a criminal matter so they can get a bigger bonus or a promotion.
During this holiday season i did something different at Wal-mart. Everytime i shopped there and was asked if i had my receipt while leaving, i would hold up my reciept but continue walking out the doors. Since i never said or did anything that could be construed as suspicious and the alarm never went off they couldn't order me to stop.
Prosecutors will not go after shoplifters in many cities, let Wal-Mart take these thieves to court. Thieves though, not just anyone.
Thank you for sharing this
Walmart has an average of 200 cameras in every store, including at least one pointed at each cash register. If they need to see your receipt before you walk out the door, they're not using their cameras properly. When they ask me for my receipts, I pretend I'm deaf-mute and keep walking.
I don't ever say anything or stop. When they ask me for a receipt. I just keep pushing my cart.
@@richardpuckett8127 funny thing is, that's exactly what the thieves do, too.
@willdwyer, how many people do you think watch those cameras? I guarantee you, not 200. If you think even 10 people can keep track of 30 customers all checking out at the same time and verify that all 10 to 50+ items each of them are buying (on average) are scanned before being put into the bags, then you don't know people.
It is also how normal retail goes you pay you get recipt and walk out. Thry gave no grounds to stop u
@@ElectroDFW it's also what non thieves do. There is no law requiring you to stop for a Walmart employee. At Sam's you agree to it as a member. I don't stop to show a receipt to someone that watches me pay a cashier to check me out.
I recently had that encounter at a Walmart in the cold north. I am walking out and the"associate" jumps out and asks for my receipt.
I tell her she hasn't asked the people before me for my receipt so she must go ahead and ask the people behind me for theirs.
The associate countered with I had my goods in my hand and not in a bag.
I counter with the absurdity of logic, so she tried to use the Costco argument. I told her I agree to that when I signed up there , but I have no agreement with Walmart. She then asked which cashier I cashed out at. I told her to go check her camera. After tearing a new one to the store at customer service, I left the store.
"If a person commits an act..."
Isn't that the crux of the matter? Did Walmart prove the woman committed said act? What evidence did they have for the accusation of theft?
If they had no evidence or at least no reasonable evidence, then they're just being a bully. Sue the bastards!
The arrogance of
power.
The arrogance of
corporations.
That's the whole reasoning behind the judgement; They didn't have any...In most 3rd world countries, people get beat/burned to DEATH for a theft accusation...
Hundo, unfolded, behind the small transmitter tube, on top of the left OED cabinet. 315.
Well for those who think they will get rich if they don't show their receipt the first rule of Dunning Kruger Club is you don't know you are in Dunning Kruger Club.
Always interesting and educational. Thanks Steve.
So, WalMart will wrongly accuse customers , but lets their employees walk out the back door with loads of merchandise.
Thing is she wasn't wrongly accused. The register malfunctioned and she didn't pay. No idea if she knew that at the time or not but is hard to believe she didn't. If you don't have a receipt that's a good indication you didn't pay.
Most businesses experience more theft from employees than the public. Unfortunately
Employees are prosecuted regularly. We had a manage here stealing money from the safe and he was arrested. I am sure it isn't the practice of the entire company to wrongfully accuse anyone of anything. Some stupid-ass employee went overboard and you morons want to bankrupt the company over it. Good grief.
It's like security at a Federal office building. They go over you with a fine-toothed comb to get in, but you can pretty much walk out with whatever you want. ;-)
When i worked there our bags were checked in the way out. I stopped carrying a purse because i thought it was a set up. Most of the things in my purse were purchased at Walmart. So i was being proactive against accusations you can say.
Falsely accusing someone of a crime, is a crime.
That law incentivises companies to make false accusations
That also fits the definition of extortion.
Exactly like those RIAA and ADA lawsuits, they are counting on people paying the demand without fighting.
.
Walmart needs to get rid of their Barney fifes. Now keep in mind in my state it is either open or concealed carry, Walmart doesn't deny anyone the right to carry and don't tell customers they aren't allowed to. Well my wife and I went into a Walmart in Norman Oklahoma, we were in the process of moving and needed a few rolls of tape. I was armed like I always am, the Barney Fife comes up and tells me I'm illegally carrying a firearm, (at the time license required). Barney informed me he was going to be confiscating my sidearm, I then informed him that would constitute armed robbery since he was an armed security guard, I then informed him he needs to learn the law because if he attempted to rob me I would defense myself in kind. At this point the asm for that Walmart informed him there was no rules against me carrying, I then reiterated to the mgr he almost caused a deadly confrontation. Thankfully that one did wind up firing him.
I worked at a Sam's Warehouse for a few months. If Walmart got rid of all of its Barney's, customers would not only have to ring up their own merchandise, they'd have to do all of the stock work and cleaning, too. Virtually everyone I worked with would have been special yellow bus passengers. It was quite depressing.
I never use the self checkout lines because I figure if I screw up they can charge me with shoplifting. Now I see that might not be such a bad idea lol
Steve I saw that and still scratching my head over the whole story / truth. I had a machine freeze up at different places. Esp. now we have more kiosks around. One double charged and the other didn't. Almost all the time the Clerk watching the machines came over and was able to tell at the machine or the (main terminal?) what happened. If the payment went through or not. I can't even remember the last time I had to wave somebody down to help me out on a crazy kiosk.
Well, I had a bad experience with Walmart also,me my son and his mother went shopping together and my son went off by himself and grabbed a few things and went thru the check out and then met with us at the self checkout,as we were still at the check out they approach us saying we didn't pay for the things my son already paid for well he showed them the receipt and they still accused us of stealing,it was so embarrassing and furiating I will never go there again,if they apologized that would have been ok cause it was a honest mistake on their part but they didn't and still treated us like criminals even threatening us, I was so pissed 😡
Yeah don't forget about the little girl who apparently I think she either pick up a Barbie doll and took it with her through the store and was thought to have stolen it police showed up pointing guns at the people in their car after people had left the Walmart and driven to another location, swearing at her all kinds of unprofessional nonsense this is a famous case, I believe the mom had actually purchased the Barbie doll it wasn't actually stolen, so yeah Walmart got sued for that too not just the town and the police.
That was not a settlement either that was a case that went through and then also civil rights violations were charged and those officers don't have jobs
I believe they need the burden of proof to demand anything!
The thing I don't get is it is $200 and this is walmart we are talking about, sure for a small business this might be worth pursuing, but even before losing this case walmart was probably spending more money to send these letters then they were taking in.
Deterrence is PRICELESS
What's not to get? They do this millions of times a year and take in hundreds of millions of dollars. I think you understand, you just don't want to admit the system is BS.
The civil statute is at the state level so all they need to do is create a mass mailing from the same incident reports that are filled out during the encounter.
The extra cost to send demand letters is about sixty cents including postage, materials, labor and overhead. These people presumably had reason to provide Walmart their identification details. $200 for written agreement that the matter is resolved would likely have a success rate that would shock the conscience. They have decades of experience fine tuning the letter and target audience. You better believe over half pay within a month. Send slightly different letters as follow up after 30 and 60 days and more will pay.
Remember, they don't have to provide any information about the alleged theft. They can file small claims and likely get default judgments on the few who don't pay voluntarily. In the rare event the defendant attempts to challenge the case in small claims, the statutes specify the demand letter is valid and enforceable.
This practice has made news before. It's been going on for many years. There is a reason the jury awarded so much money. They wanted to punish the company.
This is easy revenue under cover of state law. There is a reason Walmart has always heavily invested in state legislatures.
This is just another flavor of the beacon of freedom that is the United States.
Keep up the great work Steve.
Steve get your story straight before talking or maybe WKRG got their story wrong. WKRG printed that She was arrested, mugshot taken, but the criminal charge was dropped when no one from Walmart showed up to court
In Texas they tend to say if you'll pay us this amount we will drop or not fall through all the charges if threw all the charges. Basically you by your way simply out of a criminal complaint
Dude I got chased down and accused of theft! It was like 2am and i was looking at bikes for my son. It was crazy!!!
And………..
@@robertott2631 I wish i could tell you it made me a millionaire.
I wish any body would accuse me of theft..Trust me I would take them to the cleaners!
Interesting piece, more interesting that immediately following this video, an ad of Walmart pops in to say hello 👋
i think for big corporations and businesses with a history of false arrests, false bans from store for stupid reasons that make no sense, should require a trial, evidence and jury and creating false fraud or stolen claims should be a instant fine from the individual store they do this in. stores in high crime areas need to be closed, and the check receipt policy should be a check cameras policy. where they stop you and see if you match the description of the shoplifter, and if you don't, they let you go, if you do, only THEN a store should be allowed to contact law enforcement, and footage should be accessible via a tablet for law enforcement so they can properly see it so police can properly conduct a investigation instead of relying on 2 parties just arguing without evidence. i also think for teenagers who try to shoplift, i think retailers should bring back the policy where they hire on teens to make up enough money for the items they stole, because i think thats what happened before the whole mandatory minimum wage thing got put into law, and that starved out criminal intent to shoplift in the first place.
My local walmart which I trying to avoid unless it under 10 items has gone to all self Checkout. I wonder how much losses they are having.
That means Walmart could literally sue you for civil purposes without ever going to court?
If I got a letter like that I would tell them to file a small claims action and I will see them in court. Do you think they will waste a lawyers time on that?
@@mexicanspec And then they hand it over to a collection agency that not only calls you constantly but reports it to the credit agencies, damaging your credit score just as you were about to get a mortgage for a new house.
@@mexicanspec clearly they do, they also will negatively impact your credit score, along with whatever else they feel like doing. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they can even take this up in Civil Court without a conviction.
@@wingracer1614 Then you have a hell of a law suit against all of them.
@@chubbysumo2230 I don't think they can. With a credit car you sign a contract. They can come after you for the money. In this case there is nothing but the stores word with no independent party to verify it. I think a huge law suit against all involved would stop it in its tracks. You can recover all you lost for the lower credit score among many other things.
Walmart computer check out will not allow sales of alcohol before appropriate Sunday time determined by your state legislative law. In Texas it is 10 am, previously noon.
👀Wondered why they didn't ask for it today.😂😂😅😂😂
They primarily ask when you have something not in a bag. This situation seems entirely different than anything I have heard of due to it being a local law being abused by walmart. But here the walmarts catch thousands of dollars of merchandise per day trying to walk out the door. So I dont feel bad for most people upset about receipt checkers. Now in Virginia they can't make you so I get that every state is different, clearly with this case lol.
The thing I don't understand is, how is it that she got $2.1 million dollars over the settlement? Who and what decides the amount they are to receive?
The jury.
Why not call out directly the media outlet for misrepresenting the facts. Granted it would cut into your available material but I think you’ll compensate.
There will be future updates because Walmart has enough money to appeal a few times. Typical when companies have lawyer on retainer so it doesn't cost anything to sue, until now.
I wonder if the jury did see receipts of the groceries she purchased.
Lawsuit was filed by an attorney, well I certainly hope that it was
It sounds like she got them on the “they must determine the validity of the accusation before approving collection”
Steve all this is interesting but the real question is Are you pulling for Michigan, Alabama or UGA?
I've seen you wear the clemson shirt but they are out.
Letter from Walmart, “you owe us $200 please pay us in Walmart gift cards send them to this address”
She could have possibly avoided that by not giving her name and adresss. They probably would have called the cops. I don't know if, in that situation when cofronted by cops inside the store, she can refuse to i.d. TThen the cops would no doubt arrest, then she could get the store for false arrest as well as the original false accusation.
They had her arrested and then didn't show up for court or provide any evidence. They probably got access to her information as part of those proceedings and intentionally didn't show up or take any steps because letters are cheaper than lawyers, paying employees to show up in court, or even checking the cameras. Also false arrest is not something you can get the store or the cops for as easily as you seem to think.
@@kerfluffle3781 I've seen people get awarded in small claims. I know it's a small amount but someone like wal mart would remember something like that.
Civil demand is in every state in one way or another. Every retailer with a loss prevention program does this. It's a kind of back door register. We seldom filed criminal complaints, just had them sign the civil demand letter, took a picture of them holding or sitting next to what they shoplifted, had them trespassed and escorted them out the door. Unless the subject refused to sign, show their ID, or the dollar was over 299 dollars. We collect on average 150k each year this way.
I was falsely accused of shoplifting at Walmart when I was 15. I brought an almost empty sun screen with me since that day was hot as hell. I was looking at the Georgia souvenirs and wanted to get my wallet to get my money then I decided to leave the store. I was totally immediately surrounded by employees and guys in suits. They took my sunscreen. Apparently they started to panic because I refused to give them my id because they really didn’t have the proof that I actually stole something. Without having a huge knowledge of Constitutional law back, I made them afraid because they were afraid of a lawsuit. I bet they are thinking that I’m an young attorney 🤣🤣
Lawsuit filed 3 years ago just now comes in. Now the appeals start. The claimant will never see a dime of that money. Ever.
they can seize property.... seize a whole entire walmart
@@punker4Real It's really special that you think that would ever happen. Ridiculous but cute!
@@tvideo1189 they seized a bank before... police were robbing the bank xd
see "Homeowners Foreclose on Bank of America"@
don't think this can't happen
Hey Steve you said that the charges were dropped so maybe there was an arrest? Just wondering 🤔🤔✌️
Hey Steve, legal question about debt collection.
If I live in NJ and a debt collector from Pennsylvania harasses me for a debt I don't owe despite me providing proof that I don't owe it, whose jurisdiction would my legal complaint fall under - NJ or PA?
Must be nice to live where you can sue for false accusations. I get falsely accused of shoplifting all the time. Once in spite of BOTH a receipt AND a cashier backing me up
I have never been accused of shoplifting, but I did do it three times. Twice as a juvenile (gum once, a box of D&D miniatures the other time) WAY too long ago for charges to be levied now, and once by accident two years ago.
In the accidental case, it was an item I forgot was on the bottom of my cart, and I went right back into the store from my car and paid for the item. The person at the service desk was stunned I bothered to come back in for a couple of dollars.
@@MonkeyJedi99 That's why it's often called "shrinkage" when businesses talk about product loss. It can be theft, unintentional missed items, or even crates that fell off the truck (I have seen a UPS truck blow several packages out the back and onto the curb, but kept driving even though I honked lol). The business doesn't necessarily know which; they can only tell by tally that the numbers don't add up. So the whole loss is referred to as "shrinkage."
I shoplifted once when I was three (those Energizer batteries were super shiny) but not since then. Though, I don't really pay attention to what I did or didn't pay for, so maybe some things got missed over the years.
A few years back I bought several small items in walmarts electronics section , which had it's own register. Receipt in hand items bagged I went to leave. Stopped at the door for a receipt check the lady checked each item on the list against the bag. Now having been checked I start through the door and the alarm goes off, the lady springs into action grabbing the bag, an off duty police officer starts over ...I went to annoyed rapidly but held my tongue. The lady empties the bag on an unused register and proceeds to check each item off the list again, bag returned she tries to keep .my receipt ...I make a point on demanding it back, good thing as the alarm went off again. The cop is closing in ...the lady is walking toward me looking annoyed...I wave them both off with a raised forefinger. By now everybody is looking at me. So given I had an aduancy I decided to speak. My voice is somewhat quite, unless they awaken , my inner ,John Wayne...sounds of it never cease to amaze people. " Ladies and gentlemen, should you find yourself embarrased by this damn alarm after having showed your receipt, please follow my lead. Take your purchase to the service desk demand the manager and 110 percent of your purchase price. Some laughed some applauded others thought I was a thief... young lady at service desk the manager is busy, tell him the price goes to 120 percent in 2 minutes, at 5 mi utes it will go to 10,000 percent with my lawyer...got my 110 percent in 30 seconds...the smile on the service girls face was the best...yea I'm that kinda asshole.
10:16 Canadian Robot Lady is a glass half full kind of person 👍
It boggles my mind that people are still willing to shop at walmart.
You couldnt pay me to go back into that awful store.