Reader J was detained and harassed by some Walmart employees on his way out of the store the other day. J had already put his receipt inside his wallet after purchasing a $25 shower rack when a Walmart employee demanded to see his receipt. J declined and continued exiting the store. That’s when things got weird. First, he was grabbed by a Walmart employee, then another customer started pushing him back inside the store.
Yesterday (2-28-08) late afternoon I bought a $25 shower rack at the Wal-mart in [redacted] New Hampshire, and then tucked the receipt safely inside my wallet so I wouldn’t lose it in case I had to return the item. The cashier did not bag the shower rack, so after I was done at the register I picked up my item and headed for the door. As I was approaching the door, the receipt checker Bob said, “Do you have your receipt?” To which I responded, “Yes, it’s in my wallet” and I kept walking towards the door. Behind me, I could hear him yell “Sir! Sir! I need to see your receipt!”, but being an avid Consumerist reader, I knew I didn’t need to stop, so I kept walking. Bob ran up in front of me and stood between the slider doors, blocking my exit and budging me back inside. Appalled that the Wal-mart employee had just touched me, I said “excuse me”, but Bob refused to budge, demanding again to see my receipt. I attempted to walk around him, but he kept stepping in front of me, and I would bounce off of him. Now, I was bigger than Bob, but I didn’t wish to get physical and blow the situation out of proportion.
At this point however, a random male customer came to Bob’s assistance blocking the exit and pushing me back inside. The customer, who was bigger than me, told me to show Bob my receipt. When I refused, the customer responded with “Maybe I’m a cop”. So now I have Wal-mart employee Bob and a customer impersonating a police officer physically blocking my exit and budging me back inside when I try to press by them. I was scared. I repeatedly asked the two of them if I was free to go, to which Bob said, “No, you need to show me your receipt.” At this point a female employee shows up (I think her name was Cindy) and joins in telling me that I need to show my receipt. The police officer-impersonating customer disappears at this point, but Bob is still physically rebuffing my attempts to exit.
I argue with the female employee for a while, getting nowhere, but for some reason Bob FINALLY stops pushing me back when I try to walk past him, and at this point I consider my illegal detainment to have ended. As I am outside the store and about to walk away, the female employee says something to the extent of “Fine, we’ll just write down your license plate number and tell the police you were shoplifting!”
Now, due to the nature of my work, I cannot get in trouble with the police, and any arrest, regardless of my guilt, could cost me my job. So at this point, I responded to her with “Are you kidding!!?? You’re going to lie to the police?” She shrugged, and walked back inside. I followed her, demanding to know what her name was, and although she didn’t tell me, I think her nametag said “Cindy”.
Currently standing back inside Wal-mart near the exit, I whipped out my cell phone and called 1-800-Walmart, and reported what just happened to someone at corporate. At this point there was a lot of onlookers because of the commotion, and I was extremely embarrassed. Anyways, I pulled out my receipt in order to read the person at corporate the store number, and I could see the look of surprise on the other employees’ faces. The corporate phone jockey took my name, number, and said someone would get back to me. After I hung up, I switched my phone to camera mode, looked at Bob who was still standing a few feet away from me, said “Smile, Bob”, and snapped his picture (attached).
At this point, General Manager David arrived on the scene, and told me that I can’t take pictures of his employees, that it’s a violation of their privacy (Hah!). I explained to David what just went down, and how it was not acceptable for his employees to lay their hands on me and to threaten me with making a false police report. I was actually surprised with the following discussion I had with David, who was nothing but professional and sympathetic. He understood how completely wrong his employees were, claimed that he’d review the security cameras (yeah right), and that his employees definitely needed some “retraining”. I thanked David for understanding, shook his hand, and went home.
I’m still waiting for the call from corporate. Wal-mart needs to understand just how much is at stake when their employees illegally detain customers. Their employees are literally putting their lives on the line. What happens when a customer is carrying for self-defense and fears for his life when a Wal-mart employee illegally detains him? Is it really worth it, Wal-mart?
I’m considering making a police report about the situation, but I’m not sure I want Bob arrested. Sure, I think that what he did was criminal, but he was just a below-average-intelligence, under-paid, and under-trained employee trying to do his job. Should I make the report?
Yikes! All that for a shower rack? Why didn’t the employee put one of those “sold” stickers on the stupid thing so that they wouldn’t have to launch a criminal investigation as you walked to your car? We don’t pretend to know the mind of Walmart, but we’re pretty sure their policy isn’t to attack their customers and file false police reports about them over a $25 shower rack.
Bob probably will not be arrested if you file a police report about the incident. If you were thinking of filing a lawsuit against Walmart for their behavior, you’d need to file one to use as evidence, but you didn’t mention that in your letter.
A formal complaint to Walmart is appropriate. If you file a police report, include it with your complaint. These employees obviously had no idea that what they were doing was wrong and are in need of some guidance. We’re surprised to hear a story like this from New Hampshire. Aren’t you guys supposed to be all “Live Free or Die?” Did the Walmart employees not get that memo?
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@sandwiches:
You are willfully exclusionary in your arguments. You seem to leave out a good bit, such as, yes, a store can detain someone for reasonable periods under shopkeeper’s privilege if they have reasonable suspicion. But not showing a receipt is not reasonable suspicion. Walking out with unbagged merchandise and not showing a receipt is not reasonable suspicion. The accused must have been witnessed doing something while in the store that would make their actions suspicious.
I was all ready to give cites, but Crymson_77 beat me to it.
@BugMeNot2:
“Walking out with unbagged merchandise and not showing a receipt is not reasonable suspicion.”
Hold on, that 42″ plasma TV in the corner belongs to me.
@Crymson_77:
”
“As for shopping at a store that has policies we deem crappy? Where are we supposed to shop then? I rather prefer the tactile feel of an item and checking its features prior to buying…the internet can’t do everything…
Sorry to quote so much… this thread is just getting so long =)
No, I understand that. You can’t possibly believe that ALL stores are crappy? There are other stores that have these items available. My question is why patron a store that you feel so strongly steps on your rights every time they approach with the receipt request? There are other stores that do not. It just seems like, by the response that was given, that the take is “I’m going to do what I damn well please and disregard everything else” when given the solution to shop somewhere else… I equate it to this… Q: Why walk into the wall when you can go through the door? A: Because I’ll eventually get through.
LOL
Hmm.. maybe it’s the ‘fixer’ in me =) Who knows…
Where’s the keg?
@Crymson_77: Seeing a person walking out with an unbagged item while ignoring requests for a receipt do constitute reasonable belief. It doesn’t say unequivocal evidence. Would most reasonable people BELIEVE that someone is stealing something if they walk out of a store with an unbagged item in hand and purposely ignore the employee asking for a receipt? I would definitely be more than a little suspicious.
It’s actually kind of funny that we’re talking about this. I just bought a Wii at Wal-Mart, a week from this past Wednesday. While the guy at the electronics department was taking out of the glass case, I noticed they only two there and asked if that’s all they had left. He answered that they started only bringing out two at a time, since the day before two men had pried open the case, took out two Wiis each and made it for the door where they were detained after they wouldn’t acknowledge the person asking them for a receipt.
Again, I think almost any reasonable person would agree that someone walking out with an item in hand deliberately ignoring the employee at the door is more than enough “reasonable belief” to think the person may be stealing something.
@cwubbs:
Oh, golly, gosh, gee whiz, let me prostrate myself at your feet…I missed that degree in loss prevention that you were waving around…
The whole point is that Wal-Mart can say all it wants that being intrusive and arbritrarily accosting customers who have legitimately finsihed transactions in their stores is a form of loss prevention.
However, the fact that I am refusing to comply calmly and quietly with a request that is rude and unreasonable isn’t costing you a cent.
@toddy33:
No, no loss prevention degree, just the business management and finance ones…
Please open a store so I may shop there, grab something off the shelf, and refuse to show you a receipt when you wonder why there’s no bag or ‘paid’ sticker. This situation may not have gone down that way, but, you know what? The receipt checker doesn’t know that. I’ll be lucky though… YOU wouldn’t have the checker =)
I’ve said all along, I don’t agree with the way this person was manhandled. That is just unthinkable. However, the point I’ve been trying to make is that it could have been PREVENTED. People keep saying that there was no probably cause. I could see the no probable cause if he had a bag, a BIG PAID sticker on it, or a receipt taped to it. But, he had NONE. THEN refused.
@cwubbs:
The legal definition of Probable Cause to detain a suspected shoplifter:
You must see the shoplifter approach your merchandise
You must see the shoplifter select your merchandise
You must see the shoplifter conceal, carry away or convert your merchandise
You must maintain continuous observation the shoplifter
You must see the shoplifter fail to pay for the merchandise
Take a gooooood look at that last one. Where does checking for a receipt enter into it?
@sandwiches: Sounds like a need for Walmart to get a better case. As a counterpoint to your argument, the receipt checker placed their own life on the line for 4 Wii’s….were I their manager, I would have been sweating bullets that the two asshats didn’t kill someone in the process of taking the Wii’s. Most times, it is a FAR better idea to just let them walk, keep the footage, and file a police report. You just never know when someone will go “postal” on you and kill everyone on the way out of the store.
Another counterpoint:
I don’t steal. I have no need or want to steal. While some other asshole in the world may feel it necessary to do so, I don’t and never will. If I can’t afford it, I don’t buy it. Now…there’s a solution to this problem…stop with the Welfare crap, make people get to f-ing work, and then we won’t have problems like this as they will actually HAVE money to buy shit with…
@sandwiches: Walmart gave the item to the person unbagged.
If Walmart really thought an unbagged item was reason enough to think someone stole, wouldn’t they have a policy to tape a receipt to the item?
Do they enjoy setting customers up?
Walmart gave the receipt, they should know who they sold to. If they don’t, their system is poor (especially since it is voluntary) and they shouldn’t illegally detain or harass customers for that.
If he was still inside the store, but was headed towards the exit door than they have the right to ask for a receipt,think about their rights to control or to stop shoplifting,we all pay for shop lifting,can they afford to allow a customer to walkout of their store with some thing not in a bag, or tag? I would gladly show the receipt if helps prevent shoplifting
@toddy33:
I think I’ve stated over and over… yes, and over again that after the receipt debacle, I don’t approve of what happened afterwards, didn’t I? Yep, I’ve said it.
The issue, again, is that I don’t see WHY it was so hard to show the receipt. How HARD was it? The time and energy exerted to NOT show the receipt was way more than reaching in the wallet, which was done LATER, and flashing it.
To find the act of ‘requesting’ the receipt rude and insulting? That’s just taking it personal. If they said, hey you, you look shady, where’s your receipt, then ok. But, they ask random people for that final check and it’s just rude and offensive to some.
Again, for the 6th (7th??) time? I don’t agree with what happened to that person after the receipt debacle.
@cwubbs: Sorry cwubbs…it isn’t random. The are causing a line to exit the store by attempting to ask _everyone_ for their receipt. They are essentially telling everyone, “You suck you sucking theif. Show me a receipt and I will stop calling you a sucking theif, you theif.” That is just offensive to me. I’ve said it before, I will say it again. Walmart needs to solve their OWN shrink problems. It might also help if they paid less at the top end and more at the bottom end when it comes to people.
@cwubbs:
I don’t agree with what happened before the receipt debacle, either.
It’s not a question of hard. It’s a question of the assumption on the part of the store that it’s okay to exert an authority that it doesn’t have in the first place, and then treat people as criminals for not bowing to them.
As I’ve said for…oh, for heaven’s sake, I’m not even going to go back and count.
Sigh. We’re just going to have to agree, in the longest of long runs to disagree about that.
as far as i know, wal-mart doesn’t have sold stickers to give customers on their way out; it’s such a shame…
@brent_w: ummm, carrying a store product NOT in a store plastic bag and refusing to produce a receipt DOES look suspiciously like shoplifting. they DID have the right to detain this person. Now, if the shower thing had been in a Walmart plastic bag and he wasn’t doing anything suspicious while shopping or exiting the store, that would be a different thing. But I still wouldn’t make an issue of it to this extent. Sorry man, I think you were a bit of a jerk about this whole thing. Just show them the f4#@ing receipt!
ARRESSTED?????
Are you kidding me?
This guy really thinks he would get in trouble w/ the police if they gave them his license plate # and said that he stole something.
Police: “Ok maam, what did he steal?”
Dumbass Employee: “Ummmmmmmm, he had a shower rack in his hands”
Police: “Did he make an attempt to pay for the item?”
Dumbass Employee: “Well……he didn’t show us a receipt when he left”
Police: “Do you have proof that he left the store w/o paying for the item?”
Dumbass Employee: “Ummmmmmm, well…………….. hey we sell pens like that, can I see a receipt please?”
Police: “Ok maam, we’ll be on the look out for that car”
Police(to his partner after he leaves): “Another BS call…..Where do you want to eat”
Gotta love walmart.
Yeah, if that’s suspicious, they need to take in the cashier as an accomplice for giving the guy an item w/o a bag.
…and obviously the leadership for their policies or corporate culture of detention influence
@Crymson_77:
At least the Walmarts I’ve been too, and as of late, I must admit, I avoid as much as possible, but, the ‘requests’ were random. Were. Now, SAM’S club… gawf… talk about a LINE. I often wonder if those checkers really count everything. What happens if the shopper has 45 items? Do you think they really count those?
Ok, tangent, I know.
oh this reminds me of the time they stopped me to check my receipt for the $10 toilet paper I had just purchased-forget about the $400 worth of electronics in my bags!
@mystikphish:
“Thanks, you too.”
♥ I am s0 going to start using that one… nice.
I guess I would have walked out, and walked right back in and returned the shower rack…THEN I would have went to Target and bought a shower rack.
I guess I don’t feel bad for him he shops at Wal-Mart, you kinda get what you deserve.
Isn’t receipt-showing ” guilty before proven innocent”? Until you are seen yanking something off the self, then followed out the door unpaid, then leave us alone!
Please. He created the biggest tempest in a tea pot. Next time, just show the monkey the receipt rather than poke it with a stick. And don’t give me that slippery slope to totalitarian regime because some underpaid washout in a nylon vest got a little above himself. Show the receipt, be on your merry way. Call the Walmart hotline with a complaint and then don’t shop there anymore.
And isn’t that the lesson we should take from this? Shopping at walmart is a bad idea.
Have you ever shopped at WalMart? You enter, find your merchandise, pay at the cashier with your hard earned dollars only to be stopped at the exit by WalMart’s “Gestapo” who detain you while they ask for your receipt, and then proceed to search your cart and shopping bags to make sure everything is listed on the receipt?? I have contacted several attorneys regarding this matter and have found that this WalMart practice is in vilation of both Federal and State Laws as it constitutes illegal detention and illegal search without probable cause.
I have petitioned our district court for leave to pursue a “Class Action” law suit against WalMart for these civil rights violations, and hereby invite anyone who has been similarly detained and or searched to contact me at blueyedtallone@hotmail.com for information regarding your inclusion into this Class Action suit, it is my hope that we can find enough violated patrons to file in Federal Court as well. Thank you for your attention to this very disturbing practice by WalMart.
Pretty much the same thing happened to me a Dallas area Wally World. I had bought a tv stand and was taking it out if the store when I was asked for a reciept. I declined and the employee laid his hand on me. I politely offered to let him remain concious if he removed it. He called for reinforcements as I left the store. A manager chased me and again demanded the reciept….I again declined , he threatened to call the cops. My resoponse was that “go ahead…..it’s not illegal to shop at Walmart…but it should be”. He wrote down my licese plate as I left. I never shop at Wally world any more Target is a much better store .
Why didn’t you just show the guy your receipt? Jesus! I hate reading these things. The employee is just trying to do his job and you are just making his life more difficult. These things shouldn’t come to harassment, but you were being an asshole. No one’s trying to accuse you of anything. They’re just trying to make sure people don’t just put on a confident face and walk out of the store with any item they want. Anyone can be indignant. It doesn’t assure the workers that you aren’t, in fact, stealing. You were the jerk first. And you could have tucked the receipt safely back into your wallet when you were done. Asshole.
What makes this policy even dumber on behalf of walmart is they don’t care which bag you put it in. I use reusable bags and i have never once been asked to show my receipt. If someone was smart they could cart up stuff in reusable bags and walk out of the store. You could walk off with hundreds of dollars of stuff and no one would be asking to see your receipt.