Father & Son Cut In Line At Walmart, Go To Jail
When 26-year-old Edward Pluhar Jr. decided to walk past the people waiting in line at Walmart's customer service desk over the weekend, he probably didn't expect one of the men he dissed to confront him over it. What he and his father really didn't expect, however, was for the guy to be an off-duty police officer who doesn't appreciate being threatened.
From the Star Press in Indiana:
The police officer [Chris Kirby] told Pluhar Jr. he needed to wait his turn, but the Frankfort man purportedly refused.
[His father, 61-year-old Edward R. Pluhar Sr.,] then allegedly approached the off-duty officer, told him to mind his own business and asked whether Kirby wanted to take the dispute outside.
When Kirby asked Pluhar Sr. what his intentions were, the Frankfort man purportedly said he would kick Kirby's posterior and also suggested he might shoot him.
Kirby then informed the father and son that he was a police officer and called emergency dispatchers to send an on-duty officer to the scene.
According to the article, the Pluhar family then left the store and the off-duty cop followed them and stood behind their van until the police arrived. Pluhar Sr. backed into Kirby's leg with the van, and Pluhar Jr. got out of the van and physically fought Kirby. Then the police showed up and arrested the Pluhars.
We feel there should be a jug of moonshine somewhere in this story. It was probably in the van.
"Father and son try to cut to front of line, go to jail" [The Star Press] (Thanks to Tom!)
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Comments:
Boy, how many times someone has done this and you wished you could do something. Pretty funny stuff!
My faith in the world is restored for a day!
I know this is not how Dane Cook would have handled the situation.
Haha...I would LOVE to see someone try to cut in line like that in NYC! Then you'd be hearing about a mass stabbing at the Wal Mart!
Walmart: You Cut the Line, You Do the Time.
look up karma in the dictionary and should find a description similar to this...
Frankfort is not a nice place, really. I don't like to drive through it, let alone have the balls to cut in front of someone at Wal-Mart. Guys are lucky they just went to jail.
This story is awesome. Glad to see the line-cutters get what they deserve.
I am so happy about this! But that's because I'm all about right/wrong. :)
And how could anyone possibly dis the home of the Frankfurt Festival?! Or whatever they call their hot dog thing.
Bravo!
Fortunately this doesn't happen to me often, but when it does I like to go with attempting to shame the offender. I put on my "outside voice" and go, "EXCUSE ME, THE END OF THE LINE IS BACK THERE..." This tends to result in someone else in line speaking up too. Add more than one voice to yours, and you're that much more likely to get the attention of a manager or other authority figure.
But if the law opts to get involved, even better.
Because in areas where that is the case, walmart has all but replaced the other places which in times past would have been the venues for those crimes.
Why get so bent out of shape? It's not like Wal Mart would give you your money back if you made it to the front of the line.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen smaller injustices (getting cut in front of in line and then threatened if you speak up) like this and thought to myself, "See, and all of our policeman are stuck at speed traps and stuff like that and they're never here to keep the peace in this small but meaningful ways."
Nice to see I was wrong at least once. We really need these bullies like this lovely father and son pair knocked back down a peg more often.
Although I find this hilarious. Cops really need to charge people when they stand behind a vehicle in an attempt to block a person's exit. It's not right to charge the driver for backing out for hitting a person who refused to move. In these cases the person who was hit knew the vehicle was backing up and purposely stood behind it. You shouldn't be able to purposely throw yourself behind a moving vehicle and be considered the victim.
The threats in the store are legit charges, but hitting an idiot who is purposely standing in front of a moving vehicle cannot logically be the fault of the driver.
It does sound like though that the "might shoot him" part is something the cop is over exagerating to make the threats be more serious so he can claim he had a right to detain the guy. i.e. stand behind his van.
The worst part of this is that the cop knows full well all he needed was the license plate number and a squad would have been parked in their driveway by the time they got home.
I have nothing to add other than, ha ha, serves you right.
I remember being in line at Great Adventure around Halloween for Fright Fest. The line was LONG, extending into one of the stadiums there. This was around the Red Sox-Yankees World Series race. My Ex and I were in line and this lady who was decked out in Red Sox gear and talking loudly on the phone about how great they were tried to cut. A chant started of "Cut-ter, Cut-ter" till there were literally hundreds of people chanting and pointing at this lady. Security came in and removed her, to a HUGE round of applause.
LMFAO - I went to school with the younger guy, the dad coached our basketball team. This kind of thing isn't all that terribly surprising from the younger Pluhar, would've expected better from Sr. though.
Did they really have to say posterior? That's what cracks me up. I'm not sure why. Maybe "threatened with bodily harm" would work better? Of course, newspapers have always struggled with how to convey the threat of a good ass-whoopin.
$10 says they were trying to "return" something they picked up off the shelf too!
I used to work at a service desk at a much classier competitor of wal-mart. People try this crap all the time. I don't know why they think that they're somehow more deserving than everyone else, but it's sadly not uncommon.
It's an unwritten rule at the service desk - if someone behaves like a decent human being, the policies are a lot more relaxed for them than for the jackass that comes in and throws a fit, cuts in line, etc, etc.
Guys like this.. heh, we saw them, pretended we weren't watching, then promptly went to the rightful next customer.
If only someone would do this for the Boxing Day (insert your country's line-up-for-deals-day) sales. Every other time I go to one there's someone trying to cut into line. Half the time the managers at the stores turn a blind eye to it. I'm going to bring raffle tickets next time...
@lalaland13: He said he would, quote, "apply his podiatric area to the gentleman's glutoid area with force" end quote.
It also bears mentioning that these two are huge - Eddie (the younger guy) was something like 6'5" last I saw him - as a freshman who was still growing. The dad is at least 6'2". They can be fairly intimidating.
@Corporate_guy: If the person blocking your vehicle is threatening your safety, you'd have the right to strike them with the vehicle in self defense. If they have identified themselves as a police officer and informed you that you're being detained, your right to assault them with your vehicle is much less clear, and unlikely to be upheld in court.
If you feel that they are detaining you unjustly, place your own 911 call, or wait for the officers they've informed you are en route and explain your case. If you've threatened the officer with bodily harm directly prior to his blocking your exit, your chances of prevailing in this matter are probably very slim, and rightly so.
Junior had to learn it from somewhere. Nice thing is that they get to learn together this time!
The best time to return something to Walmart is 10 minutes before closing. The lines are short and they move fast because the employees want to get home. Also, the employees are tired and don't want to argue, so they'll take back even a half-eaten ham without any questions.
@Daniel Parmelee: Because 2/3 of people are shopping at wal-mart. And because they are the retailer America loves to hate.
@billbillbillbill: Yeah, I usually just keep my mouth shut because I don't want to somebody to escalate the situation, but secretly I'm beating them up in my head.
@asten77: "It's an unwritten rule at the service desk - if someone behaves like a decent human being, the policies are a lot more relaxed for them than for the jackass that comes in and throws a fit, cuts in line, etc, etc."
Thats customer service in general...
@shepd:
As an employee, a lot of times I was busy with the customer right in front of me and didn't want to take my attention from them to monitor a line full of adults. I depend on the customers to police themselves and act civil. When I do get a sense that someone has cut, I usually ask, something to the tune of "Wasn't the person behind you next," or "Oh, I apologize for the confusion, but the line starts back there..." as non-accusatory as possible.
As much as we wish people who cut in line could go to jail, I'm going to say threatening the police officer was kinda the key element here.
I'm going to venture a guess that the officer wasn't armed, he didn't do quite the smartest things letting them leave the store, hop into their van where they might have a shotgun under the seat, and then run into him.
@Corporate_guy: The worst part of this is that the cop knows full well all he needed was the license plate number and a squad would have been parked in their driveway by the time they got home.
Not if the vehicle was stolen. There's also going to be a heck of a lot bigger of an ID issue to prove, plus there's no guarantee what'll happen next, and uncertainty can be dangerous.
Also, in regard to your "cops really need to charge people who stand behind vehicles" - one would think that getting run over was punishment enough.
Way to blame the victim!
"Indiana: We've got more arrogant rednecks than most Southern states!"
Full disclosure: I live in Kentucky, and Indiana scares me.
That's what happens when "uncle dad" takes his sn out for a nice day of shopping.
@Corporate_guy: Have to go with what's been said already. The fleeing duo were resisting arrest. That too is a crime. The officer found a creative, non-threatening way to hold these two. It's their own fault if they want to add battery of a police officer to assault and resisting arrest.
On the one hand, it seems like what could have been an idle threat was escalated when it might have been simpler to let the idiot go home and brood. On the other hand, people need to learn to treat each other better and simply won't unless they're being watched.
It's just like when police pull over the guy doing 75, but not the jerk weaving in and out of traffic at 60. We need more cops out of their little speed traps and in our centers of commerce. Maybe a few positioned at Chuck E. Cheese seeing how many fights break out there.
@asten77: When I worked retail in college, a guy threatened to kill me after I refused to help him after he cut. Later, I added a bunch of movie rentals to his account (that he didn't rent) and he went to collections over it. I feel a little bad it went that far. It was all cleared up eventually as a "glitch in the system". But I was still satisfied he had to go through all that to clear his account. I would've gladly just punched him in the face rather than doing that though.
@Corporate_guy: Actually I couldn't disagree with you more regarding the whole hitting the cop with the car issue. They were attempting to flee the scene of a crime. They were fully aware of the fact that he was behind the car and chose to back up into him, albeit slowly, all the same. It's on thing for him to have made his heated comments to the officer when there was no awareness of his status as a police officer. It's an entirely different one to back up into him knowingly.
Unless there is a fear of imminent bodily harm you may not resort to self help in the form of physical force.
Only a complete moron does anything forceful or disobedient towards a cop because in the process of being detained and/or arrested they hold all the cards and you'll just end up getting charged with something on top of what they originally stopped you for. Go along with the ride and then sort everything out...
He shouldn't have done that but if someone (not a cop on duty) stood behind my truck, trying to block me on purpose, I'd run him over without hesitation.
Why is it that two-thirds of all crimes seem to be committed either inside of, near, or because of Wal-Mart?