This makes me absolutely fucking livid. I hate receipt checkers, and I hate being treated like a thief. If one of those people tackled me I'm not sure how I'd react.

Why the hell didn't he call the police? He was assaulted. Hell, even if he did steal it, that would be considered assault.

Oh awesome. Receipt checking, Walmart, XBOX 360, and violence, all in one single story just days before Black Friday.

Methinks Chris Walters is trying to troll all of us.

I'd file a police report ASAP. Chances are WalMART has video surveillance of the parking lot and the whole thing might have been caught on tape.

@gp1138:

The receipt checker didn't tackle him--the other customers did. The receipt checker then came and "grabbed [his] arm"

Your principal complaint is with the bozo who tackled you and who is subject to an assault charge. Maybe the store has tape and you can identify him from that.

I don't know if this would fly but the receipt checker might be guilty of aiding and abetting the assault by his actions.

That said, it sounds like the XBox was not in a bag so it would not be unreasonable, when you started running, for someone to think you had stolen it. Different story if the product was in a WalMart bag.

Would it have killed you to show the receipt?

I don't get these repeated WalMart stories. I worked Best Buy loss prevention for a time, and it was made *perfectly* clear that we really couldn't do anything. If I ask you for your receipt and you say no, I can't do anything about it. Hell, if I *know* you're stealing and I don't have you on camera 100% of the time, I can't do anything about it.

I don't get why WalMart seems to train their LP people into thinking they're literally law enforcement.

Is the Mars colony open yet? Cause I want to go live there and tell this planet to go F itself.

Press charges

A friend whose brother is a lawyer says to respond like this:

"Are you accusing me of shopflifting?"

If they say no, say have a nice day. If they say yes, offer to go in and find their evidence. If they have none, you have a case for a law suit.

If they touch you its assault.

Wow, yes, I would file a police report and then press to get the security footage so you can press charges against the one who tackled you and the one who started the small riot (Greeter). Walmart needs sent a message that consumers won't be treated like criminals.

Police. Call them NOW. Assuming this really happened.

The simple fact that he didn't call them on the spot sets off all kinds of red flags and makes the whole thing reek of fallacy.

You don't say that "you know your rights" and then do nothing to hold parties responsible for infringing upon them.

@H3ion: I'll be perfectly honest - I've toyed with not showing a receipt at WalMart from time to time just to see what would happen. I don't know what that says about me.

Doesn't matter, though, as the lion's share of the time I'm never asked.

It's funny. As a female, I hardly ever get my receipt checked. All I do is smile and they wave me through lol It's all about profiling. If you're a young kid or any of the other profiling types, they are going to automatically be suspicious.

Yeah, that is assault. Press charges.

@illtron: actually, it would be considered battery since in this case the use of force by the tackling patron resulted in harmful contact.

One question I just thought of.. how in the hell can a Wal*Mart employee get fired for stopping someone with a gun, but has no problem stopping someone who has paid for their items??

@IphtashuFitz: Chances are also pretty damned slim of that video surveillance ever getting into the OP's hands. He probably should've called the police immediately to press charges against the jerk that tackled him. Can't say I'd be thinking that clearly if it'd just happened to me, though. I would've probably been a little too pissed...

@treimel: I understood that, I meant bystanders by "those people"- my bad.

I can't stand Walmart. One day, they're going to receipt check and tackle the wrong person. Maybe a senator or a congressman's child or a foreign dignitary. Then, there will be hell to pay.

Where'd the bunch of comments go that were already posted about 7 minutes ago??

I say screw the consensus. You are both a douche bag and should sue. A Douche bag because instead of diffusing the situation of having a receipt checker and a number of angry Walmart patrons chasing you to "stop a thief", you didn't take out the receipt and ran. Sue them because your being a douche bag still doesn't allow the receipt checker or anyone else to illegally detain you.

@H3ion:

Probably not, but that's not the point. Macy*s and other stores like it offer special stickers and tape that clearly show you paid. If walmart can't bother to do this why should we be botherd to help them?

My only question on this is why are you shopping there if you know they check receipts and you have a problem with it? That is what is messed up about this everytime it comes up, the OP knows they check recepts but shops there anyway.

Your right to be a/an (insert colorful adjective here)does not extend to you inflicting it on someone else.

@MostlyHarmless: I know right. This made me so mad and still wanting answers that I had to back away from the PC and wonder if it was a troll.

It's idiotic for anyone at the store to have thought he stole the XBox. Last time I purchased a game console at my local Walmart I had to pay for it right then and there before they handed it over to me... Either that or they would have held it for me until I finished the rest of my shopping and they would have brought it up to the register so I could pay for it. At no point did they ever let that thing leave their sight until it was paid for. I'd have called the police to file assault charges against the jerk who tackled you, that's just not cool in any circumstance, especially over a $200 item.

I ran into my first local receipt checker at Walmart last night when buying a game in the back. Little guy that looked like he was missing a chromosome. Although I am against them checking my receipt, I went ahead and showed it. I told my wife "now...we never signed anything agreeing to show them a receipt, but I'll go ahead and comply just to get out of here faster."

@zombies.like.lattés.too: Assault/Battery differ dramatically from state to state. Sometimes battery is hitting, sometimes assault is hitting. Unless you look it up for Georgia, you're giving a possibly unhelpful correction.

@justsomeotherguy: Actually sounds like battery. If he saw the guy coming to tackle him that could be assault.

@H3ion: Of course it wouldn't have killed him to show the receipt! I really hope you don't believe there exists a disease that is made terminal by showing a receipt for an XBox 360 Arcade to a Walmart employee.

Or do you think this is like Speed and Dennis Hopper planted a device that will blow up him and Sandra Bullock if he shows a receipt? Why would Dennis Hopper care and what from the story makes you think Sandra Bullock went with him to Walmart to buy an XBox 360. Have you seen her in those new trailers for the giant football player movie? She looks fantastic.

So no, it would not have killed him to show the receipt. It appears he didn't see any reason to need to and didn't expect it to be blown out of proportion as such. I hope this clarifies things for you.

Could be wrong, but this whole story stinks to high heaven in my opinion.

Dude, you should have called the police. You were assaulted by someone who is not an agent of the store, and who detained you for no reason. Even the receipt checker can not detain you unless they witnessed the actual "shoplifting". Sorry, but if I got tackled, you better believe there would be hell to pay.

@IphtashuFitz: In an actual court, they'll basically be able to say that the guy acted in good faith thinking he was a shoplifter. The real culprit is walmart for basically indicating him as a shoplifter to the crowd by shouting after him that way.

@ganzhimself: Oh, and I never really inspected my XBox 360's packaging, but I'm sure there's an anti-theft tag in or on the box that needs to be deactivated at the register or the sensors would have tripped when he walked out. I never bother listening to them unless the checker forgot to deactivate a tag, in which case I don't mind showing a reciept to prove I'm not stealing.

Most likely the police would arrest him for suspicion of theft. They wouldn't be right, but you try arguing with them.

@ubermex: Zombies may have been referring to the tort of assault and the tort of battery instead of the criminal version of those acts.

@secret_curse: That's why we have discovery rules to force the production of such evidence.

@MattAlbie: I agree. Anyone who's worked in front end retail gets lectured about this kind of thing. I don't understand why walmart fails so hard there.

@gp1138:

Also, the bystanders were clearly motivated by the receipt checker's screaming, so it's all of a piece.

@jeffjohnvol: It's against the law to accuse someone of shoplifting?

@ubermex: And unless the guy stupidly volunteered his name, it's highly unlikely that the OP would be able to find out who he was.

@ludwigk:
and spoliation instructions if it "disappears"

@MattAlbie:

it was the bystanders that acrually did the tackling, though.

@Ganyon:
He may be a douchebag, but he didn't "inflict" anything on anyone. He bought a product, left the store with his legally obtained goods and got tackled for it.

What did he do wrong?

@Scuba Steve: That depends on the area he's in. Generally "Shoplifting at Wal*Mart" isn't a huge priority for the local PD. I worked in the suburbs in Ohio for a year and we always had to wait like 45 minutes for the cops to arrive unless something was *in progress* at the time.

@Taelech: Those things are defined state by state in both civil and criminal law. It's irrelevant.

@Ganyon: So...you are putting it on the Op to pay more for something elsewhere just because Walmart can't follow the law? That makes no sense.

I don't understand the point in refusing to show your receipt. People steal. Every time I show a receipt, I figure it's just another situation where the retarded behavior of others has once again ruined things for those of us who understand how to behave properly. I show my receipt and leave and enjoy my purchase. Nobody tackles me. What do you hope to gain by refusing to show your receipt? 15 seconds of your time? The fact that you are purchasing video games clearly shows you're not real concerned with maximizing that particular resource, so there goes that argument. The fact that your Xbox was banned ( for modding it to run pirated/stolen games ) is pretty strong evidence showing you don't have a problem stealing. People who get all worked up on this "you have no right to ask for my receipt" bullshit are walking around with a sense of entitlement. Let's be watchdogs to ensure that retailers don't take advantage of consumers, but shit, quit your crying!

Besides assault, you can count theft. That XBox was officially his property once he handed over the cash for it. The receipt checker stole his Xbox.

@ganzhimself: There isn't any kind of anti-theft device inside the boxes of any big game system like that unless Walmart employees specifically put them there. You can buy rolls of those little magnetic strips, but they don't come from the factory that way. That's why they're usually locked up or have spider-wraps on them.