A tipster in Louisville, Kentucky snapped this photo of a small warning sign taped to the window of his local Hobby Lobby. According to the sign, the store reserves the right to go through pretty much anything you happen to be carrying with you, plus your car. But shoppers shouldn’t feel too bad, because the sign says you can refuse and be escorted from the premises.
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And I reserve the right to defend myself with a well placed roundhouse to the jaw followed by an extremely painful wrenching wrist lock if your stupid enough to place a paw on me! All this while I place you under arrest for illegal search and seizure, imprisonment and assault if you place a hand on me.
Ok, wording aside, pretty much every retail establishment has policies about packages, etc being carried in by customers. They’re just trying to prevent theft (and therefore loss of revenue). Seems like a reasonable policy, even if the sign was written by an idiot with no understanding of the law.
As for my willingness to shop there, well, they’re far and away cheaper than Michael’s or Joann’s, and they have a better selection than Joann’s to boot. As a crafter type, I can tell you, cheap is good.
A lot of people on here seem to have both a complete misunderstanding of the law, and generally what the sign even says in the first place. People are going on about how it is a violation of constitutional rights, and they have no right to detain you or to look in your bag or your car or whatever.
First, they cannot force you to do anything you do not want to do with the exception of forcing you to leave their property. They don’t even claim that they can do so. They aren’t talking about taking anyone into custody. None of that.
All it says is that while you are on their property they may ASK your permission to search your car or your property (backpack, purse, whatever). There is nothing in the constitution or the law about making such a request. i can walk up to anyone on the street and ask the same thing. They also have every right to refuse and tell me that I may go fornicate with myself. The second thing the sign says is that if you deny their request, they may ask you to leave. It is private property. They have every right to ask you to leave. Just like you have every right to ask someone in your house to leave.
So I don’t know what all of this kneejerk screaming of constitutional rights is all about. They ask, you say no. no big deal. They as you to leave, you do, it’s their right. And like many people have stated, this is mostly directed at employees and possible shoplifters. And almost any retailer will ask a suspected shoplifter to empty their bag. Of course the person may refuse, but the store is in no way barred from asking. Calm down, people.