Consumerist
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you're a criminal
Never Follow A Security Guard Into The Back Of The Store
Here's some advice for you, the regular customer who doesn't shoplift: never go into the back of a store with a security guard, store manager, rent-a-cop, etc. Never. Someone posted the following story in the Janesville, Wisconsin CraigsList over the weekend. Because the poster cooperated in good faith with the security personnel at her local Menards home store, she had to pay $150 to avoid having the police called on her. More » -
walmart is your god now
Walmart Goes Crazy On Couple Suspected Of Shoplifting
Walmart can try to spin itself as being on the side of good all it wants, but if it ever suspects you of shoplifting, you may find that you're powerless to fight back. In the case of a couple accused of shoplifting some Bic lighters in Niles, Michigan this past August, Walmart detained them, the police came and cuffed one of them, their two kids were taken to a security room, and—after a review of security footage proved the couple's innocence—they were banned for life from all Walmarts. To top it off, Walmart's legal team has sent the couple a letter asking to be reimbursed for 10 times the value of the lighters, even though the police determined no shoplifting had taken place. More » -
party crashers
Tavern On The Green Plays Halloween Trick On Thousands Of Partiers
Melissa is one of thousands of people who showed up at the bankrupt Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park on Saturday night for a ticket-holders-only Halloween party. She was forced to wait outside at the front of an increasingly agitated mob because the restaurant had sold too many tickets, or because someone had sold fake ones, it's still unclear. The Daily News says one reveler waited 5 hours before he was finally let in, just before 1:30 am—which was when the party was shut down by police. Now they all want their money back, but Tavern on the Green and the party promoters are blaming each other. More » -
get off my lawn
McDonalds Shakes Cane At Teens, Calls Police On Them For Rapping Their Order
Four teens in American Fork, Utah, have been issued citations for disturbing the peace after they drove up to a McDonald's and recreated this food order. Doesn't McDonald's know that they invented the food order rap genre in the first place? More » -
long lines
Airline Employees Call Police On Angry CEO Who Chewed Them Out
This story combines two immutable laws of nature in a surprising twist: that executives don't always know what their front-line employees are doing, and that airline employees don't give a f*ck who you are and will call the police if you annoy them. More » -
home depot
Suspicious Stain Removal Advice Sought From Home Depot
Sure, there's probably a perfectly innocuous explanation why a woman called the Home Depot in Jacksonville, Illinois and asked how to remove a large quantity of blood from her carpets. But that doesn't stop people's imaginations from running wild, and didn't stop the employee who took the call from alerting the police. More » -
unacceptable substitutes
Man Tries To Sell Tarted Up Oven Door As $100 HDTV
This $100 flat-screen TV this random dude is selling out of his car in a Walmart parking lot is a steal! Specifically, he is stealing your money by substituting a sticker-covered oven door for a TV. More » -
pennies
8800 Penny Prank Takes Paying In Cash To Extremes
What do you do with your pennies? Consumer Reports suggests saving them and depositing them in your bank, or exchanging them for a full-value gift certificate in a Coinstar machine. But Jordan had a much better idea. He tried to use them to pay the impound fee after his car was towed. Video inside. Remember: it's not a real prank until the cops show up. More » -
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auctions
Get Your Own Ill-Gotten Gains At PropertyRoom.com
Homer Simpson: Wow, sweetheart, look at all this seized booty. We could find the drug boat of our dreams!
Marge Simpson: I don't want a drug boat.
Homer Simpson: Well, I bet there's drug dresses and drug vacuum cleaners too.Haven't you always wanted to shop seized property from police departments across the country from the comfort of your own home? Yeah, me either. But after reading what Jamie Schaefer-Wilson of our sister publication ShopSmart had to say about PropertyRoom.com, now I'm downright curious. More »
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recession-proof jobs
Definitely Not "Free"To-Lay: Woman Arrested For Trading Sex For Chips
You know you're in a recession when you have to barter starchy snacks for oral sex. More » -
government at work
Toledo TIckets Residents For Parking In Their Own Driveways
I live in a city, but in a house with a driveway, which makes me extraordinarily blessed in the parking department. Not so much if I lived in Toledo, Ohio, though.PoliceThe mayor's office thereareis handing out tickets to people for parking in their own driveways. More » -
punishments
Wendy's Employee Gets Prison Time For Putting Hair In Burger
Remember Thomas Bender? He was the Wendy's employee in West Virginia who garnished a police officer's sandwich with a ball of pubic hair earlier this year. He's just been sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years probation.
"Hair In Food Leads To Jail" [The Intelligencer] (Thanks to Chad!)
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show me your thumbs
Florida Used Game Shops Required To Take Traders' Thumbprints
If you're trying to sell or trade used games in Florida, expect to be treated like a registered sex offender or a diamond fence. The state legislature passed a law in October that classified video game trade-ins as pawn shop items, requiring businesses to take thumb prints and in-depth personal information from customers. Thew NewTimes Broward-Palm Beach reports a county sheriff is cracking down on game shops to make sure they follow the law. More » -
bathrooms
Man Goes Crazy, Gets Tasered After Store Refuses To Let Him Use Bathroom
Village Lighting in Bellingham, Washington refused to let a 29-year-old man use their bathroom, and the man retaliated by going completely batshit insane on them. More » -
government transparency
Boston Police Department: We Will Let You Know When The Zombies Come
The first surprising part of this story is that the Boston Police Department has a Twitter feed. They use it to post breaking police-type information that's useful to the public, such as roads closed due to car accidents, crime data, big arrests, etc. Sometimes they also reply to reader questions. And that is how TruTV learned that the Boston police will not hide the zombie invasion from the public. More » -
errors
Thanks For Giving My Tax Refund To Someone Else, H & R Block
Q:What happens when HR Block copies your bank information incorrectly and deposits your tax refund into someone else's account? A:The other person spends it and H & R Block shrugs and tells you to call the police. More » -
apologies
McDonald's Apologizes To 911 Nugget Lady
We've made it pretty clear that we don't condone Latreasa Goodman's attempt to use 911 to report a McNugget Emergency, but in all fairness to Goodman, she was being shafted by the lying, uncooperative McDonald's employee who said "all sales final" and refused to refund her money. McDonald's has released a statement where they own up to their role in escalating things in the first place, and they're sending her a free meal gift card as well as the refund she originally requested. Now she can enjoy a complimentary lunch on the day she goes to plead "no contest" to the judge for abuse of 911. More » -
bad consumer
Woman Calls 911 Three Times Because McDonald's Is Out of McNuggets
A Florida woman called 911 three times because the McDonald's where she was dining ran out of McNuggets. More »
police
New York, 4:44 PM
Sat Nov 14
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