Kerri (not her real name) says she was detained last week at a Walmart in Utah, after she declined to show the receipt checker her receipt on the way out. She says a police officer blocked her from leaving, told her to show the receipt checker more respect, and then had her go back inside and let Walmart examine her bags while he wrote down the info from her drivers license.

January 9th, 2010

Hello, my name is Kerri ___. I live in Utah. I am 44 years old.

I went shopping at Walmart after work on Thursday, January 7th. I got there ~1:30 pm. I shopped for ~ 1 hour, and I also returned 4 pairs of pants and had 1 I kept in a sack with receipt prior to shopping. I bought 6 bubble bars for my fish tank and a bag of 10 boys’ socks put in bags. I also bought 6 rolls of wrapping paper on clearance for $.75 a roll.

I paid for my belongings and proceeded out the same door I had come into. The older lady asked for a receipt as I was walking through. I replied, “No thanks,” and walked away, headed for the Redbox to get a movie, when I was surrounded by 2 police officers, the door greeter and the head of security for Walmart.

The policeman reprimanding me for not showing the door greeter with more respect, and warned me how I do not talk to people like that and that I had better give my receipt NOW! I said OK and headed back into Walmart to the lady that checked me out and asked her to tell these people that I just bought this stuff 30 seconds ago. She put her hands up and said I don’t know anything. Refusing to tell them I was just there.

Things got a little heated and I said maybe we should get ICE down here and make everyone get their green cards in order before anyone can leave Walmart! That’s when the policeman wanted my license, and I told him fine I would like his name and badge number. I gave him my lic and the bag door greeter my receipt and I started telling people to watch and pay attention to what these police were doing to me.

I turned to the cashier and asked for a pen to write the name and badge number, and she backed up and said I don’t want anything to do with this. I saw a customer pen with flowers on it and picked it up to use, this is when another policeman took it from my hand and said I could not use it.

Then I really started to holler for people to pay ATTENTION to what they were doing. The lady and and others went all through my bags and gave me my receipt, I asked for my lic and the policeman said “I’ll give it to you when I see fit.”

I was just pulling out my phone to call my husband for a ride home( I was going to walk away and I didn’t want to drive without my license.) The policeman said he would keep me there as long as he wanted. I took that as being detained. He gave me my lic after writing info from it and I left.

And I was screaming all the way out the door and to my car.

I called the manager and he was even confused as to why the police was on his premises let alone conducting Walmart business. I got the name on only one of them and I never got his badge number, I thought by law they were to give this number when asked, I’m probably
wrong.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.