A man in Colorado claims he was given the boot — and a trespassing notice that bans him from the property for one year — from his local Safeway. But it wasn’t over shoplifting or anything like that; he says it was all because of a misunderstanding about his poultry order.

According to the 61-year-old shopper, he recently stopped into the Safeway to purchase some chicken breasts from the deli counter. And when the woman behind the counter asked which ones he preferred, he says he pointed out his selection and said, “I like the large ones.”

It’s unclear whether or not he had intended on the double entendre, but the man claims the female employee “chuckled” at his statement.

But thinks weren’t quite as funny for him the next week. When he approached the deli counter, he saw the woman who had previously served him walk away from the counter, leaving a different female employee to take his order.

He says that this second woman was so rude to him that he felt compelled to complain to the store manager. And that’s when he got the earful, he says:

She said, ‘The last time you were here, you giggled about this woman’s large breasts.’ And I said, ‘Oh, baloney.’ And then she opened up her flip phone and called the police, and I listened to her make up this whole story about me cussing and threatening her.

As he exited the store, the man was stopped by a police officer who issued him a trespassing notice, effectively forbidding him from entering the Safeway for one year.

While the man feels his rights were violated by summarily being banned from the store, a rep for the Lakewood Police Dept. sees it differently:

[He] faces absolutely no criminal charges… We issued him a trespassing notice, which is a civil type of thing. When a business would rather someone not come into their place of business, we can issue these notices that ask a person not to come back for a period of one year — and if they do, then they can be charged with trespassing.

What do you think of this situation? Couldn’t both the store and the customer have handled it better without getting the police involved?

Man gets trespassing notice for telling deli clerk he likes large (chicken) breasts? [Westword.com]

Thanks to Alice for the tip!

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