Here’s a weird situation from Orland Park, IL. Mike Quilty, who works for a subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, went to Best Buy to purchase a refrigerator.

Best Buy’s loan application required his SSN, which he was not happy about providing because, you know, he works in “security” and likes things to be “secure.” Then, after deciding he did not want to purchase the appliance, Mr. Quilty took his loan application back. That’s when it got weird:

Quilty said he picked up his paperwork, which he had signed, and intended to go to the rear of the store and talk to the sales rep.

“But the clerk shouted that I can’t take the application,” Quilty said. “She said it belongs to the store.”

Best Buy’s spokesman said the clerk was following proper procedure.

Quilty said at this point he decided to leave the store – and take the loan application with him.

The clerk again insisted he leave the loan application behind.

Quilty ignored her and headed toward the door.

The clerk then shouted out to a security guard.

The security guard told Quilty to stop and return the loan application.

Quilty kept on walking out of the store and into the parking lot.

The security guard followed him.

“He never touched me or threatened me in any way,” Quilty said. “I will give him credit for that.”

Quilty tore up the loan application as he walked through the parking lot.

“As far as I was concerned, the application had my name on it, my signature and my Social Security number,” Quilty said. “I wasn’t going to leave it behind. I figured that young girl would just toss it in the garbage once I walked out of the store. I didn’t want anyone getting my personal information because I know just how much trouble that can cause.”

Quilty got in his car and drove off.

“But the security guard must have taken down my license plate number because when I got home, my wife tells me the police are waiting for me,” he said.

The police threatened Mr. Quilty with arrest if he didn’t turn over the paperwork, which Best Buy apparently needed in order to prove that Mr.Quilty had applied for the loan. In the end, the police accepted the torn up pieces of the application.

It’s just outrageous that a store could call the police and try to have me arrested because I walked out with my own loan application,” Quilty said.

The Best Buy spokesman said that in his six years on the job dealing with customer problems, he never had heard of a story like this one.

“The man should have just asked for the store manager and told him to shred the application as he stood there,” the spokesman said.

Would the store manager have shredded the application?

“I’m not sure what the procedure would have been,” the spokesman said.

What a weird story. Is taking your own loan application a crime? We’re not going to pretend to know the answer.

The man who knew too much [Daily Southtown]
(Photo:garavondik)