Yesterday we told you about the Target worker in Virginia who was fired after he reported an alleged shoplifter believed to be a law enforcement officer. Today comes the news that a former sheriff’s deputy has been arrested and charged, while the Target worker remains unemployed. [More]
virginia
Homeowners Out $15,500 When Sketchy Bomb Shelter Seller Fails To Deliver
By 6.9.14
A company may have ads on TV and a website with lots of nice pictures, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a scam. Just ask the homeowners who have paid $15,500 to a bomb shelter company but have no bomb shelter to show for it, and who found out too late that the owner of the company has multiple previous complaints and judgments filed against him. [More]
Uber & Lyft Will Defy Order From Virginia DMV To Stop Picking Up Passengers
By 6.6.14
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles made its feelings about ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft very clear yesterday, telling them in no uncertain terms to cease operations in the state until they obtain the proper permits. But both companies say they are doing nothing wrong and will keep on picking up (and presumably dropping off) passengers. [More]
Sprint Store Manager Accused Of Mailing $327,000 In Refund Checks To Himself
By 4.16.14
A former manager of a Sprint store in Queens, NY, has been arrested for allegedly helping himself to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rebate checks that should have gone to customers. [More]
McDonald’s Customers: We Were Asked To Leave Because Our “30 Minutes Were Up”
By 3.10.14
Most stories about elderly customers possibly overstaying their welcome at fast food restaurants have focused on patrons who spent hours in the eateries, often buying little more than a coffee and a snack. But an octogenarian couple in Virginia say they were recently told to leave the McDonald’s they visited every afternoon because they had stayed beyond some imaginary 30-minute time limit. [More]
Instagramming Your Day Care Charges With Mocking Captions Is Very Rude
By 8.19.13
It’s rude for an employee of a business to post photos of customers online without their permission, and ruder still for those photos to have mocking captions. And it’s totally unacceptable for a day care employee to post photos of her tiny charges to Instagram with mocking LOLcat-style captions. When one parent found out, she was furious. [More]
Costco Sample-Server Fatally Shot After Pulling Knife In Store
By 5.30.13
A Virginia woman hired to hand out pizza samples at Costco was fatally shot yesterday by a sheriff’s deputy after she began acting strangely and brandishing a knife in the store. [More]
Former Tobacco Fields Now Grow Chickpeas To Serve America’s Growing Hummus Addiction
By 5.2.13
Fewer Americans smoke today, which is a really good thing for our collective health and finances as a nation. It’s not so good for farmers in the areas of Virginia and the Carolinas that once were tobacco country. However, it just so happens that there’s a new addiction sweeping the nation that those farmers can profit from. Americans just can’t stop gobbling hummus. [More]
Court Says Begging Is Protected Speech, Allows Challenge To Anti-Panhandling Law
March 4, 2013
The city of Charlottesville, VA, (home to the awesomest University on the planet) currently has a law on the books that forbids panhandling in and around the city’s Downtown Mall area. A group of homeless men tried to fight the ban in court, but a District Court judge dismissed the case. However, a federal appeals panel has said the lower court was too hasty in tossing the case out. [via CourthouseNews.com] [More]
How A Homeowners Association Went Bankrupt Because Of One Obama Yard Sign
By 2.11.13
Back in 2008, a couple in Olde Fairhaven, Virginia put up a sign in their lawn showing their support for a presidential candidate. This simple action led to a feud that has raged for years and cost the neighborhood homeowners association hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now the HOA is broke, and the central “town square” that turns a clump of townhouses into something resembling a community is up for sale. [More]
Is Virginia Really Trying To Mint Its Own Money?
By 2.6.13
Earlier this week, the Virginia legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that would fund a study to investigate “whether the Commonwealth should adopt an alternate medium of commerce or currency to serve as an alternative” to the dollar “in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.” [More]
Virginia Supreme Court: Businesses Can’t Censor Yelp Reviews Until They Prove Statements Are Libelous
By 1.2.13
As we’ve covered numerous times, online review sites like Yelp can become a nasty battleground between unhappy consumers and business owners who take issue with what they claim are overly negative, sometimes malicious, comments. Last week, Virginia’s highest court ruled against one such business that had tried to squelch a customer’s reviews. [More]
Body Shop, Local Businesses Pitch In To Repair Car Marred By Homophobic Slurs
By 8.21.12
A gay college student in Virginia says that his car has been the target of four separate attacks of vandalism in just the last few months, as some people find it hilarious to use their keys to etch homophobic slurs — and randomly, the word “dye,” which we assume is either a spelling error or some kind of meta-comment on the prominence of gay men in the fashion and hairstyling worlds — into his vehicle. Unable to pay for the repairs, a local body shop in Roanoke and other businesses pitched in to fix the car up. [More]
Tenant Says Doggie DNA Program Hasn't Helped Curb Poo Problem
By 8.21.12
As we mentioned yesterday, more condo associations are turning to mandatory DNA testing for dogs in an attempt to rein in an apparent rampant poop problem in this country. But one tenant at a complex that is trying such a program says it hasn’t done anything to stop the fecal madness. [More]
Condo Owners Not Giving Up Fight Against Providing Dog DNA
By 4.9.12
Back in March, we brought you the story of a condo complex in Northern Virginia where dog-owning residents had been given 30 days to provide DNA samples of their canine companions. But the condo owners tell Consumerist that in spite of the condo association’s best attempts to ignore them, they aren’t about to take the DNA requirement lying down. [More]
My Condo Association Is Demanding DNA Sample From My Dog
By 3.12.12
Dave and his wife live in a condo complex in Northern Virginia. They also own a dog. Now, because of new a rule by his condo association, they and anyone else who owns a dog has 30 days to provide a DNA sample of their canine companion. [More]
Federal Appeals Court In Virginia Tosses Out Challenge To Health Care Reform
By 9.8.11
The final of three federal appeals court rulings on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has come down, and this round goes to the White House. [More]
Man In Cow Suit Steals 26 Gallons Of Milk From Walmart
By 4.28.11
Call him the Hamburglar for the dairy crowd. An 18-year-old Virginia man was arrested earlier this week after somehow managing to slip past the Walmart greeters and loss-prevention staff with 26 gallons of milk… all while crawling around in a cow suit. [More]
