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Edited on Wed Dec-02-09 01:48 AM by ChoppinBroccoli
In my case, I represented a 16-year-old kid who went to Wal-Mart with his friend and his infant brother. As my kid pushed a cart with his brother in the seat and shopped for food and other things, his friend went to the deli section of Wal-Mart and picked up a container of chicken wings and a bottle of soda. When his friend came back, the box of chicken had been opened and he was eating some of it. He asked my kid if he wanted some, and my kid ate one chicken wing and took a drink of the soda.
My kid then took a cart full of groceries to the check-out lane. Now, since he had won some sort of contest at school, he had two Wal-Mart gift cards in his pocket, one worth $100 and one worth $50. The groceries rang up to just over $100, he used his gift cards to pay for everything, and he walked into the vestibule area and looked for his friend, who he thought had gone through another lane.
As he began to push the cart full of groceries and his infant brother in the seat out the front door, a plainclothes Wal-Mart "loss prevention" officer stepped in front of him and grabbed the cart, not allowing him to exit. She told him she thought he had been shoplifting and that he needed to step into their office. As he protested, my kid showed her the receipt proving he paid for everything in his cart (and I know this happened because we got a hold of the surveillance tapes which clearly showed all of this happening). As my kid continued to refuse to leave the cart (with his baby brother in the seat) and go into the office, the security guard got more and more agitated, and began making aggressive movements toward my kid.
Now, my kid has had a checkered past, and has been in many fights at school, etc. But he has begun turning his life around, and since he had been working with Anger Management programs, he remembered that whenever he was being faced with a situation that could potentially turn violent, he was supposed to call the police and let them sort everything out. So that's what he did. He insisted that the security guard call the police, but that he wasn't going to leave the cart and his brother unwatched in the vestibule.
Well, the security guard didn't like that one bit. The SECOND security guard, who wandered over to "assist" after my kid didn't immediately go directly into the office, pulled out a cell phone and called the police. As this was going on, the first security guard continued to get more and more agitated, and you can see her making more aggressive movements toward my kid, and my kid continuing to back up and back up and back up (i.e. he wasn't escalating the situation at all). Finally, the first security guard shoved the cart back towards my kid, ran around to the side of it, and grabbed my kid's arm in order to forcefully shove him into the office. Doing what any normal person would do in that situation, my kid pulled his arm away. Then the security guard TACKLED him, and they went tumbling to the ground. As my kid kept getting up and backing away, this security guard kept attacking him and shoving him further and further back into the store (again, as the security tape showed, he continued to back up and away from the situation, even after being attacked--he even had several opportunities to run out the door and get away, but never did it because he believed himself to be fully in the right), until a whole crowd of security guards forcefully DRAGGED him into the security office, leaving his cart (with his infant brother) sitting there unsupervised in front of an open door to the parking lot.
Well, as you can imagine, the security guard claimed that my kid ATTACKED and INJURED her, and falsified a report to that effect after the fact. Her initial statement to the police indicated no injuries, while the statement she wrote out for Wal-Mart said she had some horrible injury to her hand that required an Emergency Room visit. My kid also got charged with.........get this...........the theft of about 7 cents worth of chicken wings and soda that were being concealed IN HIS STOMACH. And what makes it even worse is that this security guard literally started a BRAWL to stop this kid from stealing 7 cents worth of half-digested food, and then got on the stand and testified that it's Wal-Mart policy that they aren't even allowed to stop you unless they think you've stolen at least $25.00 worth of merchandise. Also, they failed to answer the question why this kid would KNOWINGLY (and that word is the key, because in order to be found guilty of a theft offense, there has to be an INTENT to steal something) shoplift 7 cents worth of food when he had just paid for over 100 bucks worth of other stuff AND had a $50 Wal-Mart gift card in his pocket.
In my research and preparation for this case, I found a couple of things. First of all, Wal-Mart security guards are not allowed to physically restrain you IN ANY WAY. They are merely allowed to HOLD you until the police come. And at no time are they EVER allowed to put their hands on you. They can ASK you to go into their office, but they can't FORCE you in there. And that's not just Wal-Mart policy, that's actually written into the law of the State of Ohio. So learn from other people's experiences. If you ever find yourself in this situation, INSIST that the security guard call the police, but REFUSE to go into the office (make sure everything that happens has PLENTY of witnesses). And then, if their fragile little egos can't handle that, and they get physical with you, sue their asses off.
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