Posted on 06/12/2008 8:36:03 PM PDT by LibWhacker
HOUSTON -- A college student’s trip to Wal-Mart last month ended with her in handcuffs and a two-day stay in the Harris County jail.
Nitra Gipson was charged with felony forgery after the Meyer Park Wal-Mart manager accused her of passing bogus money orders. Thing is, the money orders were legit and had been purchased at Wal-Mart to begin with.
The cash-strapped college student had just sold her car to pay for her last two semesters at Texas Southern University, where she is studying criminal justice. She was paid with Wal-Mart money orders, which the giant retailer advertises as “good as cash.”
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
The ensuing lawsuit should pay for her next ten semesters of school, and a vacation in Aruba. ;-)
I hate to agree with Quannel X, but in this case I have to. Wal-Mart deserves the ass-whipping they are going to get for this.
I saw the girl interviewed on tv last night. The poor kid - jailed for two days and accused of a crime. Unfortunately, Houston’s own “Quanell X”, our version of Jesse Jackson, jumped in on the case. I wonder what cut he’ll get of her settlement from Walmart?
Job security for WM’s lawyers and they try to stonewall this girl - and, goodbye store manager.
What a thesis she will have.
I once was camping near Claremore OK and went into town to buy supplies. The Wal-Mart rang everything up then the lady in charge told me I couldn't put the food items on my credit card.
Now I was away from home and didn't want to use up my cash but had to pay for about a third of the bill in cash.
I later checked with Wal-Mart and there was no such policy. Just a stupid employee. A manager at that.
Notice the $200 thing? That's just plain stupid on their part. Still, the Texas law allows that sort of thing, as do many other states.
The basic idea is that even if no recovery is made, the legislature has decided it's worth tagging the customer with an imputed cost for the benefit the merchant offers everyone by being on the lookout for theft.
There's a law firm that does business in Florida and Texas (Palmer, Reifler & Associates, P.A.) that makes a living (in part) by obtaining audit reports from auditors hired to evaluate personnel performance. What they look for are signs that the auditor suspected the employee of on the job theft, or simply not following "policy", and provided the auditor "states" the concern appropriately, Palmer/Reifler can then use those reports to demonstrate to a court there was justification under the law to collect the $200, or $300, or whatever.
I have no idea how they get auditor's evaluations from the auditors but I suspect it's a "finder's fee", or maybe they have hit teams that go out and strongarm otherwise lawabiding, but timid, auditors to hand them over gratis.
I did some background investigation myself on this company and found that they are not alone. At the same time I found that they claim they are located at addresses actually used by some of their clients, or by parties with no relationship whatsoever to them. Makes them look rather sleezy, but maybe that's what their clients want.
I would recommend this young lady find a good lawyer who knows the debt collection industry. That last little letter from Wal-Mart asking for the $200 is probably worth a cool million bucks to her with the right lawyer. She should go after all the personnel at Wal-Mart involved in the case PERSONALLY with their very own lawsuits. It's dollars to doughnuts that Wal-Mart is not going to defend some of them, and that's when she adds to the tally of folks who owe her a payment if she can find a route into one of these "audit report" parasite collection firms.
Gee, someone that didn’t agree with the American dream … using your credit card for everything. Someone should educate this idiot, that all things real or unreal can be put on your credit card! The nerve! ;-)
If Palmer, Reifler & Associates, P.A., are involved, and they might well be, Mr. Q there will get his butt handed to him. She needs to have Mr. Q go out and get her a real shark.
If there is justice, when Wal-Mart opens its first supercenter in the Antarctic, they should have its store manager pre-selected.
I don’t mind agreeing with Mr. X when he is correct. It is just inexcusable not to recognize your own product and not to check in your system to see if the paper was legit or not BEFORE you accuse someone of anything.
I am not familiar with that Law Firm - are they less than adequate?
What the hell is a Quannel anyway? it sounds like the magic additive to a washday miracle. “New Improved Fabulight, now with Quannel.”
That was many years ago and now I used a debit card which still allows me to not have to carry a lot of cash but the idea is the same.
Hmmm, Walmart better be prepared to pay the remainder of this girl’s education and then some.
I never heard of Quannel X before, but I hate to agree with him too. It ticks me to hear “this child” when a spokesman for the race is establishing victimhood for a teenager or young adult, even though Miss Gipson is indeed a victim, to go by freepers citing other accounts of the story.
Why on earth would you accept a large sum in Wally money orders instead of cash? It is more likely to be bogus.
Your are correct sir … you never said such a thing … I did. It was all said in a satirical manner and in reference to the original post. ;-)
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