Posted on 12/23/2011 10:12:27 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court.
"We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella.
Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall.
"I believe she said you can't take pictures at the mall. I thought she was joking and I said ‘I’m taking a picture of my grandson’, I’d understand if I was taking pictures of the architecture or the products in the stores and she became a little hostile and aggressive," said Grandfather Don Oberloh.
Oberloh and Cassella said they were unaware of the University Park's policy against picture taking and requested.
"I asked to speak with a mall manager and she flashed a badge at me, and I didn't see it, and asked ‘is this good enough?’ and I tried explaining things to her and she came back, I apologized and she was more belligerent and I asked again ‘may I speak with the mall manager’ and she said ‘that's me’ and I said ‘there's nobody higher than you?’ and she said ‘one person’, ‘may I speak with that person’ and then security came over," said Oberloh.
Oberloh left the mall after being asked by security, but Cassella stayed behind to wait on her daughter, who had gone into a store.
"I told him I can't just leave and then he said that he would remove me physically and then he called another security guard and that guy came over and then my daughter showed up and I said we were just here to take my grandson to see Santa and he said you can't see Santa," said Cassella. "It was embarrassing and I felt bad for my grandson. I'll never go back to the mall. I’ve shopped at the mall regularly and I’ll never go back to the mall. I don’t' feel comfortable there."
A spokesperson for the University Park Mall declined an on camera interview, but said mall managers are investigating the incident and reiterated the mall's policy against photography. She also said the mall does not immediate remove shoppers after a picture is taken, but will remove guests who do not comply with requests to stop taking photos or are aggressive with staff.
Sorry, I refused to pay the extra $10 bucks for a phone w/camera.
I tried to take a friend’s picture in Harrods Food Court once and I thought they were going to arrest me.
They brought this on themselves by asking several times to “speak with the mall manager”. Sometimes, when you are dealing with a low life bully, you just say, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know... won’t do it again” and watch the low life go away. Case closed. Continuing a conversation with a moron is simply inviting trouble.
Normally I prefer to use a better camera when photographing people, but I frequently use my cell phone camera while shopping. It's great for taking a picture of an item and emailing it. There are also cell phone applications for using the camera to scan bar codes on merchandise.
So does the mall prohibit stores in the mall from having security cameras that take pictures of people inside their stores? I doubt it.
Simon Property Group is an S&P 500 company and the largest real estate company in the U.S. The Company owns or has an interest in 392 retail real estate properties comprising 262 million square feet of GLA in North America, Europe and Asia. Simon Property Group is an NYSE listed company (NYSE: SPG).
There's the real problem. It's not a locally owned and operated business.
Do you really think the stockholders in the this company that owns "392 retail properties" know about this policy? The CYA management that probably accounts for much less than a majority of the stock owners is responsible.
I meant to say, "less than a majority of stock ownership".
Crowing and yelling?
I just pointed out not everyone has a cellphone and not every cellphone has a camera.And by the way,not everyone shops at Walmart.
Even if 95% of people have a camera-equipped cellphone bought at Walmart my statements are still not wrong.
Some people think the words “most” and “every” mean the same thing;they do not.
Several years ago I was visiting a company in San Diego on business. They had hired two Russian contract computer programmers. We ate at the deli in the building two days in a row. The second day a deli employee remembered my colleague's name and he was very impressed. One of the Russians said if she had remembered his name it would have scared him to death.
It has to be terrible living in a society like that but as this story illustrates, we are rapidly approaching that.
Is that one of those top secret spy malls? no wonder you cant take pictures.
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