Posted on 09/16/2012 11:11:18 AM PDT by rawhide
A mother who says Walmart employees intentionally humiliated her after wrongfully ripping up two of her $100 bills while believing they were fake is taking legal action against the store.
According to her complaint: 'The cashier inspected the $100 bill, turned to another cashier and had a brief discussion, and returned to her register telling Plaintiff that her money was "fake."
'The cashier proceeded to rip the $100 bill in half without performing any counterfeit detection tests. The metallic strip in the $100 bill was clearly visible.'
After marking the bill with the detection pen, revealing a yellowish colour across it, Ms Garcia said she explained to the cashier of that colour meaning it was legitimate, having previously worked in retail herself.
Detained at the front of the store while told the police had been called, Ms Garcia claims that adding to her humiliation, the employees told curious customers in passing that she was busted trying to use fake money.
After two hours at the front, police arrived around 4.15am and proceeded to inspect the bills in question.
Following a series of tests the first responding officer, identified as Officer Edwards, returned to Ms Garcia telling her that what the Walmart employee and manager had done was a 'terrible mistake.’
'He then approached the manager, who appeared upset by what he was told by Officer Edwards,' according to the complaint.
‘After speaking with Officer Edwards, Manager Russell approached Plaintiff and sarcastically stated that the police officers said the money was not counterfeit, though he disagreed.
‘At this time, he attempted to hand Plaintiff the two torn $100 bills he had misappropriated from her. When Plaintiff objected to receiving torn bills, Officer Edwards instructed Manager Russell to replace the bills he had wrongfully taken and destroyed.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That's damned funny - I think I'll try it sometime. Especially since the WM near my office, where I usually buy a few items for breakfast or lunch, has started inspecting every single person's bags on the way out. I find that to be not only a PITA and a waste of my time, but insulting. Soooo, I will be only too glad to waste their time in return.
Have any Susan B. Anthony’s from 1980?
>> Walmart is America at it’s very best.
Right. These were the actions of individual morons, not the corporation itself.
However, WalMart — for its own good — ought to think seriously about ridding itself of any morons like these that are found among its staff.
>> Don’t have to make a court case out of every incident.
It seems many self-described Conservatives are into the victimhood and litigation thing.
You know what’s sad is people like you who refuse to come up for air and see his or her own faults! Corporate greed and frivolous spending of both parties is the reason we are in this economic mess! Baby Boomers have pilfered this nation for subsequent generations by overspending, stocks are without value thanks to pumping of worthless money by the Fed! We are now spending China’s money to pay Paul! The Republican party has failed to lead, they bend over backwards to appease the Democrats; thus they fail! So, yes, I am not a Republican, I am a Tea Party Republican, who values honesty in both corporations and government above all things! The current Republican RINOS and Democrats have one common goal a government enlarged so as to enslaves all of humanity!
In reality, the customer may have been denied her merchandise and change. Once the clerk accepted the legitimate funds, it was Walmart’s cash that was then destroyed.
The Walmarts near me have done away with the greeters/bag checkers. They now roam the store behind the cashiers, assisting customers.
Nah...I checked them out. They were normal, beat up FRNs. Not worth he paper they were printed on.
This reminds me of a story my son told me about 15 years ago. He was at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri going through the Basic Engineer course. He said he went into town to the local Wal-Mart to get some things and when he went to pay he pulled out one of the new $100 bills with the offset Benjamin Franklin and handed it to the clerk. She immediately responded with, “What’s this?” He told her it was one of the new $100 bills. She said, “Unh, ugh.” and commenced to call another clerk over to see this new unseen bill of tender. Her friend said, “Oh yeah, that’s one of those new bills they just started printing.” When my son told me this story, he referred to the Wal-Mart staff as “splunkers”, which I guess is what they call the backwoodsers that live in rural Missouri.
This gray, old baby boomer can still whip your ungrateful young butt.
A few Christmas’s ago I worked a part time seasonal job at a store known for selling entertainments and accessories for the mostly 12 and under crowd– and due to all the various non-disclosure forms I was forced to sign, I’m going just going to call them “We-B-Toys”.
We had one of those ultraviolet light gizmos behind the counter sort of like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Accubanker-AccuBanker-Counterfeit-Money-Detector/dp/B003YV9APS/ref=sr_1_19?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1347828518&sr=1-19
That device would supposedly tell us if a bill was counterfeit or not. Unfortunately during our “extensive” 20 minute cashier training , we were only told that the light would detect a counterfeit but they never gave us any examples of a real vs. counterfeit bills in order to compare and contrast and really know for sure what we were looking for. And half the time the counterfeit detector at my register wasn’t even working. And as I understand, the watermarks on older $100 bills, while the bills are still good and spendable, don’t always pass some of these tests. And we didn’t have any of those pens either. So pretty much any time someone tried to pay with a $100 bill, I’d just call for a manager to approve it. I wasn’t going to take responsibility for telling a customer that their money was no good since I was never properly trained to do so, nor was I going to allow myself to be fired for accepting a counterfeit.
The one and only time I had a manager refused to take a $100 bill, he just handed it back to the customer and advised him to take it to his bank for validation as we suspected that it might not be real, and he apologized profusely and then asked for another form of payment, which the customer gave him via a valid credit card. The customer wasn’t all too happy that we would take the cash that supposedly his elderly mother gave him to buy Christmas presents for his kids but we didn’t humiliate him in the process or tear up his bill. If he was in possession of a counterfeit, that’s not to say he was the counterfeiter and just not an innocent
I say damn the Danes for bring us this to which we are paying dearly for, possibly with the life of America.
“Was an honest mistake, not malicious.”
Their actions were indeed malicious. Even if their ignorant understanding of fake bills were put aside, their treatment of this women was malicious.
Destruction of evidence. Stupid Wal-Mart employees.
I commend you for how you handled the situation concerning the suspected bill. That is pretty wise.
“Nah...I checked them out. They were normal, beat up FRNs. Not worth he paper they were printed on.”
Okay, then. As a collector, it always makes my heart skip a beat (in a bad way) when people talk about casually spending “old” notes.
That's the best thing to do. Even in banking, if we were suspicious of a particular bill, we would always get other opinions. The CSM had to confiscate the bill, fill out a report and send it to the Secret Service anyway. Tough luck for the person who had possession of it, because they would be out the money.
They are the largest retailer in the world; it is not surprising that they have a few idiots working for them. Overall the Walmarts I have been in have been cleaner, better organized and friendlier than most other retailers at least around here.
Our daughter used to work for them; she got a competitive wage and benefits. She quit for what she thought was a better opportunity. It didn't take her too long to figure out that she had made a mistake.
I don’t know.
A few years ago, my son was selling tickets at a movie theater. A woman bought a couple of tickets, and paid with a $100 dollar bill. He used the counterfeit pen on it, and it checked out ok. Then he held the bill up to the light and noticed Lincoln’s watermark on the bill instead of Franklin’s. He notified the manager, who contacted the police office there as security. The woman swore she had no idea it was counterfeit, and the police were going to let her go until they ran her name for warrants...
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