Walmart employees 'ripped up woman's $100 bills because they thought they were fake'

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 9-16-12 | By Nina Golgowski

[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.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

I love $2 bills. I’d always get some when I cashed the paycheck back in the States.

Here, the smallest bill is 100 Kc (Czech crowns) - goes all the way up to 5,000 Kc. That’s roughly from a $5 to a $250 bill at rate of exchange. 1,000’s and 2,000’s are common enough here. Anything below 100 Kc is a coin.

[KosmicKitty]

Why would the dumbass cashier and manager tear up evidence of counterfeit bills ...

Passing counterfeit currency is a felony....

But wouldn't you need the bills for evidence? So wouldn't tearing them up be tampering with evidence?

[Oztrich Boy]

"It's a Sacagawea dollar. You can take it to the bank, and trade it in for a real dollar"

[PJBankard]

I would believe not, as you can’t give them the merchandise without receiving a proper legal payment.

[Balding_Eagle]

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.

Bullshite story.

Except for the part of 'taking legal action against the store', which will evaporate the instant she finds out that there are video camera's on the cashiers 100% of the time.

I wish WalMart would take legal action against these shysters, AND the newpapers that print such tripe.

[Carriage Hill]

We used those marker pens for 20s, 50s & 100s, provided by our banks, too, in my former store:

“After marking the bill with the detection pen, revealing a yellowish colour across it, ...”

Yellow stripe = legitimate.
Black stripe = fake.

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-does-a-counterfeit-money-pen-work.htm

[netmilsmom]

Oh I would just love to be behind you in a line. /s/

While I don’t condone the ripping of the bills or any of the hassles this lady got for her cash, it’s silly to hassle a 7.25 an hour employee for doing his/her job. Nor to delay the people behind you to get your jollies for the day.

I shop at Walmart. I use the Self-Check to avoid problems.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“But if the store gave her back the money, so what’s the real harm here, aside from her having a good reason to be mad until her money was returned. “

“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.”

That’s a big problem for the store! She was unlawfully detained, kidnapped!

[PJBankard]

Yes sir. I’m going to rush to do what the Secret Service tells me to do/

Most people do, as most people don't counterfeit money. Secondary mission for the Secret Service is the investigation and prevention of counterfeit US Currency.

[Oztrich Boy]

Was an honest mistake, not malicious.

No. Idiocracy.

Genuine. Destroying currency. crime.

Fake. Destroying evidence. Also a crime.

DA should offer a deal where the employee pleads to the crime carring the lesser sentence, and serves the maximum.

[a fool in paradise]

Then the cop shot her dog

>>And the managers dog too. Just for good measure.

At least nobody got tazered... yet.

[ApplegateRanch]

No where does it say, rip bill in half and act like a jackass.

Why assume they were acting? *<];-')

[righttackle44]

. . . not malicious.

Wrong. It turned malicious when the clerk started calling out to passersby that the customer was trying to use fake money. Then it became downright nasty and vicious.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Even tho this is a current newspaper article, the actual event occurred in Dec 2010. So why is this news? Is it finally coming up in the court system? Where was this, the article is by a British newspaper, but I don’t think that there are Walmarts in Britain.

[Pontiac]

I am seeing more and more stores that post signs that state they will not accept any bill larger than a twenty.

Two reasons I have read is that the larger bills are counterfeited more often and some robberies have used large bills to get managers out of the office to make change and then proceed to rob the place.

[Revel]

It took some research to determine that this happened in Texas.

Is there not a federal law about intentionally destroying US currency? They should nail them for that too.

[lacrew]

I got stuck with some Sacagawea dollars (change from a stamp vending machine).

It was quite an effort getting rid of them. Nobody knew what they were, and they always had to ‘ask their manager’ before accepting.

Here is a story about around a BILLION of them sitting in a warehouse, because nobody wants them:

http://www.good.is/post/why-are-1-billion-dollar-coins-just-sitting-in-the-federal-reserve/

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

And then what? Does the Secret Service give you a genuine bill in return — or are you just out-of-pocket?

[Balding_Eagle]

I don’t believe that ‘detained’ bit for a New York second.

Locally, our Walmart assistant manager of 15 years ran out an took down the license plate number of some shoplifters. He did not interact with the lifters in any other way.

He was fired the next morning for his actions.

This whole story is fabricated.

[ApplegateRanch]

Ugh, did you miss the part about being detained in public view at the front of the store for 2 hours? The part about telling other customers she was passing funny money? The part about not actually testing/checking the bills before ripping them?

Sounds like a whole cascading series of “mistakes”, that have NOT been rectified, other than the initial one involving the actual wrongful taking of her money.