What is the law if a dept. store security follows you to your car, because they thought you stole a bike?

Question

I was at Walmart today and my boyfriend took a bike out to our car, we had already paid for it,and I was finishing up with the rest of the stuff we bought with the cashier. The cashier told him to go ahead and take it out to the car. As I was leaving with my two sons and a friend of my oldest we were stopped at the door because the helment we purchased was not in a bag. The lady asked to see my reciept and I showed it to her she studied it for about 2 min. because she could not find the ucp code on the reciept, she was looking at the wrong one,I tried to tell her it was the wrong one and she was rather short with me. As I was leaving a man came up to me, and stated he needed to see my reciept agian, this time for the bike. This man was about 10 feet away from my car and not in the store but in the parking lot,he was dressed in black and had no id on I asumed he was security I didn"t think store security could leave the store, I thought they had to call the police, should I persue this?

Answer 1

The parking lot is Walmart property, they can ask you whatever they want. You have no case, if you don't like the way you were treated, don't go back.

Edit:
To the poster below that "rants" about the store not being able to ask you for a receipt ... umm WRONG! First of all, the transaction is not complete until you exit the store. For example; if you are a shop lifter, you can stick whatever you want to in your purse, your pockets, your baby stroller or dare I say, anywhere else you chose so long as you pay for it before walking out the door. As long as you are inside the store it is not theft. The fact that they ask you for a receipt before you exit is to YOUR benefit, you know, in case you “forgot” to pay for it … ahem.

Answer 2

I am a 20 yr. police veteran. You in fact can't conceal an item before you pay for it in a store. In louisiana at least, the concealment is all that is needed. And you better keep it under $100 because that is the threshold for being a felony in shoplifting cases. I can tell you people are really shock when you are hauling them away to jail.

As far as walmart is concern, it is there property and they can follow you off the property and confront you if they want. I don't think that is walmart's policy but louisiana law gives them wide latitude to protect their goods. It is the same with the casinos here.

I would voice my concern to the manager at least since like I said, from my dealings with walmart they aren't expected to chase people down. The man in black could have actually been an off duty police officer but he should have identify himself as such.

Answer 3

Did they try to detain you or just ask to see a receipt? If they just asked to see a receipt, I'd just let it go, they didn't do anything you have a legal basis for pursuing. After all, they just asked you to do something, and you did it. They didn't force you to do anything. If they tried to force you to do something or attempted to detain you, that's a different matter altogether.

On the other hand - You paid for it, it's your property, you can do whatever the hell you want with it - the moment the exchange is made- even if you don't have a receipt. In fact, they have no legal basis for asking to see a receipt, EVEN on their property. This is something that really pisses me off at the "security" checks posted at the doors of many retailers now that demand to see a receipt before you can walk out the door. I just say "no thanks" and keep walking - I halfway hope one of them tries to stop me one day. Can you say "false arrest"? Can you say "kidnapping" if they try to hold me in the store with no evidence of theft? I can. :)

Just one more tip - next time someone with no id that you don't know comes up to you in a store parking lot and asks you to do something, you might want to ask who they are and have them show you some id first....

Answer 4

i can see how this left a sour taste in your mouth, you made a rather big purchase only to be confronted 2 times, and most likely even in an intimidating way. this is bad PR. i would take the time to write a letter to the store head manager, but make sure you count to 10 every time you start getting agitated. appease to his human side, if there is something you forgot to buy that day like elbow pads or knee pads, let them know how intimidated they made you feel, nicely suggest that a discount might persuade you to go back and try there services again.
just a suggestion. it works for me when i get bad service.

Answer 5

sure, they are following you when you consider which you're Black. White actual everyone seems to be very racist. area of the problem is they are very paranoid. by way of fact their ancestors did a lot of undesirable issues to ours, they are purely feeling the guilt and shame from it centuries later. once you do undesirable issues to human beings you may desire to consistently watch your back and worry they are going to do some thing in retaliation. they think of you will steal from them by way of fact they stole all of our aspects and left our human beings bothered with poverty interior the motherland and in different factors of the international the place the African diaspora is recent. My recommend is to easily forget approximately approximately them. we will get reparations sooner or later. yet till that day, they are going to proceed to stalk us.

Answer 6

They just asked to see your receipt. Let it go and enjoy the bike.

Answer 7

Honestly, no it's not worth pursuing. What they did was policy, and didn't violate any laws.