Is Best buy's check your personal bags before you leave policy illegal?

Question

CONTRARY to popular belief you dont have to wait this holiday season in line just to exit the store by having the employees check your reciept to your bag (in any store).

Its a voluntary search you agree to by giving them your receipt and allowing them to do it.

BY LAW...no store employee can demand to see your personal belongings unless they have witnessed you trying to leave the store without paying for merchandise, or
witnessed you trying to hide merchandise in your personal belongings and exit the store

There have been many lawsuits springing up because Best Buy employees have went to lengths to stop and even block people from leaving, without legal authority.

Last year they blocked an off duty police officer and actually followed him to his car and parked behind him....
When the police came, they realized they were illegally detaining a police offficer.

EVEN IF THE BUZZARD GOES OFF,
.you dont have to let anyone search you or your belongings.

ITS LAW...call police check it

The only ones that will oppose this saying you must, are those affiliated with Best Buy.

No store can ever check your bags if you dont want them to.

Even police need proper cause to search through you, your belongings or even your car.

So this holiday season, keep the exit line flowing.

MAY or MAY NOT BE TRUE?????

Why do people think it isnt true.
No one can check your bags legally.

Thats the truth

IF THEY havent seen you they cant detain you...thats the law.

Any detainment without a visual is illegal.
Liable.

Ban from the store for expressing my lawful right...would have a lawsuit filed right there.

Why anyone would argue to support this would only be a best buy employee.

NO LISBETH--they cant detain you on an assumption.
You need a visual confirmation

What country do you live in because thats not the law of the U.S.

JR -- someone who is guilty is alot different then someone who isnt.
So if they allowed you to go follow people who werent witnessed committing a crime, and you still went after them..well Im surprised youre not in as much trouble as best buy is getting into.

and youd be wrong, and open to liability if you did go after someone and detain them if they had nothing.

What planet are you guys on? trying to argue that you agree to a store policy of searching your bags.

You cant do it!
Why are you all trying to argue that

And they cant ban you from a store because one of the requirements is you must give up your rights.

What country do you guys live in North Korea?

Answer 1

It does get pretty bad around the holidays, and yes, it is illegal to force the bag checking if there is no real reason or suspicion behind it.

Answer 2

I never let them look as they have zero right to do so. Once you paid for that property, it is yours. They may, however, stop you (as any citizen can) and make a citizens arrest if they think you shoplifted. They had better have really good proof though, because if they are wrong, then they are open to criminal charges and civil suit. They need ALOT more than just an assumption. They need vidoe tape and the person stopped had better not have a paid reciept. The person standing at the door has absolutely no legal right to force you to show whats in your bag. He can ask, you can do it voluntarily, but he can not force you. A police officer can only do it under certain limited conditions, so a square badge working the door certainly can not.
What are they going to do if you refuse? Arrest you? For what? Tell you not to come back? unlikely.
You own that property, case closed.
I had an employee at home depot demand to see my reciept and block me from leaving. I asked him to move from my path, or effect a citizens arrrest. He refused to do either, so I moved him. I then called the police, who showed up, reviewed the tape and asked the employee and manager why they detained me (false imprisonment, they called it) without any probable cause. The store said it was policy. The officer replied that policy can not supercede law and that in the abscence of any probable cause, what they did was illegal. They asked if I would like to have charges sworn out for false imprisonment. I declined, but lodged a complaint with home depot corporate and got a 500 dollar gift card and an apology that said while it was :
"policy to request to see a reciept, employees are instructed to never detain a customer, even if they have proof the customer is shoplifting. Employees are required to notify the police, attempt to get a plate and a descriptiuon and are not to attempt to detain any individual.The empoyees in question have faced disciplinary charges and have been retrained"


The ironic part is the same people who willing allow a stranger to search them are the same people who cry about "big brother" and the "Patriot act" yet know nobody affected by those laws, yet willing surrender their own rights at their neighborhood store!

Answer 3

I would never trust best buy in the first place. They sell broken useless junk and other items you can not use. They also refuse to give a proper receipt. They also don't stand behind them when the don't work either.They lied & said the return policy was on the back of my reciept which it was not. They sold me a media center computer that I could not hook my media to. (NO AV JACKS) Then it was in there repair shop for a week. (Geek Squad) When I got it back, it still did not work and I could not use it. When I did try to return it the said I went over my 15 days as stated on the return policy that was on me reciept. Was not and is not on there. There reciepts are a regular sheet of paper with electronic journal printed on them. The reciepts don't even come from the cash register, But a crappy printer that they can print what ever they want on it.

Answer 4

Upon entering private property ... you have consented to
follow whatever rules the property owner sets. This is true of homes and businesses.

Now can they prevent you from leaving if you do not allow a search of your bags? Probably not, and it would be stupid to try. Just the negative publicity would be more treouble than it was worth. Their reaction to a refusal of search (if they are smart) would be limited to banning you from the premises.

Read the signs upon entering! If there is a sign stating that the store's policy is to search bags and you have a problem with that, go somewhere else! A sign stating that there is a search policy is legally "notification of a rule of the house", walking past that sign and entering the facility is "implied consent to follow the rules of the establishment". Failure to follow those rules could get you legally banned from entering the store at any future time.

Go ahead and sue dude! Lawyers get paid even when they lose!

Answer 5

So? Yes - I am aware that they don't have a legal right to ask to see inside my bag. I worked retail for many years. But I also know the number of "shoppers" are "shoplifters", and their SOP. If they ask to look in my bag, I have absolutely nothing to hide. So what is the big deal? I didn't steal anything, and I have my receipt from my purchase, so they can look away. See, if you realized that shoplifting is the #1 reason for price hikes for retailed goods, then you would realize that by cooperating, you are helping to keep the prices down. The markup they make on the stuff they sell is minimal. Those TV's and computers they sell, they are lucky if they get 20 % from the sale of it. To put it into perspective, clothing gets marked up as much as 250% from cost. So those clothing retailers are making a killing - even if they sell it at 50 % off original retail price. Electronics don't make much money on the big ticket items, but on the little items - the things that shoplifters steal. That security guy is looking at it as someone stealing HIS paycheck. That was how I looked at it when I worked retail. Stealing from the store was stealing from me in the way of a raise in pay or even that bonus. I think that cooperating is not too much of an inconvenience. If you have nothing to hide, then what is the harm? What is the worry if you paid for the item in the bag to allow the man or woman a peek at it and your receipt? I think it is more of a hassel to fight with them than to just open the bag and flash the receipt. But that is just me. PS - if someone is suspected of shoplifting, and has left the point of purchase, they have the right to attempt to recover the items without physical altercation. So they can take your license number (you don't think they have cameras on the lots????) and report it to the police. You should check with your state. In Wisconsin, one has to be past the point of purchase (registers) in order to be aprehended for shoplifting. But in Illinois, all one has to do for a shoplifting charge is conseal the item and/or the alarm device. In Illinois, that proves intent. It varies from state to state. In your state, they may have the right to do what you are accusing them of. Some of the major retailers hire trained security (Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, etc), and are used by some of the law enforcement agencies as aids in solving crimes/apprehending criminals. So I think they aren't going to do something to endanger their relationship with the police, and they certainly are not going to do something that would get them fired for landing their company into a big, fat lawsuit.

Answer 6

Thank you. The fact is that unless you agree to a search, they need a warrant to look into your belongings.

Disney and Universal started that crap after the 911 attacks. I, being me, was blunt enough once to hide a pocket knife into my jacket, and ask them what teh purpose of their search was, if they could never have found that pocket knife unless I told them... Do it well or don't do it at all.

At my nearest Best Buy, I just show the ticket and their plastic bag when I go out. Nobody ever asked me to look into my pocketbook, backpack, etc...

Answer 7

MOST of the shoplifting takes place by the employees.
And the businesses all put it in their budgets to plan for shoplifting.

I once had to wait 20 minutes during the hlidays because these people had been given the wrong laptop.
I wish I knew this before

Now, Im going to just start walking out of their.

I only ever see them talking to eachother anyways.
We should make them work by finding shoplifters instead of wasting our time helping make their jobs easier.

Answer 8

This is a tactic they use to discourage shop lifters. Do you have any idea how much shop lifting has cost businesses nation wide? Do you think that the businesses suffer? No...we, the consumers, have to pay for the companies losses due to shop lifting. We wind up paying by having to suffer higher prices at the checkout lane. I personally don't mind if they look in my bag because I am not guilty of anything and I have nothing to hide. It's a very minor inconvenience that I am willing to endure if it means that shoplifters are caught and or discouraged, thereby keeping the prices for their merchandise down. Oh and by the way, I'm a cop.

Answer 9

This is correct. In all actuality a store has to have probable cause to search your personal belongings. That includes a bag of items purchased at their store. If they insist on searching then you need to insist on calling the police.

Answer 10

. Maybe if the people at the cash registers at every store, not just best buys, would check ID on all credit card atm purchases, more bad guys would get nailed BEFORE they reached the front door. But wait, that's too much of an inconvenience, isn't it?

Bad guys just love people who think like you. They are easy targets & enjoy being a victim.