Complaint Review: Wal-Mart - Stuart Florida

The wife doesn't know you can't do it? You take 'medicine' out of the package to 'examine' it? What could you tell by looking at it? Since when does Wal-Mart have an OTC Viagra equivalent? You are full of it. I hope you have no kids, and I hope you are impotent so you can have no kids in the future to pass your dumb-a*s genes on to. OOOOHH! It looks like a blue pill! It must work! Let me get that finger out of my a*s so I can get my wallet out! But what if my wife looks at the receipt?! I'll be finished!

...You're handing out some very bad advice here. First of all, I credit you for citing Florida law as it is written, but had you read the man's testimony closely, you might have understood that the accusation originated by an "off-duty officer", I am assuming to be defined as a sworn law enforcement officer. It's also very clear that based upon that accusation, as ill born as it may or may not have been at the time it was made, and despite whether or not he had concealed or left the premises without paying for the item, the fact is that the management staff called in the local police, and the situation was not handled by a "rent-a-cop," as you so eloquently put it. Despite any reason under any written law that one might have to protest any accusation of wrongdoing, or for anyone involved to have failed to follow procedure for documenting such an accusation, you do not have any right to disregard an officer's instruction, be they on-duty or off-duty. If they identify themselves as an officer, the only course of action you have at that point is to do exactly as you are told to do. Any legal issue(s) surrounding what happened is to be sorted out in court. Failure to obey and officer's direct order is a crime in and of itself, and it subjects one to arrest and incarceration. Now as to "Rick" and what he claims happened, there are a couple of points that put his claims in complete doubt, at least in my mind. First of all, he was detained in hand cuffs for the safety of the employees and the officer as the charges were being sorted out, and thus was not entitled to have his rights read to him. He was also not illegally searched, as he was detained with cause, for the suspicion of shoplifting at least one item, and thus was subject to being searched by an officer. Two things stand out that poke holes in his story as to the excuse he gives for the action he took in removing an item from it's packaging. 1.) If the man was so totally embarrassed about his erectile dysfunction to even discuss the subject with his own wife, who surely knew about the problem for obvious reasons, how was he planning to pay for the item? Was he going to return to the register where his wife was waiting for him to return with the item from the pet department, or was he planning to pay the item at another register? Either way, there was little chance that he was going to escape paying for the item without drawing his wife's attention in some manner. 2.) Anyone with a brain knows that removing an item from a store shelf, opening it and removing the contents, and then placing the empty package back on the shelf is a common theft method. Bar codes needed to scan and ultimately pay for the item are on the packaging, and not on the contents therein. Doing what he did would only have presented another issue altogether had he proceeded to checkout, because there was nothing to scan. I think the intent was clear, and the charge justified. If this man is being totally on the level, which I seriously doubt, the better course of action would have been to have returned to the store at some point when he was alone, and to have made the purchase privately and properly. Then again, this is the year 2008. We are bombarded on radio and television ads for products every day of the week that are offered to address ED. You can buy them online. You can have them mailed to you. Clinics that are in the business of only treating ED offer complete privacy and fill prescriptions on-site and privately as well. Anyone THAT embarrassed about a common problem such as ED has more issues than a pill or potion will begin to fix.

Rick, Although I completely agree that the rent-a-cops at WalMart are totally out of control, you brought your problems on yourself. A little common sense and some basic education of the law would have gone a long way. First of all, you looked guilty by taking the merchandise out of the package and putting the empty package back on the shelf. HOWEVER....at this point you still had not broken the law, and the rent-a-cop had no legal right to "detain" you. You could have legally refused to go into that little room. And, if that rent-a-cop would have in any way touched you it would have made you rich as under Florida law, that is BATTERY, and is a FELONY. Under Florida Law, you must conceal an item on your person to be detained, or leave the premises. Unless you met one of those conditions you were illegally detained. Furthermore, the law requires the store have you under constant surveillance from the point you allegedly concealed the item until loss prevention takes you into custody. If they don't do this, they lose. Knowledge is power. I really wish one of these monkeys would try this with me. I have been itching to use deadly force one one or more of them. Legally, in Florida, I can do just that. As soon as that jerkoff engages in a felony [battery], I can use deadly force, no questions asked. Just paperwork. Educate yourself.

Went into wal-mart the other night at 9:30 to get some fertilizer to put down on the grass cause it was gonna rain the next day and it hasn't rained in months here. Went into the back of the store, in the garden center. They keep the fertilizer in the outside area, which was locked, so I looked out the locked, double glass doors where it was. Just then, the on duty manager and a security guy run up and start looking in my EMPTY cart. I ask if I can help THEM. They get this funny look on their faces and say "THEY'RE JUST LOOKING". I asked did they pick me up on their security cameras? They mumbled something and asked if they could help me. I told 'em I needed some fertilizer out in the locked area and the manager unlocked the doors and escorted me out and helped me load the bags into my cart. I swear it would have taken a half hour or more if I had asked someone for help IF I could have found someone at that time of night. Instead, when they thought I was trying to sneak out with unpaid merchandise, they were there in under a minute. The one question I have for the OP, what were you doing "taking some of the product out of the package"? Let your attorney handle it.

Went into wal-mart the other night at 9:30 to get some fertilizer to put down on the grass cause it was gonna rain the next day and it hasn't rained in months here. Went into the back of the store, in the garden center. They keep the fertilizer in the outside area, which was locked, so I looked out the locked, double glass doors where it was. Just then, the on duty manager and a security guy run up and start looking in my EMPTY cart. I ask if I can help THEM. They get this funny look on their faces and say "THEY'RE JUST LOOKING". I asked did they pick me up on their security cameras? They mumbled something and asked if they could help me. I told 'em I needed some fertilizer out in the locked area and the manager unlocked the doors and escorted me out and helped me load the bags into my cart. I swear it would have taken a half hour or more if I had asked someone for help IF I could have found someone at that time of night. Instead, when they thought I was trying to sneak out with unpaid merchandise, they were there in under a minute. The one question I have for the OP, what were you doing "taking some of the product out of the package"? Let your attorney handle it.

Went into wal-mart the other night at 9:30 to get some fertilizer to put down on the grass cause it was gonna rain the next day and it hasn't rained in months here. Went into the back of the store, in the garden center. They keep the fertilizer in the outside area, which was locked, so I looked out the locked, double glass doors where it was. Just then, the on duty manager and a security guy run up and start looking in my EMPTY cart. I ask if I can help THEM. They get this funny look on their faces and say "THEY'RE JUST LOOKING". I asked did they pick me up on their security cameras? They mumbled something and asked if they could help me. I told 'em I needed some fertilizer out in the locked area and the manager unlocked the doors and escorted me out and helped me load the bags into my cart. I swear it would have taken a half hour or more if I had asked someone for help IF I could have found someone at that time of night. Instead, when they thought I was trying to sneak out with unpaid merchandise, they were there in under a minute. The one question I have for the OP, what were you doing "taking some of the product out of the package"? Let your attorney handle it.

Went into wal-mart the other night at 9:30 to get some fertilizer to put down on the grass cause it was gonna rain the next day and it hasn't rained in months here. Went into the back of the store, in the garden center. They keep the fertilizer in the outside area, which was locked, so I looked out the locked, double glass doors where it was. Just then, the on duty manager and a security guy run up and start looking in my EMPTY cart. I ask if I can help THEM. They get this funny look on their faces and say "THEY'RE JUST LOOKING". I asked did they pick me up on their security cameras? They mumbled something and asked if they could help me. I told 'em I needed some fertilizer out in the locked area and the manager unlocked the doors and escorted me out and helped me load the bags into my cart. I swear it would have taken a half hour or more if I had asked someone for help IF I could have found someone at that time of night. Instead, when they thought I was trying to sneak out with unpaid merchandise, they were there in under a minute. The one question I have for the OP, what were you doing "taking some of the product out of the package"? Let your attorney handle it.