Falsely Accused of Shoplifting and Detained

My question involves civil rights in the State of: Ohio Not sure if this is the correct forum, if not can you please direct me to the correct place? Thank you. I recently visited a beauty supply store. I was in the store for about 2 minutes. I went directly to the hair color (which is probably 100 ft from the cash register), and then to the register to pay for my items. When I went to leave, the alarm went off, so I stopped, the clerk asked for my bag and said it probably wasn't deactivated. She ran it across the little pad and I tried to leave again. The alarm went off again. I stopped and told her it may be my phone or my Coach purse (for some reason, my phone, that I had only purchased a week or so prior to this incident had been setting off alarms and Coach puts these little sensors in their bags, and if you don't look for them, you don't even know they are there). Anyway, she asked to search my purse. I told her absolutely not. She said she would call the police and I told her to go right ahead. She then took the bag of purchased merchandise out of my hand and held it behind the counter. She also called someone from the back to watch me so I wouldn't try to leave. Once the police arrived, they determined that I did not have any store merchandise on my person or in my purse. I continued to set the alarm off when I left the store with the police to make a report. I am not looking for a windfall, I just felt very hurt by the situation. I was a hairstylist that frequented this store quite often and referred many clients to them. I am now a nurse, and I take my position very seriously. Many people were coming and going from the store as the entire process transpired. My integrity was called into question. So, I just wonder if I have any type of legal case and if so, what type of attorney I need to retain. Thank you.

Other than writing to the store ownership/management, there's nothing to be done here. If you wanted to make an issue of her taking the bag of stuff you bought out of your hand, the time to do it would've been when the police came. (Obviously, you were free to leave anytime you liked.)

"My integrity was called into question."

I understand, but that doesn't make a viable legal action out of this. I wouldn't spend X hundreds an hour to sue them over this -- I'd just write a well-reasoned letter. Anyone's free to sue anyone else over anything, however, of course. (I'd get the Coach bag issue addressed, and also look into why your phone would be causing alarms to go off; if it can't be fixed, I'd be leaving that sucker elsewhere rather than worry about having alarms going off.)

I would love to have your "integrity" explain how you walking into the store initially without setting off a sensor, however, could not leave the same way.

Thank you. I have since found the sensor that was in my Coach purse, so I haven't had to deal with the alarms going off. :-)

I used to wear a real corset under some of my clothes, and every single time I went into the CVS by our house, the sensor would go off (both going in and leaving.) Fun times. : /

Some people will do ANYTHING to get a patdown! <wink>