An Honest Mistake

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Maryland

My Mom was shopping in walmart today and had a bit of a problem. She had some makeup that she orginally placed on top of her purse, which was sitting in the child seat of the cart. When she opened her purse to get out the list of things she was picking up for her mother, she placed the make-up on the seat, under her purse. She continued shopping for some time after. After retrieving all the necessary items, she proceeded to the check out lanes. She paid for everything in the cart (a little over $80) but forgot about the make-up sitting under her purse. After she paid for the rest of the items, she stopped at the Subway that is located in the store (between the registers and the door). As she was placing the cart against the wall (as it is too difficult to take the cart thru the subway line), she was approached by several walmart employees. They were very mean, yelling and screaming at her about having video of her trying to steal. Had they just waited another minute, she would have seen the items when she picked up her purse to get in line for subway, and would have gone back and paid for the items. But, instead they continued to harass her in front of everyone, searched her purse but obviously didn't find anyhing, took her phone away from her and wouldn't let her call anybody, threatened her that they were going to contact her employer and have her fired, and told her that she had 3 outstanding charges on her record that if they were to call the police, those charges would be filed as well. They took the items from her, without giving her an opportunity to explain that it was an honest mistake and just pay for the items. They said that she is banned from all walmart/sam's stores and that she will be receiving a bill for $50 in the mail as resititution. Can they do this? She hadn't even made an attempt to leave the store with the items at that point. And, she doesn't have anything on her record. Should she contact her lawyer, or just pay this bill and not go through the legal hassle?

Thanks!

Just so you know, cosmetics are among the most frequently shoplifted items at stores like WalMart, and "I accidentally put my purse on top of it and forgot" is a very common excuse used by shoplifters. Stores in the WalMart / Sam's Club chains are private property, and they can ban suspected shoplifters from their property.

Legally, nothing she can do. Yes, they can make her pay a civil demand too, even if they recover the stuff.

The way she was treated though does not sound right. Walmart must have very particular corporate policies on shoplifting.

She or you should write a letter to the store manager and Walmart corporate and explain the situation, explain how she was treated, and explain how good of a customer she is, that she has never been in any legal trouble, and that she is devastated at being banned from Walmart and politely ask that be rescinded.

Not in maryland as she has passed the final point of sale.

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Quoting Eggo310

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I dont know whats the law where u live but in california u have to actualy walk out the door for security to stop you and give you a ticket and yes they do give out store tickets and the have to ask for her permission to get her bag searched i use to do loss prevention for alot of retail stores and she can actually sue for that

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I always thought that you had to attempt to leave the store. I think it is pretty obvious that a person who is intentionally trying to steal something isn't going to stop at the eatery on their way out. Yes, they grabbed her purse from her without her permission and searched it. They also took her cell phone and refused to allow her to make a phone call. She is going to call her lawyer in the morning. I understand wanting to apprehend theives, but sometimes common sense and reason needs to be used. And also, they threatened her not only about her job, but claiming that she had other "things" on her record that the cops would charge her for. She has a clean record! And I seriously doubt that walmart LP has the ability to pull up someones criminal record... Such craziness... Thanks for your response!

Thanks Eggo310! Yeah, it was an innocent mistake and our issue really isn't with the fact that they stopped her but rather with how they treated her after that point. I used to volunteer for the local PD and had never heard of anyone being treated like that, not even shoplifters who were stealing hundreds of dollars worth of items, let alone about $23! Thanks again!

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Quoting ConcernedInMD

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And also, they threatened her not only about her job, but claiming that she had other "things" on her record that the cops would charge her for. She has a clean record! And I seriously doubt that walmart LP has the ability to pull up someones criminal record... Such craziness... Thanks for your response!

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Well, are you sure she has a clean record because you wouldn't have access either. You have your mom's word, but there may be things she wouldn't tell you. LP can pull up her records by calling the police dept, and anyone can pull up public records online.

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Quoting orris

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Well, are you sure she has a clean record because you wouldn't have access either. You have your mom's word, but there may be things she wouldn't tell you. LP can pull up her records by calling the police dept, and anyone can pull up public records online.

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Orris, I understand what you are saying but I am certain she has a clean record. My Mom and I are more like sisters. If anything had happened, she would have called me because I know more than she does about the legal system and have friends on the force and another friend who is a lawyer. Besides, I ran up to the local PD with her after the incident to verify that there isn't anything on her record; she's clean.

I've had this happen to be before. Had a necklace, threw my purse on top, unintentionally. Paid for everything else. Went to the lottery counter to get a ticket, picked up my purse and realized I had forgotten the necklace. Paid for it right there.

Walmart LP couldn't get her "records" from a police department. And certainly not in that amount of time.

There are databases they can pay to access but they have NO WAY of knowing if the information in them is correct or who it even belongs to unless they have DOB and other identifying information, and even then it is not necessarily correct.

NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, database and similar state databases are confidential and can only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes.

In fact, the SA we had previously used NCIC information (26 years old) to attack my credibility in a letter to the editor, which is a state and federal crime. He also did it all on state time using state resources, this is a state crime. The SA is shortly appearing before a state-wide corruption grand jury.

Walmart has no access to NCIC or the state version of the database and if they did, someone committed a much bigger crime than shoplifting.