My question involves criminal law for the state of:Florida
It was 1.47 not 1.28 my apologies. so anyways,
I went to walmart today and got about 60$ worth of groceries with my boyfriend
Before we take our cart to checkout I decided to get some cheese sticks from the deli hot case.
I took a bite out of one cheesesticks and shortly after all the cheese sticks fell out of the cup thing out of my cart and all over the floor. about 4.so i pick them up and place them back in the container and took them with me to checkout.
at checkout I wanted a redbull so i laid the cheese sticks on top of the red bull display and grabbed a red bull Without the cheese sticks. My first mistake. I check out and pay for my groceries because that's what non criminals do. ( i did have full intentions on paying for my cheese sticks. It was an honest mistake) As I was leaving loss prevention stopped me at the door with my cheese sticks and asked me did i intend to pay for them i said yes omg i forgot about them. and tried to explain myself but it didn't work out. they were screaming at me. so i stayed quiet and did as I was told and followed them to this room.Once in the room they ask for my ID. I decline because I have no idea what's going on and they won't listen or tell me what is going on! I just want to pay for the cheese sticks and not be on any paperwork that's insanity to me.
Upon denial another guy comes storming in and screams at me to get off my phone or he will " f*cking g*d damn break the phone" his words, not mine. he repeatedly was screaming at me and told me i was going to jail.
I get off the phone and he tells me i'm going to jail again. i finally spoke and I told him 1.47 isn't going to get me in jail......
I was wrong because I got arrested, (ps i ended up giving my ID once I saw the cop)calmly, and recently got out of jail with this peti theft charge and a court date.
I was super calm, not being rude, stayed in a very cool manner and handled it all with class and whatever dignity I had left. I was placed in hand cuffs without being told im under arrest or even what for I was very confused this has never happened to me. It was clear to me the mean walmart employee was friends with this officer. He wanted to prove a point he could get me arrested for 1.47 he was very hot headed It was insanity.
I went to jail for 4 hours then released. No bail or mugshot. But i do have a notice to show up to court on the 23rd. They didn't take me to the county jail but the downtown police department jail. I had no mugshot or anything and no one was in that jail. I'm so confused about all of this.
I called corporate walmart and told them what happened and they said since the cheese sticks were not in my pockets, cart, posession etc i should have never been stopped and harrassed like that.
Recently one of the employees a mutual friends knows told me the 2 people who stopped me were trainees. The guy who came in and screamed at me must have been a manager of sorts for loss prevention idk. I guess if the trainer didn't see it himself it shouldn't have been an issue at all? corporate seemed upset. and so did this employee when i explained everything.
I called a lawyer and he said it's no use going to trial or taking this further and to just accept my fate and let him work on my case for 1500$ and he would try to get diversion (honestly i'm not the brightest with law terms) and to just let it go there's nothing i can do for the 1.47$ "theft" because there's not a low cost way to fight this.
So before i drop all this money on this lawyer, I just wanted maybe some advice on what I can do. I mean, I was willing to pay the 1.47. I was nice. I was understanding. I went to jail!!!!
An employee also said there is no audio on the walmart cameras. So all the hurtful words I had to endure is not on there.
And I'm not even going to get too into the fact that when I was placed in the police cruiser it was 90 degrees today and the cop sat there and was talking to his mean walmart friend while I was sweating profusely from the heat. It was TERRIBLE. When the cop came back he did roll down the windows but man that car was worse then jail.
Thanks in advance for any advice. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I apologize for this being poorly typed out.
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