Fall at Walmart

[bobunknown]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: MI
This is a two part question,
A few months ago I was at a walmart with my wife and kids getting some of our normal stuff for the house and etc. My wife was intrested in a new cell phone and get out of her prepaid she had. While we were waiting on them to call one of the cell carriers for a manual review my son had to use the bathroom and said he couldn't wait anymore. The employee there said that it would take about another 30 min to find out anything and we still had to pay for our stuff and etc so I took him to the bathroom. The employee even noted that there was a close one in the back that we could use instead of walking clear across the store so that my son wouldn't have to wait to use the bathroom. The bathroom that the employee said was there was a family bathroom. When I opened the door the light was off controlled by a dimmer switch and came on as we entered, my son went into the bathroom and started towards the toilet as I went in after him. I got about two steps into the bathroom and fell as I sliped on the water on the floor, and hit my head on the tiled floor. As I was getting up I noticed that my mouth was full of blood and even as I spit the blood out it kept filling up, one of my teeth had broken almost in half. I used toilet paper to place in my mouth and found my wife. Told her what happened and that we needed to leave to get to a dentist asap. She insisted on talking to one of the managers at the store before we did. They took a report and said somone would call.
A few days later we got a call and they were doing an investigation into the matter, she took all my info and said that somone would get back to me asap. Two weeks later they called and said that they were waiting on one more of the stores employees to talk to them. Another week passed and then I got a call saying that even though they could see where I bled on the sink and etc and that the floor was wet that they had no resposability for what had happened. Now I a stuck with a pain in that tooth and etc because it will take almost 2000.00 to fix the tooth and 1000.00 to remove. So until I can afford that kinda cash I was told basicaly to deal with it.
My 1st question here is what can be done now?

After that my wife was shoping with me and the kids at night after I was off work and etc. We went to leave and the asset protection personal as they said steped between me and my wife and grabed her. They said she had stolen something while we were in the store and they wanted it back. They then separated me and my kids from her gathering around her as if to intimadate her. My wife started to empty her pockets and then they saw her SD cards and said that is what she stole and somehow produced a package missing one. They then took her to a room and stated that they may let her go if she does what they want and had ID. They said nothing more and took her to another room without giving me any details on anything. My kids were crying and no one at the store would say anything to me about my wife. My kids ended up crying so hard that one of them threw up on themselfs. After awhile my wife came out and told me that they had kept her sd card and she had to pay a 180.00 restitution payment. She also was told that she had to bring a record of all the other cards she had or they would press charges. When she insisted that she didn't steal anything they stated that they could easily call cps and have our kids taken away if she didn't agree to what they told her to, and that she would go to jail right then and there if she didn't agree to pay the 180.00. The worst part of this is that my youngest daughter is 3 mths old and breast feeds. So my wife had no options but to do as they said to take care of the kids. When I asked to speak to someone I was asked to leave and call the store manager the next day, who to say the least was nothing but rude. I have a recite where we had bought the cards along with some other stuff at the house, she uses them with an rd4 to play ebooks on her gameboy ds, witch she had with her at the time and tried to explain. They accused her of stealing that also and wanted to know why she carried so much stuff with her. We have 5 kids and to be prepaired for anything means that you carry almost anything and everything with you. Now they have a card that we paid for and they want us to pay them for stealing our stuff. I can't help but wonder if this was due to filing a case against them for the accident or not.
Second question, what can I do about this now?

[Mr. Knowitall]

A few days later we got a call and they were doing an investigation into the matter, she took all my info and said that somone would get back to me asap. Two weeks later they called and said that they were waiting on one more of the stores employees to talk to them. Another week passed and then I got a call saying that even though they could see where I bled on the sink and etc and that the floor was wet that they had no resposability for what had happened. Now I a stuck with a pain in that tooth and etc because it will take almost 2000.00 to fix the tooth and 1000.00 to remove. So until I can afford that kinda cash I was told basicaly to deal with it.

Then your alternative is to sue them.

It appears that they either determined that it was unlikely that your injury occurred as you described, and that you're trying to get them to pay for an injury that occurred previously at a different location, or that the condition of the floor was "open and obvious" such that even if there was water on the floor you should have seen and avoided it.

We went to leave and the asset protection personal as they said steped between me and my wife and grabed her. They said she had stolen something while we were in the store and they wanted it back. They then separated me and my kids from her gathering around her as if to intimadate her. My wife started to empty her pockets and then they saw her SD cards and said that is what she stole and somehow produced a package missing one.

So, basically, LP observed your wife acting in what they believed to be a suspicious manner with some SD memory cards, investigated and found an empty package where she had been, intercepted her, and found a memory card that matched the empty package in her pocket? Then she confessed to stealing it?

You can ignore their civil demand and see if they sue you. If they do, you can present your version of events to the court and the judge will decide who wins. If Walmart sues and wins, they will also recover court costs and may be awarded attorney fees.

[cgreen]

If the sd card was yours, then some of your files should have been on it right? If this was the case, you should have told them to call the cops and that you wanted to see the sd card at all times so that they could not switch it. After cops arrived, you should have then shown the cops your files proving there was no way you could stolen the sd card and put your files on it in the store.

[DonnyC]

Everyone knows Wal-Mart Loss prevention is unstable and lacks control in certain areas. Why else would walmart make a public statement that they will no longer prosecute thefts under $25 if this was your first offence.(Don't believe me look it up). Fight it if you got the evidence if not WalMart wins yet again.

[bobunknown]

She was scared about her kids and etc, they told her all alone in a room that they could and would take her kids if she didn't do what they wanted.

[Security Consultant]

Everyone knows Wal-Mart Loss prevention is unstable and lacks control in certain areas. Why else would walmart make a public statement that they will no longer prosecute thefts under $25 if this was your first offence.(Don't believe me look it up). Fight it if you got the evidence if not WalMart wins yet again.

Let me assure you this is not the case. At first it was left up to the discretion of individual area managers - then they rescinded the edict altogether.

[bobunknown]

This morning the store manager called and said that asset protection was a separate department and that if they say it was a legit bust then it was he couldn't be responsable for what had happened if there was any wrong doing.

[DonnyC]

My facts werent correct about the walmart $25 theft program then. I do remember it was in the news at one point. As for the asset protection being a seperate part. If a business hires out to preform these services that doesnt relieve walmart of their responibility to ensure these guys are doing a lawful job. All it takes is one bad apple and a lawsuit can arise against both the company doing the protection and walmart. From what I can see walmart perfers to settle a moajority of their cases out of court so they can limit their loses im sure.