aaNguyen
Jan 3, 2011, 07:17 PM
Hello, me and 2 friends are in a sticky situation and we're just looking for some options on what we can do about this.
I'll try to keep it short, this happened in BC, Canada.
A little over 2 weeks ago, we were a group of 5 (all age 18) hanging out at the mall. It ended when 2 of our friends decided to impulsively shoplift (dumb items like umbrella and gloves), and they got caught (the other 3 of us were unaware that they shoplifted). Our entire group was taken in back inside, and they took our info and banned us from the mall and retailer. During the holding, I overheard one of the guys that caught us explaining to an RCMP officer that came that the innocent 3 of us were "passing the gloves around." I am sure that for at least 2 of us, that never happened. The other one has decided to avoid this whole scenario. Since being banned from the mall and retailer wasn't all that bad, the 3 of us that were innocent decided to be good friends and not to fight back. Following that, the RCMP officer came in and talked to us for a bit, and decided to let us go from criminal charges (thank god) since it such was a dumb situation and she was in a good mood. So we left feeling very relieved, and accepted the bannings from the retailer and mall. We were never warned about any other punishments.
Fast forward 2 weeks later, we all received letters in the mail from a legal corporation saying that the retailer is claiming damages against each of us.
"..you unlawfully took possession of merchandise from the Retailer's premises.."
And they want each of us to return a payment of $595.00 or so called the "Settlement Amount".
We were never warned about this fine when we were being held, and if we were, you can bet the 3 of us would've defended ourselves.
Since the 3 of us never "unlawfully took possession of merchandise", nor helped the shoplifters in any way, nor was even aware that they were shoplifting,
What can we do?? We're young so we don't know much about the legal world, and that's a lot of money to us.
Thank you
I'll try to keep it short, this happened in BC, Canada.
A little over 2 weeks ago, we were a group of 5 (all age 18) hanging out at the mall. It ended when 2 of our friends decided to impulsively shoplift (dumb items like umbrella and gloves), and they got caught (the other 3 of us were unaware that they shoplifted). Our entire group was taken in back inside, and they took our info and banned us from the mall and retailer. During the holding, I overheard one of the guys that caught us explaining to an RCMP officer that came that the innocent 3 of us were "passing the gloves around." I am sure that for at least 2 of us, that never happened. The other one has decided to avoid this whole scenario. Since being banned from the mall and retailer wasn't all that bad, the 3 of us that were innocent decided to be good friends and not to fight back. Following that, the RCMP officer came in and talked to us for a bit, and decided to let us go from criminal charges (thank god) since it such was a dumb situation and she was in a good mood. So we left feeling very relieved, and accepted the bannings from the retailer and mall. We were never warned about any other punishments.
Fast forward 2 weeks later, we all received letters in the mail from a legal corporation saying that the retailer is claiming damages against each of us.
"..you unlawfully took possession of merchandise from the Retailer's premises.."
And they want each of us to return a payment of $595.00 or so called the "Settlement Amount".
We were never warned about this fine when we were being held, and if we were, you can bet the 3 of us would've defended ourselves.
Since the 3 of us never "unlawfully took possession of merchandise", nor helped the shoplifters in any way, nor was even aware that they were shoplifting,
What can we do?? We're young so we don't know much about the legal world, and that's a lot of money to us.
Thank you