I received a settlement offer of $200.00 to be paid within 20 days. I was suspected of shoplifting at Walmart because of the amount of time I had spent in the store. I was shopping with my nine year old daughter for my seven year old daughter's birthday party for the weekend. I spent over $300.00 on a bicycle, numerous gifts and party decorations. There are far too many cruel details to explain in this short quest, but after being detained for several hours while they reviewed video surveilance tape and matched all merchandise in the bags to my receipt and emptied my purse, they returned everything to me, issued me a trespassing warning(?) and un-politely told us to leave. I was not given a ticket. I did not shoplift. My daughter was terrorized and threatened with going to DCF, (my daughter does not even know what DCF is). I was repeatedly threatened with jail, child endangerment, abuse, and neglct. I had repeatedly asked them to contact my daddy to inform him of the situation as he was watching my seven year old daughter and my three year old son, they refused. The last call my father received was from me at the check-out letting him know I would be on my way home.
Please help me to understand this.

No apology? What country was this in US or Canada? I don't know Jennifer, this is hard to believe of course. I think you mean though DCS, Dept.of Child Services. no DSF. If you were treated like this, then that would be harassment, but I can't understand anyone carrying on the way you describe. I certainly have no explanation, someone must have been tracking you and noticed something untoward, but being in the store too long, is certainly not a good reason for this treatment.

You should have got a public apology

It looks like there is more to the story than you are telling us.

They detained you for several hours without calling the police?

Why did they give you a trespassing warning?

Retail Theft is not rocket science. A decent Loss Prevention Officer can quickly make a determination in the event of a detention. Several hours seems WAY over the top. If everything is as you said , you are likely due a lot more than $200.

If I were you , I would be contacting a lawyer before accepting $200. They are in essence " buying you out" very cheaply and the trespass notice seems to indicate that although they can't prove theft , they are highly suspicious of you and don't want you back.

I would say 2000 or more would be closer,

Next they can not detain you, you can refuse and demand to go, they will have to call police to arrest you or let you go. Security guards do not have any special power of arrest and in fact if they detain you, are putting you under a form of arrest. If they refuse to let you go.

So once they detain you, you are arrested, the security guard can be sued personally for damages ( and I would) and the store can be sued separately.

Next if they threaten you, that is not professional but not illegal, I would want it public if you can prove it. I would perhaps start at 10,000 and see where the settlement goes from there, starting with saying this was false arrest and add complaint from there.

The issue is, just refuse to be detained, at that point they have to make some chocies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

I would say 2000 or more would be closer,

Next they can not detain you, you can refuse and demand to go, they will have to call police to arrest you or let you go. Security guards do not have any special power of arrest and in fact if they detain you, are putting you under a form of arrest. If they refuse to let you go.

So once they detain you, you are arrested, the security guard can be sued personally for damages ( and I would) and the store can be sued separately.

Next if they threaten you, that is not professional but not illegal, I would want it public if you can prove it. I would perhaps start at 10,000 and see where the settlement goes from there, starting with saying this was false arrest and add complaint from there.

The issue is, just refuse to be detained, at that point they have to make some chocies.

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In Pa , any store employee can in fact detain a suspected shoplifter and can use reasonable force to do so. Certainly , they had better be right.

They are not obligated to call the police because the store can opt to handle it civilly by demanding a monetary " fine" of up to $500.

If you don't contact an attorney on this ( presuming you are in fact innocent) , you are crazy.

The whole explanation sounds very odd. I don't think they would be terrorizing children, especially in a Walmart store, which are so very family oriented. Who would go so far as to threaten children with Dept. of Child's Services? That is really far out there in my own opinion.

This is a one sided story, that I think has many details left out. It just does not ring true to me.

OP has not been back since she started the thread.

This story doesn't make sense. It would help to get the whole story, because I think something is being left out. It makes no sense for Walmart to react this way based on what we were told.

To the OP (original poster) we can only base our replies on what you tell us, so if you're not telling us everything, the advice you get is null and void. If you want accurate advice then you need to tell us everything, even if you believe it may put you in a bad light.

Store employees may detain anywhere, but it is considered an arrest when they do, and would be required at that point to call the police. ( if not it would be considered kidnapping if they do not follow up with criminal charges)

But if they are wrong ( and it appears they were in this case according to facts given) then they have a false arrest, illegal detention and if use of force was done, issues there.

If this happened to me, I would own that Walmart store before I was done