A friend of mine went there with an older fam member...?

[montrel68]

it was hot out, they had baby twins (screaming).had no bottles or formula....she took a red bull from the fridge and opened it, drank it while she shopped, but kept the can..bought formula and then they grabbed two bottles and saved the boxes to pay after..one went into the bathroom and made bottles for the baby...so they could get shopping done..(all babyfood and formula...anyways..they paid for the babyfood and started to walk out...(total time took about 45 min..)..a security officer stopped them b4...B4 they got to the exit and brought them back to the office..the girl and woman both realised they had not paid for the red bull(already drank) and did not know what happened to the boxes from the bottles(prolly fell out of the double seated carraige)..anyhow, they were just about to walk out and said.."****. i forgot to pay for the red bull"..and the other one said, yeah, think i should go back n tell em i dont have the boxes but i am using the bottles...they didnt have one sec to turn around to pay when they were brought to the room...falsley told them they called the cops, (meanwhile the older one had heart problems and was scared to death cuz this guy didnt wanna hear anything)....the guy didnt end up pressing charges but said they would get a letter in about 3 months to pay SHOP-RITE A FINE of 100-300 dollars....this was a truely honest mistake...question is....becuz this guy actually "pretended calling the cops and told the younger woman "IM A TAX PAYER AND I FEED YR KIDS"..(CUZ SHE USED STATE ASSISTANCE FOR THE BABYFOOD)..CAUSED THE OLDER WOMAN WITH MED ISSUES CHEST PAINS....CAN THERE BE A COUNTER CHARGE OF "ENTRAPPMENT AND SLANDER"...ONE BECAUSE HE INTENTIONALLY KNEW HE WAS GONNA LET THEM GO...TWO,..BECUZ SHE FELT EMBARRASSED BECUZ OF BEING MADE FEEL LIKE SHE WAS TRASH BECUZ SHE USES STATE ASSISTANCE.and the guy embarrassed her in front of her 10 yr old son who was also with them..both had to sign no tresspassing papers and a couple others but they had NOT left the store....were going back to pay for the items....and now they have to possibly pay shop-rite 20x's more than what they accidently walked away from the cashier with...how can Shop-rite make money off of innocent pple when they were not even arrested...do they have a case if they were to fight the "fine" that may or may not come in the mail in 3 months time?

[mohammed47]

You do not have to leave the store for it count as shoplifting, you only have to pass the registers. Once you've passed the registers, the store managers can assume that you had no intent to pay. You cannot sue for damages in this case. Your friends made a mistake, and that mistake resulted in stress, embarrassment, chest pain, and feeling belittled. None of these things are illegal. Neither is saying you've called the cops when you haven't. There is no entrapment, because the didn't encourage your friends to leave without paying just so they could catch them. There is no slander, because they didn't go spread lies around town about what your friend did. It is common for stores to use intimidation tactics on those they assume are shoplifting. If they were nice and sweet and understanding, that would send the wrong signal to thieves. Personally, I think that your friends should be grateful that they are not being taken to court for shoplifting, because if they store wanted to press charges chances are they would be found guilty. After all they WERE guilty, by definition of law. Not "meaning to" doesn't make it any less illegal. He did not have to let them go. Things could have turned out very badly, so they really got off easy. However.... Statements like "I feed your kids" are bad public relations. Chain stores like these make a lot of profit off of people spending their government benefits there and to alienate customers who get government assistance is not a good idea from a store owner's perspective. You may be able to talk to this guy's manager and get him written up for comments like that. (Maybe not though, if you've agreed not to be on store property anymore.) I am not sure whether it's legal for the store to fine them. Did they sign some sort of agreement saying they would pay in exchange no not being charged? Did they have an opportunity to consult a lawyer before signing? If not, maybe they should contact one now. But then again, they'd pay a lawyer more to get them out of it than what they'd pay the store.....