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Can McDonalds arrest you for paying with counterfeit money?

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CdwJava

Senior Member
It was an innocent mistake.
It probably was an innocent mistake, but that does not prevent the police from detaining someone to investigate further since passing counterfeit money IS a crime, it will warrant further investigation to determine where it came from and whether the subject passing the funny money did so knowingly.

No, McDonalds did not arrest him, they just detained him and called the police.
Actually, from a legal perspective, they did NOT "detain" him. They DELAYED him, but as they exerted no force and did not in any way compel him to remain, no detention occurred.

And YES, he was handcuffed and placed under arrest (guess some of you really didn't understand I mentioned that before). When a policeman tells you that you are under arrest, I would tend to believe him. Does this give the police the right to go through his wallet and money without a search warrant because they did.
Since he was not booked or issued a criminal citation, it would seem he was not technically arrested. He was detained - in handcuffs, even - but it was a detention all the same. The fact that he was released at the scene and informed someone might contact him later lends credence to this as a detention only.

I don't believe my friend that works at the bank is wrong when he tells me his policies at the bank that he has worked for 7 years would not call the police or detain you on counterfeit money.
That might be the bank's policy and it is probably in place for the safety of the staff and the customers. But, all because his bank might not do either does NOT mean they could not do so if they chose to.

This happened in a small town where the police have nothing to do so the whole department shows up. I thought they were small town hicks but after reading some of your comments, my judgement was wrong again about some.
It is often better to have too many than too few cops at a scene. And, as an officer that has worked in big cities and is now a supervisor in a small one, I like it when we are slow enough for a lot of people to show up at a
not-too-serious call. It shows that we are a pretty quiet community.
 


For the 679th time, McDonalds did not "detain" your husband. How many times does this have to be said? Or are you purposefully ignoring the definition of the term because you want to be able to tell people your husband was detained? They tricked him into staying; that is not detainment.
Correct,,,they "entrapped" him.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
Correct,,,they "entrapped" him.
They may have DELAYED him, but even a five year old child can do that.

So long as the delay was not part of a criminal conspiracy, anyone can attempt to do it. The employees at the store did NOTHING wrong, illegal, improper, immoral, or fattening in their effort to address the situation while awaiting the police.
 

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