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Falsely Accused of Robbery by Home Depot Assset Protection worker Part 1

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mj776

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nevada

My wallet was taken around the beginning of March, from around the front door of my apartment building. I had a sign posted on my window for a week asking for anyone to please just return my drivers license, and just to leave it by the front door, no questions asked. Of course, no one ever returned the license, so I went to the DMV and got a new one a couple of days later. I got a renewal because my license was going to be expiring on my birthday in 4 months anyways.

Fast forward about 20 days later, I was pulling into my apartment parking lot and immediately had a police cruiser right behind me as I looked into the rearview. Then, another cruiser had sped into the exit way of the parking lot (dragging an orange cone and almost hitting someone's kid in the process) Both of them came up on my drivers side window with guns pointed at me ordering me out of the car. I got out of the car with my hands up and their guns still pointed directly at my head feeling like I was on some kind of pranks TV program. They handcuffed me, and told me to not move, hang tight etc. They would give me very little information as to what the whole thing was about, other than I was caught on camera committing a crime against someone or some entity. They asked to see my ID and cynically commented about how they bet I couldn't produce one. I showed to them my ID card. They then asked me why I had recently gotten a new ID.

I told them that my license was stolen, and explained to them the whole events behind it. The whole time they were making little jokes, and acting as if I was guilty 100%. They asked me if they could search my car and I told them go ahead. They took one shirt long sleeved shirt out of an entire laundry basket of winter clothes that I was going to take to my storage unit.

They told me that the Home Depot had something stolen, and that I was the one that had to have done it. They said they were going to retrieve the victim, who was a Asset Protections worker, who tried to grab the suspect on his way out of the door, but he escaped, and got away and dragged her a couple of feet as she tried to detain him. She came out in the back of a cruiser and I was standing there in handcuffs. They had to keep pulling closer and closer, and they did not inform me of what she was saying or anything. Eventually after another 20 minutes of standing there handcuffed one of the cops asked me "Do you have any tattoos?" I said "No, I don't, why does the person who did this have tattoos?" He never answered me just said "That should help you out"

Next thing I know the main cop who was apparently in charge of the fiasco comes over and tells me he has some bad news for me, and that they had to take me in and arrest me. I was charged with Burglary, Robbery, and Petit Larceny with over a 40,000 dollar bond. In booking the DA dropped the charges just down to Robbery with a 20k dollar bond, which I luckily was able to have my only living family member post. If not, I would have had my car repossessed only 2 payments from paying it off, lost my apartment along with everything in it my storage, my cat homeless, and everything I owned. And I would still be sitting in jail at the time of writing this 5 months later.

Eventually I came to find out just recently, through the discovery, that my stolen drivers license was used in attempt to return some items without a receipt at the "Special Services Counter" The guy was given a "1 for 1 exchange" whatever that means and then asked for a bag to put the remaining items in. The lady at the register thought it was suspicious, so she called a "AP Specialist" to come down and follow him around the store. Her story is that he took the bag back to the "tool corral" and she observed him taking the "spider wrap" off of a 99 dollar husky wrench and concealing it into the bag he was given at the register. She says that she followed him to the front of the store and he started shouting obscenities at her asking why she was following him. She told him to "Please back away" and he continued towards the door. She says that she then jumped in front of him identifying herself as AP, and he needed to come with her. She then attempted to apprehend him by grabbing his arm but he took off running causing her to fall down and dragging her "several feet through the parking lot causing her to be injured with scuffs on her knees" She is never seen in any of the 6 Home Depot videos anywhere close to this guy.

After I just FINALLY got a chance to see all of the Home Depot videos from the service desk to the tool corral, to the contractors exit and finally to the parking lot, I made some obvious observations that could have prevented me getting falsely arrested and accused of this crime if anyone at Home Depot had done their job.

The lady at the service desk, after the guy hands her my ID doesn't appear to even look over at him one single time to verify the picture on the ID to the person doing the return. He's keeping his head down the whole time, was wearing completely different clothes, looks thinner than me and has a big tattoo on his right forearm. I have no tattoos. In the 911 call that was made, the caller (who was never seen anywhere near the guy also) states that "He left his ID here" and begins to read the suspect description directly from my ID card along with my name, because the caller obviously hadn't even really gotten a good look at the guy. I can tell that the AP lady never got a good look at him either because she only appears ONCE throughout all of the videos. After the guy had walked off to do whatever, she comes down and talks with the special services register lady who had called her. She appears to be flailing her arms around while talking to her, as if to be talking about this character (and she's about twice the size of this guy) She never appears throughout the aisles watching him as she stated, never appears in the video of them exiting and never appears in the parking lot video. There are 2 guys following him and a girl out of the store then the next view you see is them running through the parking lot 2 seconds later with the same 2 guys following after. Yet this AP specialist says she followed him through the store observed him stealing and then was basically injured trying to stop him (making the shoplifting charge a felony robbery charge) There were NO pictures taken of her knees being scuffed, NO video ever showing her anywhere around the guy or being knocked over or anything from the 6 separate videos I watched.

From her statement she says that when identifying me that "I appeared somewhat different, but that she was 80% sure that I was the same person. The cops report says that he asked her why she's not 100% sure and she said "because he changed his clothes" When the cop retrieved the long sleeve shirt out of my car she said "That's the shirt he was wearing" even though again, the guy in the video had a short sleeved shirt and a big tattoo on his right forearm. Then she saw my girlfriend who was also in the car with me when I got arrested and says "That's the girl that was in there with him" The cop asks "How are you sure?" She said "Because she is wearing the same clothes" At this point I was arrested and booked for 2 felonies and a misdemeanor.
 


mj776

Junior Member
Falsely Accused of Robbery Part 2

It should be noted that I asked the police about fingerprints from the scene, and they replied "We don't take fingerprints in petty cases like this, it's too expensive" I also asked them to review the video from my apartment building which would show my car parked there all day, and I left to pick up my girlfriend 2 minutes before the first cops show up at my door. They wouldn't even consider doing either of these things, and just told me "Oh well, if it wasn't you it'll come out in the end"

My girlfriend Stephanie has long bright red hair is thin and was wearing a tank-top showing her huge colorful chest tattoo. The girl in the video is short, with short black hair, chunky and is wearing a full t-shirt with obviously no tattoo. I was wearing basketball shorts, a white t-shirt, grey hat, and sandals. The guy in the video was wearing jeans, some chuck taylor type shoes a short sleeved button up shirt has a big tattoo, and a 49ers hat. As a Cincinnati Bengals fan I wouldn't be caught dead wearing a 49ers hat. But this Home Depot wannabe hero apparently just looking for a little attention to feel important acts as if she's so sure of herself that she has no problem with 30 years of charges being put on an innocent person.

They appear to be still wanting to take this ridiculous case to trial even though I have 6 witnesses, my apartment parking lot security camera, my new drivers license on me, the guy and girl appearing nothing like me and my girlfriend. And my public defender is trying to suggest that I take some kind of plea deal because "you never know what could happen with eyewitness pointing to me and with 12 judgemental jurors who are impressionable and already think I am guilty". Not to mention the fact that if that were to somehow tragically happen I could be sentenced for up to 15 freaking years.

I have been contemplating trying to get hold of Home Depot's corporate office and notifying them of the employees negligence to check the ID properly, and their AP associate misidentifying an innocent person just because she's assuming that the person was actually the same person as in the ID. However I am not sure if this is a good idea at this time while my case is still in litigation. I am not even so sure that its Home Depot's policy for their AP associates to try and use force to try and apprehend someone shoplifting. Again she is seen NOWHERE around the 2 when they are exiting the store or the camera from directly outside of the store. She's seen nowhere within 50 feet of the guy throughout all 6 Home Depot surveillance videos, yet is the only complainant, or person who gave a single statement. There was no manager involved in any other statements or interviews, no other employees were asked anything or given statements even though there were at least 4 people within close range of them or standing right in front of him.

I have since found out who actually stole my wallet from talking to some neighbors, and he was arrested 2 weeks after this for burglary and grand larceny of firearm (x6), along with being an out of state fugitive. I cannot tell if its the same guy in the Home Depot video for certain. I still can't get the police to investigate that since they've already charged me with it.

I am more concerned with my own defense at this point, but am also wondering if I could have grounds for a lawsuit against Home Depot, or the city for their obvious lack of investigation and complete botch of this whole incident. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to write this all out just for a summary to copy, and post on some other legal advice forums.

Thanks for reading if anyone reads all of this and if anyone has any knowledge of the operations and procedures of Home Depot and who I could possibly talk to to get this reviewed further with the store AP specialist to avoid any further unnecessary actions, I would like to hear it. Apparently it's just her an individual (not Home Depot) who is the only complainant and witness. It's based solely on what she said while sitting in the back of the police cruiser, most likely under pressure of the police to positively identify me without her hearing any other information leading up to the event.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
You're going to have to pare that down - stick to 3 short paragraphs if you can, and ask your question afterwards.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
First suggestion ... do not speak to Home Depot management about this - or anyone besides your attorney.

Second, perhaps you should see if your attorney has had a chance to review the video. It seems to me that, if true, and if they can't place you at the store, you have a good shot at raising sufficient reasonable doubt.

I am surprised that if you truly have a compelling case for a bad ID that the DA is still pursuing this. It makes me wonder ... is the DA just derelict in his or her duties? Or, is there something more to the state's case and suppositions than meets the eye?
 

single317dad

Senior Member
You should discuss this matter with your attorney, and not with a public forum of any kind.

With the benefit of hindsight, you should now know that all thefts should be reported to the police immediately, which would have left an official record of your claim of stolen identification.
 

commentator

Senior Member
To me this whole story reeks. Excuse me, but I had my I.D. stolen, so I didn't report it, I posted a sign on my door......? Huh? Down to the intimate detail about what they saw, what they said to you, etc., etc., this sounds like somebody shopping a story. You need a good attorney, who will tell you when to shut up, what to bring up, and will deal with the system for you.
 

mj776

Junior Member
To me this whole story reeks. Excuse me, but I had my I.D. stolen, so I didn't report it, I posted a sign on my door......? Huh? Down to the intimate detail about what they saw, what they said to you, etc., etc., this sounds like somebody shopping a story. You need a good attorney, who will tell you when to shut up, what to bring up, and will deal with the system for you.
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I live in a low income building and it is pretty common for this type of thing to happen every day. also it was kind of my fault for leaving my door cracked for a few minutes with my wallet in plain view. Also, at the time I had absolutely no suspect for who would've stolen it and the police don't even look at these type of situations around here. In the past before I moved to this town / area I got decent police officers. However around here, they treat everyone as scum off the streets, and no one wants to deal with them or waste their time, especially with something as petty as a wallet getting taken with no suspects and no cash in the wallet (just a few credit cards that I cancelled)

I wanted to put as many details into the story as possible, hence me including all of the statements etc. because I feel that the details are important especially in a case like this where they had absolutely no evidence besides the guy conveniently dropping my ID during the so called struggle out the door.

And who in their right mind would sit around and fabricate some BS story just to anonymously post it on a legal advice forum. Reality is in most cases crazier than fiction which I have unfortunately came to find out. But thanks for your snotty sarcastic reply anyways, I would hope that one day you aren't a victim of something that you never in a million years thought you would be.
 

mj776

Junior Member
To me this whole story reeks. Excuse me, but I had my I.D. stolen, so I didn't report it, I posted a sign on my door......? Huh? Down to the intimate detail about what they saw, what they said to you, etc., etc., this sounds like somebody shopping a story. You need a good attorney, who will tell you when to shut up, what to bring up, and will deal with the system for you.

By the way, your response is exactly the same tone as what most of the police officers around here act, and the same type of response I got from them the last time I reported a theft. This is why no one even wants to call the police even when they are a victim because you stand a very good chance of just dealing with a complete jerk.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
Even if the officer's are jerks, the prosecutor is not likely to pursue a case he can't win. They must somehow think they can beat your story and the video evidence that you claim can exonerate you. I'm curious why.
 

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