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Husband Shoplifting

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flamingred

Junior Member
Alabama**************My husband and I went to Walmart and picked out the stuff we needed. After we finished, I gave him the money to check out and went to the restroom and told him I would meet him at the car. When I got out in the parking lot our car was not where we had parked. I thought he had gotten mad because it had took me too long and left, he has done this before, but always comes back so I stood out front of the store thinking he would be back. After about 15 minutes I decided he wasn't coming back and called my son to come and get me, but he didn't have keys to the other car so I started walking home. While on my way home the security officer from Walmart called my cell phone, he didn't identify himself but kept asking where I was and then wanted to know why I left my husband? I did not find out my husband was arrested until after I got home. I was still standing in front of the store when the police arrived, but my husband said they did not tow our car until after the police arrested him. He had given our keys to the security officer to put the merchandise he had paid for in our car, they put the merchandise in the trunk, moved our car from where it was parked, and searched it before the police arrived. My question is this...Did they have the right to do that?
 


flamingred

Junior Member
No he did not give them permission to search the car or to move it from the parking space. He didn't know that they had moved it before the police got there until after I got him bonded out of jail.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Alabama**************My husband and I went to Walmart and picked out the stuff we needed. After we finished, I gave him the money to check out and went to the restroom and told him I would meet him at the car. When I got out in the parking lot our car was not where we had parked. I thought he had gotten mad because it had took me too long and left, he has done this before, but always comes back so I stood out front of the store thinking he would be back. After about 15 minutes I decided he wasn't coming back and called my son to come and get me, but he didn't have keys to the other car so I started walking home. While on my way home the security officer from Walmart called my cell phone, he didn't identify himself but kept asking where I was and then wanted to know why I left my husband? I did not find out my husband was arrested until after I got home. I was still standing in front of the store when the police arrived, but my husband said they did not tow our car until after the police arrested him. He had given our keys to the security officer to put the merchandise he had paid for in our car, they put the merchandise in the trunk, moved our car from where it was parked, and searched it before the police arrived. My question is this...Did they have the right to do that?
**A: confusing. Did your husband not pay for the stuff?
 

flamingred

Junior Member
He had paid paid for a 40lb bag of dog food, toilet paper, tortilla chips, and a container of powdered gatorade. We had gotten some oil stop leak $3.18, gear oil $3.97, 2 qts of oil $2.50 ea, and transmission fluid $2.50 that he had forgotten was up under the dog food. All he had in his pocket was a container of make up $7.24, which he was suppose to pay for. When the security officer stopped him and checked the cart he told him he had forgotten about the other stuff and tried to pay for it. After they emptied his pockets they found the make up. Then the security officers asks for the keys to put the merchandise that he had paid for in the trunk. Asking to put something in the trunk does not mean start up a vehicle and move it. Like I said when I came outside the store our car was gone and I thought he had left. I had no idea about anything else.
 

Kiawah

Senior Member
I had no idea about anything else.

Yaah, right. First, I would never put a bag of dog food on top of 4 or 5 quarts of liquid items in a cart, that makes no sense. Secondly, if I went shopping for car supplies and got to the checkout without putting them on the counter to scan, I'd know I was missing them.
 
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lenny71

Member
They should not have moved your car without your permission if it was legally parked.

That said it will not help your husband's shoplifting case as they did not get any evidence from the car and the car has no bearing on the shoplifting case against your husband.

Yes, Walmart was wrong for moving the car but there is a gray area of what your husband said when he gave them the keys and also whether you have proof that walmart actually searched the car. Considering you felt okay with walking home from walmart when your husband disappeared for 20 minutes, it makes me think he is quite unreliable and his story would follow that line of reasoning.

That $20 worth of 'free stuff' is going to cost him. Since the police were called he will carry this on his record. There will be a time when he regrets this, if you can afford one I would get a lawyer. I have seen a lot of this lately. Walmart used to be very soft on shoplifters and now they are changing their internal policy as the economy weakens.

Has your husband been caught shoplifing before?
 
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outonbail

Senior Member
We had gotten some oil stop leak $3.18, gear oil $3.97, 2 qts of oil $2.50 ea, and transmission fluid $2.50 that he had forgotten was up under the dog food.
If you needed all of this oil and stop leak, I would think you could have followed the trail of petroleum left from your original parking space, to wherever the car was moved to.

All he had in his pocket was a container of make up $7.24, which he was suppose to pay for.
If you can't eat it, you need actual cash to pay for it. Maybe this was the problem?

When the security officer stopped him and checked the cart he told him he had forgotten about the other stuff and tried to pay for it.
Did they stop him in the store, or was he already outside with the hood up and a funnel in his hands?
After they emptied his pockets they found the make up.
No surprise there, with all that oil, there couldn't have been much room left under that bag of dog food.
Then the security officers asks for the keys to put the merchandise that he had paid for in the trunk.
How did the security officers know which car belonged to your husband, with all those other cars in the parking lot?
Asking to put something in the trunk does not mean start up a vehicle and move it.
I have a hard time believing that the security officers were concerned with placing anything in your husbands trunk. They didn't even want the car in their parking lot and had it towed away.
If they had your cell phone number, why didn't they call you and let you drive the car home?
Did they ask you to return to the store when they did call your phone?
Because I have this feeling that they would have liked to see what was in your pockets after your extended bathroom visit.
I just don't believe they were all that curious about why you were walking home without your husband or your car.
I also find it funny that you didn't know your husband had been caught and arrested until you made it home. Didn't you even ask the loss prevention people how they got your cell phone number, or how they knew you were in the store shop(lifting) with your husband?
Like I said when I came outside the store our car was gone and I thought he had left. I had no idea about anything else.
Of course you didn't and when loss prevention called your cell phone, you couldn't return to the store because you had to hurry home and feed the dog right?

I am impressed with how you remember the prices of the items which were lost under the bag of dog food, but your husband couldn't even remember placing them in the basket,,,,,

I am not impressed with your attempt to find some wrong on the part of Walmart employees when it was you and your husband who were breaking the law.
 

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