unlawful detention of a minor

[noooologic]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california. my grandson who is eight yrs old was detained at walmart this morning for trying to steal a hot wheel car. when the school called and said he was not at school, the police were contacted, the principal picked me up and a search was started for him.after returning to the school with the principal, i then walked to the walmart just down the street from the school. when i was at the service desk, after giving them a description,i inquired if they had seen him. they had, and in fact he was being detained in a back office. the manager brought him up to me, and told me that he was banned from walmart forever. the police arrived and no citation was issued. after leaving i noticed my grandson had wet his self. he began to tell me what they had said to him. they told him he was going to grow up to be a low-life, and never amount to anything, but a crimminal. they told him he could go to jail or prison, and probably be there for the rest of his life. walmart had him in their custody for just under an hour, before contacting the police, they never tried to contact me. can they do this? are they not required by law to immediatley contact a parent first, then the police? though i agree that something is to be said to him, as well as a form of punnishment, to me this went way overboard. there was nothing constructive said to him. and didnt they violate my right as a parent to be conntacted immediately?

 

[Antigone*]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california. my grandson who is eight yrs old was detained at walmart this morning for trying to steal a hot wheel car. when the school called and said he was not at school, the police were contacted, the principal picked me up and a search was started for him.after returning to the school with the principal, i then walked to the walmart just down the street from the school. when i was at the service desk, after giving them a description,i inquired if they had seen him. they had, and in fact he was being detained in a back office. the manager brought him up to me, and told me that he was banned from walmart forever. the police arrived and no citation was issued. after leaving i noticed my grandson had wet his self. he began to tell me what they had said to him. they told him he was going to grow up to be a low-life, and never amount to anything, but a crimminal. they told him he could go to jail or prison, and probably be there for the rest of his life. walmart had him in their custody for just under an hour, before contacting the police, they never tried to contact me. can they do this? are they not required by law to immediatley contact a parent first, then the police? though i agree that something is to be said to him, as well as a form of punnishment, to me this went way overboard. there was nothing constructive said to him. and didnt they violate my right as a parent to be conntacted immediately?

No, they are not required by law to contact the parents first and then the police. You obviously need to parent your grandson more effectively. He is skipping school and stealing ~ not a yellow-brick road you want him taking.

Stop worrying about WalMart and their actions, you have enough on your plate with your grandson.

 

[mistoffolees]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california. my grandson who is eight yrs old was detained at walmart this morning for trying to steal a hot wheel car. when the school called and said he was not at school, the police were contacted, the principal picked me up and a search was started for him.after returning to the school with the principal, i then walked to the walmart just down the street from the school. when i was at the service desk, after giving them a description,i inquired if they had seen him. they had, and in fact he was being detained in a back office. the manager brought him up to me, and told me that he was banned from walmart forever. the police arrived and no citation was issued. after leaving i noticed my grandson had wet his self. he began to tell me what they had said to him. they told him he was going to grow up to be a low-life, and never amount to anything, but a crimminal. they told him he could go to jail or prison, and probably be there for the rest of his life. walmart had him in their custody for just under an hour, before contacting the police, they never tried to contact me. can they do this? are they not required by law to immediatley contact a parent first, then the police? though i agree that something is to be said to him, as well as a form of punnishment, to me this went way overboard. there was nothing constructive said to him. and didnt they violate my right as a parent to be conntacted immediately?

I agree with Antigone.

There are several other matters:

1. EVEN IF they were required to contact a parent, that's not you. Where are the parents?

2. You just happened to walk into Walmart when you were looking for him and he just happened to be there? Sounds awfully coincidental. No previous incidents like this?

3. While the store manager may have been heavy handed, he did nothing illegal. More importantly, 8 years old is old enough to know that his actions have consequences. I'm glad SOMEONE is telling the kid that he need to choose the kind of life he wants to live. It's too bad it's apparently not the parents.

 

[xylene]

Over did it?

This is not a teenager or even a pre-teen.

This an 8 year old.

Although it is unlikely that anything can or would come of it, menacing & threatening an 8 year old with imaginary consequences to the point of involuntary urination is wrong and abusive.

It would be wrong even if a parent was doing it, let alone a stranger in a position of apparent authority.

 

[RemitAdvice]

Ohh boy. If MY 8 yo was skipping school and stealing from the local grocer I would hope that SOMEBODY with 'apparent authority' would scare him to the point of urination.

Ducking class AND thievery?? At EIGHT?!?! What's that? 2nd/3rd grade??

 

[tranquility]

I agree with xylene, 8 is young. There are a lot of facts here which are a problem both with the student and with the adults.

Also, there is a huge difference between Tom the grocer who knew everyone's name and a low wage rent-a-cop at Walmart. I'd love to find out all the facts before clearing anyone (except the school) of blame.

 

[FlyingRon]

Frankly, contacting the police is probably the *MOST* appropriate solution. The cops can take care of notifying the parents or the local child services people to properly care for the child in custody.

 

[cyjeff]

They should have called the police.

While waiting, they should have put the fear of God into Jr.

OP, look at it this way... most kids have to get pretty close to the fire before they realizes it burns.

He got his crisping a little early....

 

[tranquility]

The police should have been called immediately. By not doing so, the store wasted the time of a number of people including the police and school personnel.

It is not the store's responsibility to put the fear of God in the kid. Heck, the kid is presumed by California law to be incapable of committing a crime and is just over the age where it would be an irrebuttable presumption. What might have been nice is if one of the highly trained moral leaders of Walmart (Perhaps the "greeter" standing at the entrance.) used their special powers to notice an unaccompanied 8 year old enter the store during or just before school hours and make contact with him then. (Like an English bobby's "What's all this then?")It's one thing when an adult tells a kid to knock it off when he is misbehaving, and something else to call him "going to grow up to be a low-life, and never amount to anything, but a crimminal. they told him he could go to jail or prison, and probably be there for the rest of his life." Anyone who thinks that is going to set a kid straight is dealing with kids different from those I've seen. And, in the decades I've coached youth sports, I've seen lots.

What did the store do for an hour before calling the police? For an 8 year old it takes an hour for a reasonable investigation?

 

[justalayman]

The police should have been called immediately. By not doing so, the store wasted the time of a number of people including the police and school personnel.

What did the store do for an hour before calling the police? For an 8 year old it takes an hour for a reasonable investigation?

how does the OP know it was an hour before the police were called? OP went into the store, picked up the kid, was told kid is banned, and apparently left the store. Not sure when or how the OP figured out it was an hour.

and to what the folks at Walmart said to the child: remember, this is the words of an 8 yo conveying the message to the OP who is obviously concerned walmart overstepped their bounds more than the fact she has an 8 yo thief in the family.

I think a little salt would be appropriate here.

 

[tranquility]

Yes, there are many facts here we would need to review. Maybe the kid had a gun and fired off a few rounds in an attempt to escape or some other facts which are not reasonable inferences from the OP's post or our experiences.

I would certainly follow up to see if the policies of Walmart were followed in the detention. Including if the store's policy is to prevent the 8 year old from using the bathroom. If they got all closed mouthed and cheesed me off, I might sue them for false arrest for exceeding the shopkeeper's privilege just for discovery.

Of course, in addition to all that, most could have been solved by one employee saying, "shouldn't you be in school now?"

 

[The Occultist]

Maybe the kid had a gun and fired off a few rounds in an attempt to escape

Oh jeez, Tranq. I rarely use this acronym, as I hate it so dearly, but I must confess: at your post I did so indeed LOL.

 

[redleg17]

An unaccompanied child shoplifting in a WM store? If they followed policy, they attempted to contact the parents for no longer than 30 minutes before calling 911. Either way, WM is not going to accept the liability of releasing a minor child out into the world on their own, the kid either leaves with a parent or with a LEO. And if the Grandparent was the contact number the child had, obviously they couldn't reach her, she was driving around looking for him. It is more than understandable that he was there for "almost an hour" if noone responsible for the child can be reached and it took the PD 10-15 minutes to respond to a routine non-priority call.

 

[stealth2]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california. my grandson who is eight yrs old was detained at walmart this morning for trying to steal a hot wheel car. when the school called and said he was not at school, the police were contacted, the principal picked me up and a search was started for him.after returning to the school with the principal, i then walked to the walmart just down the street from the school. when i was at the service desk, after giving them a description,i inquired if they had seen him. they had, and in fact he was being detained in a back office. the manager brought him up to me, and told me that he was banned from walmart forever. the police arrived and no citation was issued. after leaving i noticed my grandson had wet his self. he began to tell me what they had said to him. they told him he was going to grow up to be a low-life, and never amount to anything, but a crimminal. they told him he could go to jail or prison, and probably be there for the rest of his life. walmart had him in their custody for just under an hour, before contacting the police, they never tried to contact me. can they do this? are they not required by law to immediatley contact a parent first, then the police? though i agree that something is to be said to him, as well as a form of punnishment, to me this went way overboard. there was nothing constructive said to him. and didnt they violate my right as a parent to be conntacted immediately?

But... you are NOT the parent - you're the grandparent.