this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Checking receipts when you leave a store. They have cameras everywhere and they can access my receipt through their computer system. I already paid, this is my stuff, they shouldn't be able to detain me without suspicion I stole something.
I don't raise a stink with the poor person checking receipts, though, because I am not an asshole.
They can't. That would be mega illegal. All they can do is ask you to stop and show your receipt, and you can just ignore them and keep walking. Or if you're feeling extra polite, say "have a nice day" and keep walking.
I was at BJ's wholesale, where they always check every receipt. Usually it's just a cursory glance, but one day they had some cop wannabe checking off every item on the receipt, causing a huge backup. I pushed my cart past the line and left. The guy chased me out into the parking lot, took my plate number and told me he was calling the cops. Nothing came of it, but it embarrassed the shit out of my partner.
I went home and did a bunch of research. From what I found, there aren't a lot of cases that addressed the issue, but I found a two civil cases where people were physically detained after refusing to show their receipt. They sued for false arrest and their cases were both dismissed. I'm not a lawyer and there may be newer case law on this.
I hate the checks, but it isn't worth it to me to risk dealing with cops when I'm not getting anything from it and making someone else's job harder.
But I'm pretty sure that isn't a civil issue. That's a whole bunch of crimes, involving the violence committed in the process of detaining you and the kidnapping / imprisonment itself. What happens when you call the cops and say "this person tackled me leaving the store and accused me of theft, here is my receipt"
I mean it's a cop so you never know, but what's supposed to happen is that guy gets arrested for the unlawful violence he committed against you, and like definitely 1000% fired at least because every store has a policy against that shit
The customer sued the store civilly for false arrest after security held them.
If you called a cop they would say, "it's a civil issue" because cops don't do shit when businesses do crime to consumers.
BJs is a club, it's in terms of the membership. Same with SAMs, and Costco.
On the other hand, other stores can't detain you, it's not covered under "shop keepers privilege". Watch you-tube on shop keepers privilege if you want to learn the laws around that. Also be careful, stores can and will legally evict you (some stores are petty as fuck like that) and then if you go there, you're trespassing and can be arrested. It's generally legal to deny a member of the public access to your store for any reason, as long as it's not a prohibited reason under federal discrimination laws.
That's exactly what the shopkeepers privilege is, an immunity to false arrest claims when they have suspicion you've stolen something.
The two cases I found, the judges decided that refusing to show the receipt was enough to provide that suspicion