Home Depot accused of shaking down shoplifters

[MoJo]

Home Depot has intimidated thousands of customers accused of shoplifting into collectively paying millions of dollars to have such accusations dropped, even though the company has no intention of suing, a class-action suit alleges.

The suit claims that the big box retailer is using California's Civil Shopping Law as "a profit center" by arbitrarily seeking "damages" from accused customers.

http://www.12newsnow.com/story/23406804 ... hoplifters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PUCKER]

Apparently Wal-Mart does it too. One of my buddies stepdaughters got caught shoplifting at Wal-Mart, yes, stupid kid. In addition to the GV cop writing her a shoplifting ticket (I believe this was the case), the store also fined her $150. I believe that is a civil matter...the mother was so perturbed by the daughters actions that she made the daughter pay the fine, whether or not it is legit. Google Wal-Mart shoplifting fine, apparently it's a common thing, but news to me, as I do not shoplift and I must say that I'm embarrassed for my buddy.

[Jumping Frog]

There are class action lawyers trying to sue our entire business sector out of existence. I have zero sympathy for the plaintiffs.

[jmra]

There are class action lawyers trying to sue our entire business sector out of existence. I have zero sympathy for the plaintiffs.

100%

[Cedar Park Dad]

While I have no symnpathy for shoplifters, anything can and does seem to happen in California.

But as its California, I don't care a whit. The top of the page has a Texas flag on it.

[jimlongley]

As a Home Depot employee I am constantly amazed at how many people there are in the world who feel they can just pick up items and leave without paying for them, not to mention the criminals who are actually stealing them.

A woman wanted to take home and test a bunch of light bulbs to see how they looked in her house,and she would be back to pay for them later, or if she didn't like them she could bring them back and we could repackage them "out back, you know, like you always do."

And the guy who stuck an electric screwdriver in his pocket and started to walk out who stated he was just going to use it once and bring it back.

One of the funniest was the "kid" (late teens to early 20s and almost gender neutral) who put a whole bunch of tools in his sweatpants and clanked when he walked. Our LP guy, who is not always in our store, was actually right there and stopped and detained him. The kid broke down in tears, but we were never sure whether it was the multiple warrants it turned out he had or the pure humiliation of a batch of HD employees standing there roaring with laughter as the LP guy pulled hammer, screwdrivers, and other assorted tools out of the guy's pants.

There are gangs and teams that like to pick on the big box stores, one will distract while another steals, and then the block and dodge for each other on the way to the door. We had a guy come into the appliance department and pick up a bunch of refrigerator water filters, nobody ever buys those without asking for the right one, well almost nobody, and genuinely nobody buys a dozen assorted ones for different models and brands. As he was walking away, his buddy came up to another person in the department and started asking inane questions, so I left tagging behind the original one. As he turned behind a lumber aisle, probably to secret the filters in his baggy clothes, I was standing there asking him if I could help him. Then when he turned another corner, there was another employee, who I had signaled, standing there doing the same. We tracked him all over the store, asking if we could help him at every corner, and at one time his buddy came up and asked, loudly, "IS THERE A PROBLEM HERE?" and finally he abandoned his basket and ran out the door to where his buddy had gone out and was waiting in the fire lane with the engine running. As they drove away I flashed my camera at them, but was eventually told I should not take pictures of criminals due to company policy, but the picture was great, both of them scowling at the store and the left front tire about to roll off the rim from the force of the turn and underinflation.

I could go on with these all day, but, even though I don't consider Home Depot to be an "employer of choice" I am not sure I blame them for whatever tactics or strategy they are using, because a large part of the bottom line gets stolen every day.

[philip964]

nothing compared to Costco.

[ELB]

Our local Walmart must not be on the same page as the rest of the big boxes, the local police Facebook page regularly has surv cam pix of people walking out the door with stuff. Big stuff, not pocketing a watch or something, but carrying out a large screen TV. Couple guys picked up a trash can, filled it with $700 of shampoo bottles, and walked out without hindrance.

I am not against HD extracting damages from thieves, but I can see this blowing up on them PR-wise, and the way California works, I can see this being taken to extremes. (Altho the suit against them for this seems to be the other side of the coin).

If a legal ability to recover damages morphs from making the vendor whole to becoming an actual profit center, then the incentives for alleging shoplifting become perverse. California's laws requiring businesses to make adjustments for handicapped folks have been tweaked into an industry of threatening small business owners with crippling lawsuits if they don't cough up payments to an allegedly offended patron. Just yesterday morning, Walter Olson had a post on lawyers urging corporations to turn business lawsuits into profit centers. Which of course generates legal fees.
'

[Texheim]

So they break the law and then sue the "victims" of their law breaking? Garbage.

[Oldgringo]

Don't steal....

[gigag04]

Theft < $50 is a class C so you could get a ticket if caught. I always took them to jail. They drive up the price of goods that I buy, and often have dope or other illegal items hidden on their person that come out during search.


Dont be a thug.

[JALLEN]

What's so hard about not stealing someone else's stuff?

I'm sorry but I never have a problem with this, because I never steal stuff.

One of my earliest court appointed cases decades ago was representing a young woman who walked out of a department store wearing more bathing suits than she was wearing when she walked in. They had caught her, fair and square. She refused to take a plea bargain, and we went to a jury trial. She blamed it on her sister, a juvenile, who was with her, but despite my eloquent argument, the jury took about just long enough to enjoy a free soft drink on the County before finding her guilty, as she undoubtedly was. I've never been so humiliated in my life, standing there trying to convince these people that the sun isn't coming up in the east. The whole thing left a mark on my sensibilities.

Does someone ever walk out forgetting to pay for something? Probably. As my short term memory becomes less and less reliable, I can see something like this happening, and hopefully, these can be sorted out accurately as they infrequently occur.

I don't see any difference between shoplifting from a store and walking into my home and taking a TV etc. The law must discourage this behavior.

[drumbdummer]

Don't steal....

I seem to recall something along these lines in the book of Exodus!

[MeMelYup]

Apparently Wal-Mart does it too. One of my buddies stepdaughters got caught shoplifting at Wal-Mart, yes, stupid kid. In addition to the GV cop writing her a shoplifting ticket (I believe this was the case), the store also fined her $150. I believe that is a civil matter...the mother was so perturbed by the daughters actions that she made the daughter pay the fine, whether or not it is legit. Google Wal-Mart shoplifting fine, apparently it's a common thing, but news to me, as I do not shoplift and I must say that I'm embarrassed for my buddy.

Possibly lawyer fees etc..

[gigag04]

Does someone ever walk out forgetting to pay for something? Probably. As my short term memory becomes less and less reliable, I can see something like this happening, and hopefully, these can be sorted out accurately as they infrequently occur.

Funny story - when we had our son born in Feb, we went to Target at some point when he was 6 weeks old...probably to get out of the house. We weren't used to have a carrier in the shopping cart and I found a can of hairspray under the carrier but not in a bag while loading all of us back up in the car. I checked the receipt, and sure enough...it wasn't on there. I promptly went inside and paid for it. Easy fix. I would hope that an LP agent would tell the difference. All of the ones I encountered were pretty sharp guys pursuing good degrees at TAMU, or experienced folks with real world life experience and good social skills.