Woman sues Walmart for “false imprisonment” for detaining her two hours over $100 bills
Not so long ago, Wal-Mart became part of the police state, allowing Homeland Security to use its surveillance cameras and promoting the “see something, say something” campaign. Now it’s gone even further: detaining people. But in this case, the employees were apparently wrong from the beginning—and the woman is now suing.
The Daily Mail reports,
A mother who says Walmart employees intentionally humiliated her after wrongfully ripping up two of her $100 bills while believing they were fake is taking legal action against the store.
In her recently filed complaint, Julia Garcia is seeking no more than $74,900 in damages after detained for four hours before customers in San Antonio, Texas who were told she had tried to use fake money. . . .
According to her complaint: ‘The cashier inspected the $100 bill, turned to another cashier and had a brief discussion, and returned to her register telling Plaintiff that her money was “fake.”
‘The cashier proceeded to rip the $100 bill in half without performing any counterfeit detection tests. The metallic strip in the $100 bill was clearly visible.’ . . .
The employee proceeded to call a manager over who identified himself as Russell. At this time Ms Garcia said she took out a second $100 bill, which according to her, was immediately taken and ripped up as well by the man.
Detained at the front of the store while told the police had been called, Ms Garcia claims that adding to her humiliation, the employees told curious customers in passing that she was busted trying to use fake money.
After two hours at the front, police arrived around 4.15am and proceeded to inspect the bills in question.
Following a series of tests the first responding officer, identified as Officer Edwards, returned to Ms Garcia telling her that what the Walmart employee and manager had done was a ‘terrible mistake.’