I'm in a payless shoe store in the mall looking for shoes for my
daughter. I happen to see that they have dance shoes (jazz ). They are
$22.00. I notice that there is a pair that has obviously been worn.
They are dirty inside and have been stretched the way leather stretches
when worn. One thing I should mention, the store itself is ghetto and
located in the ghetto as well. Therfore, the shoe area was completely
in disarray and the shoes were mismatched with many not having matches
at all. I am a bargain hunter and a firm believer of "let's make
a deal". So...I take the used pair of shoes to the counter and ask the
associate if they (her or payless) will be marking down or discounting
the shoes. I made full mention and brought her aware to the fact that
the shoes had been worn. They were $22.00 and I was going to offer her
$10.00. She examined the shoes for about 10 seconds and set them aside.
She then headed back to the dance shoe area and brought back a new pair
of shoes. I looked at the box and pointed out to the clerk that the
shoes were two different sizes. I said nevermind and left. [I then
proceeded to go next door and buy a pair from JCPenny's] As we
(my children and I) are leaving Penny's we walk back toward Payless. I
am still a little bitter that the woman would not make me a deal and
contimplated going back 1 more time to explain myself. This is where it
get's good. The cashier and I make eye contact as she hollars to me
to "bring back the shoes". I say "what?" and she repeats it. I walk
over to her and she tells me that she has a witness who saw me take the
shoes and that I was caught on tape. I of course whirl in to a pissed
frenzy and demand that she show me the tape. With a smile on her face
she shook her head no, and refused. I told her I demanded to have her
name and that of her superviser, she again smiled and denied my
request. She told me that I was to wait there for the security officer
to come get me until the cops could come to arrest me. After about 10
min. of waiting the security officer told me to leave the store, that I
was unwelcome and to never return. I got pissed and demanded that they
call the cops. They did. The cops took the cashiers version of the
story and never so much as asked me my name. The officer forced me to
give the cashier my PERSONAL info such as address and date of birth. The United States...Guilty until proven otherwise.
I am now banned from all Payless shoe stores and have been embarassed
and falsely accused of stealing in front of my kids. I was trying to
stand up for myself and prove a point and in the end I only looked like
a jackass-loser. I feel like a victim and judging from what happened I
am supposed to brush it off like "no harm no foul". But I can't accept
that. How should I feel? What should I do? Any thoughts?...
That is completely wrong. Wrong in unimaginable ways. My advice would be to call a lawyer and get some advice from him. He/she may be willing to take your case (for a fee deducted from your estimated settlement) because of the logistics alone. I don't know anything about law or litigation, but if they do in fact have a tape and they somehow don't have it in court, it could probably be considered destruction of evidence. It can't hurt to try it. Maybe defamation of character or something.
I am thinking the same thing. It pisses me off however, that they never
even searched me or my kids or anything. That is what I was waiting for
, to have the officer see the tape or search my belongings or
something. I mean if I had actually stolen the shoes would I have
turned around and walked back in to the store to wait for police!.? I
had the option to leave and never return with my pride between my legs
but I refused. I keep thinking in my head how can they prove i'm
guilty <after the fact> and better yet, how can I prove i'm not.
Especially if there is no tape.
I think that the sooner you look into pressing charges, the better. They claim to have evidence and they should have said evidence if and when you take them to court. You may not win a ton of money, but a lawyer would be able to tell you whether or not it is worth it.
Your right. I was looking online under defamation and it seems like the
charge would be dafamation persay. However in a lot of cases you rack
up more fee's fighting than you might win in a judgement.
Still blows my mind that it even happened. WTF?
try and find a lawyer that will only take a percentage if you win. Sometimes, they will see something as an obvious winning case. They will probably take a case only if they think they can win...check around.
yea girl u should definately be able to see the tape and see if there were any other employees there or customers... they didn't ask u for the shoes? i mean if u "took" them then u think they would have asked u for them or asked u where u put them... that is crazy girl.... im sorry to hear that
I'm sorry to be harsh but the world is a cruel place, and you don't get your way 95% of the time. Your kids understand that you didn't steal them, i'm sure. The people at that store obviously aren't worth your time, you have no criminal charges aginst you. This is all you need to concern yourself with.
You can't change what happened, to mull over it would cause you more grief that you don't deserve. If you got screwed in a moment in life, then welcome to the real world. It's happened to all of us, and if it hasn't happened to one of yet it's on the way. Pick yourself up and move on. There are other stores, Payless Shoes isn't exactially the greatest store anyway.
As for getting a lawyer, you surely can sue for defimation of character. However you're probably going to need the names of the policemen who were at the scene as well as proof that you truely didn't steal the shoes. It'd be a obviously nice thing, but the problem is the outcome you'd probably get is getting the girl fired, or have her written up at best. Now while this isn't a bad thing, it also isn't worth your time, in my opinion.
If you want to do this, I'll be among those behind you going "Yeah, good for you!" ... but I'm also going to stand here now telling you that you're more than likely not going to get everything you want out of the situation, and it probably isn't going to be worth your time.