Best Buy Theater Denied Entrance to Venue and Extremely Embarrassed Because of Medication for Disease New York New York

I attempted to go to a concert at Best Buy Theater on Saturday, September 19, 2015.  This was for a sold-out show, and I had the tickets for several months.  Security checked me at the door and would not let me in because they found a bottle of prescription pills from my purse.  When the security guard took the pills he held the bottle up and yelled, “Pills!”  This is the middle of Times Square on a Saturday night, so you can imagine the embarrassment. 

(I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 14 years ago, and have carried a bottle of prescription medicine since then, and this is the first time that security has ever stopped me.) 

The bottle only contained approximately 15 pills, my prescription pills, plus Advil and Sudafed.  Given the fact that the bottle contained so few pills and the fact that some were OTC medications, obviously I was not planning anything sinister.

The security guard told me that I could come in if I gave him the bottle of pills (interesting – I wonder what he planned to do with them).  Given the fact I was scheduled to take my third daily dose in one hour I took that dose of a few pills early (to prevent multiple sclerosis symptoms and to prevent withdrawal because withdrawal from one of these medications could cause a seizure and death), and I went back to the door and offered the bottle to the security guard because he said that he would let me in if I gave him the bottle.  He took the bottle and stated that it looked like some pills were missing.  I told him that the bottle did contain fewer pills because I had to take a few.  He then said that he could search me any time he wanted to inside the venue, and I said that it was fine because I did not have any more pills.  He got angry (probably because his authority was undermined), so he yelled, “You can’t come in; you took pills and we will not be responsible for what they do to you, you can leave”  I tried to explain that nothing would happen to me if I took them; something could happen to me if I did not take them.  Anyone could take anything before he/she enters, and the venue cannot be held responsible.  Others were allowed in with slurred speech, and yet I am a sober 36 year-old with an unfortunate disease and was not allowed in.

I then asked for the name of the security guard, and the other employees at the door refused to provide me with the name, and just left me standing there, waiting for half an hour. 

I was looking forward to the concert for months, and now I wish that I had never even attempted to go to Best Buy Theater.  In the 14 years since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (and was required to carry prescription medicine), I have never been treated so rudely, never been so embarrassed, and never have I seen a group of security guards work together to prevent another security guard from being held accountable for his actions.