Walmart sent my husband to jail accusing him of stealing a 20oz coca cola, that didnt scan at the self check out register after he bought $30 dollars worth of items. Cartersville, Georgia

Anyone can Google this. Karl is extremely annoying; no one will ever go to his stupid Youtube/political poetry website and the entire world wishes that he'd choke on mulch and die.

on the web, okay?

I have to say, I really feel sorry for Walmart. Big companies seem to be the target of conspiracy theorists.

First off, I have no huge love of shopping there. Walmart is the dirty, welfare-collecting, redneck Mecca of the United States, but I don't think that warrants all of these "Walmart is evil" comments on ROR.

People seem to be automatically siding with the authors without hearing Walmart's side of the story. They also don't consider for one second that the author may be lying to make themselves look good or leaving out details relevant to the story. Just read some of these other ROR's...

Do you "consumer advocates" really think that NO ONE would ever steal a Coke (despite paying for other things)?

Is it reasonable to believe that Walmart would spend countless hours and gobs of cash framing people for shoplifting?

Would Walmart fire people without cause?

Do you really think that Walmart booby-traps its merchandise so it breaks? 

People, these situations would cost Walmart money. That, and it'd scare away customers. So why would they do them?  All I'm saying is is that you don't have to love Walmart, but think about both sides of the story. After all, blogs are hardly reliable sources of information.

Walmart has a history of arresting people for little or next to nothing of doing anything wrong.  They have a history of going over board in this type of stuff.  I am sure you all remember the despicable charges brought against walmart on a African American woman for cutting in line?  Or how about this one "Employees at the Niles, MI Wal-Mart store accused Paolucci of shoplifting some Bic lighters. Although he produced the receipt, they refused to back down, insisting that the two men go to a detention room. The employees, using vulgarities and hostility, frightened their special needs kids."

This is just a couple of examples of the many of Walmarts abuse of knowing having people falsely arrested!  Not including the Human Rights Abuses that happen when the people are being detained by Walmart employees and there rent-a-cops! 

The sad and cruel thing about this whole ordeal that the scanning machine obviously malfunctioned and what ever devious are in place to signal to a customer that something didn't get scanned properly, wasn't working right and now he is getting prosecuted for a machine malfunction!  The other sad part about this whole entire thing is the LACK of commonsense!  If someone is going to steal something, they are not going to purchase $30.00 worth of stuff, then try to shoplift a .80 cent to $1.00 coke bottle!  I mean come on people, if someone is going to pull a scam like that they are going to go for the most highest priced item or close to it!  And to make the lack of commonsense more worse on Walmart, the rent-a-cop and the police, that even after the obvious that he wasn't trying to shoplift a cheap coke after paying $30 dollars in stuff, that he offered to pay for it when they found out about the Machines scanning fault!

This is another bad version of Walmart and there rent-a-cop's lack of commonsense!

Why do a bunch of wacko conspiracy theorists think that a corporate giant like Walmart could get away with framing people for absolutely no reason? Seriously, what would it profit them? Nothing. If anything, it would scare customers away and actually cost them money. People, you don't have to like Walmart, but, for crying out loud, stop making stuff up.

 I wish you and your husband the best.  I believe your story and I heard that Walmart

has a bounty on so called shoplifters.  Employees get paid.  That's the motivation.

Money!!!!!.   I personally boycott Walmart because you are right.  Walmart thinks that everyone is stealing from them.  Thats evident by the fact that something as simple as a Electric toothbrush was not on the shelf it was locked up in the back.  I got tired

of not being able to look at an item without having to ask a clerk.  Why don't they padlock the whole store. 

As for your case.  Don't let a judge decided innocences or guilt.  Pay the jury trial.  Let a jury decide.  Do not except a plea bargain.  You need to study the law.  Check the internet.  You can represent yourself.  All it takes is one person on a jury to mistrial.

They have to retry.  Don't let them scare you into pleading guilty or a plea bargain

The penalty if convicted can be no more because you exercised your right to jury trial.

Call their bluff.  They know they have no case.  Actually if they charged you with a felony.  Then jury trial is automatic.  I really believe that you will win if a jury hears this case.

 I wish you the best.   Boycott conmart (walmart)

I am sorry to hear that your husband had a bad experience. I do work for the company in the field but not at that location and in no way am I representing Wal-Mart but instead am offering my opinion and some facts.

 I would like to mention that unless your state has some pretty tough shoplifting laws it is unlikely that your husband was arrested for simply shoplifting a 20 oz. coke. Is it possible that when police responded that your husband had an existing warrant? Wal-Mart goes through a lot to make sure that their asset protection employees are trained properly to respond to these situations.

In fact Wal-Mart's policy on theft is not nearly as harsh as the law itself in an attempt to respect the individual and provide good customer service. I am not aware of your full circumstances and don't have any knowledge of what goes on at that particular store but can say that Wal-Mart sets a pretty consistent expectation and it is to serve and respect every customer.

But Charles.  They didn't even need the video.  He was walking out of the store with merchandise he didn't have a receipt for.  That's all they need. Don't be ridiculous.

All wal-mart does Is accuse people.  They are money hungry a**holes.  They think everyone Is stealing from them.  Walmart made the nightly news a few months ago In some state.  They probally fasely accused that person of shoplifiting.

If they can't produce a video I don't believe them.  Wal-mart just keeps digging themselves a deep hole they will never be able to dig out of.  They better change how they do business.  But that will be when hell freezes over.

This is a response to Charles.

Charles, I personally have no great love for Walmart either, but I really don't understand why you call them "evil". I think you're looking past the real issue here. The soda wasn't on the person's receipt. Any company, big or small, would follow up on a situation like that. Obviously, the "door person" and security had a good reason to think that the soda was stolen. Surveillance? Evidence? Hello?

And, I also highly doubt the author's claim that the store has been hit with a lawsuit for "getting people arrested for no reason at all". You're telling me that Walmart spends its time and money on randomly having people arrested without evidence of wrongdoing? Come on. Use your head.

Don't let your hatred for a company cloud your common sense.

Walmart Is out to get everyone they can.  They are the evil empire In the united states.  Don't they know they can be sued,  for accusing anyone of shop lifting.  But they pay there attorneys big $ to keep them out of trouble.

When will people stop giving there hard earn  money to walmart.  Just let them die slowly.  And walmart will be gone.

If the police got involved and decided to arrest Matthew for a bottle of Coke, they probably had reason to believe that he purposely stole it or there are other circumstances that are left out of this story.  Police will not waste their time with this sort of thing unless they have a very good reason to.  An arrest, jail booking, time in jail, court date, etc will cost the state a lot more money than a bottle of coke. 

  Walmart is well known for having excellent surveillance video coverage of their checkout stations.     It would seem that it would be pretty easy to tell whether or not the item was scanned.   Did the cops look at the video before making the arrest? 

The self check out machine is very sensitive and will detect everything.  It even knows if you don't put an item in the bag and alerts the cashier.  I work in electronics and am facinated with this device and have experimented many times with it just to see if I can trick it.  Usually the end result is the cashier comes over and resets it with a key but, I think I stop because I might be arrested then it would not be fun anymore.

What has having cash to do with the self checkout?

First off, Karl, no one cares about your stupid Youtube suggestions, so quit spamming ROR.

Next, thinking that someone wouldn't steal a single small item (like a soda) when they paid for other items is exactly the kind of psychology many shoplifters bank on. I worked at a Meijer's for about three years and I would see this tactic used by chronic shoplifters all the time.

Granted, I can't say either way if this person is innocent or guilty, but I will say that if the police actually arrested this person, they most likely looked at the surveillance video. (Probable cause and all.) Let's not just immediately jump on the "Wal-Mart is out to get you" bandwagon until all the evidence has been presented.

Your husband was trying to leave the store with unpaid merchandise, that IS a valid reason for an arrest.  But it is up to the judge(if it gets that far) to hear both sides to determine if he is guilty or not.

You had two statements that were very common among shoplifters.

My husband had cash in his pocket but he also had a debit card so this was no big deal to him. He paid for his items with his debit card and proceeded to leave the store.

Matthew purchased about $30 worth of items and had no intention of stealing a coke!

- Very often Shoplifters WILL buy several items, thus thinking it makes it easier to claim a mistake.  They also very often have the money on hand to try and pay for it if caught.  Again that is to try and make the case of why would they steal an item if they had the money.  Whether or not it was truly a mistake on your husbands part, they have heard these same "excuses" many times before and are not going to believe them. 

One other thing you better know about the Self-Checkouts that may hurt the "mistake" excuse.  The area you place the items once scanned is actually a scale.  If it detects a higher(or lower) weight than what has been scanned it will "lock" the register until an associate "unlocks" it.  Yes it is sensitive enough to detect a 20oz coke.  So if it did not scan and he put it in the bag it would have caused this to happen.  It does not appear that you were there and I would not be surprised if your husband is leaving out certain items in his story.

And No I am not(or have ever been an employee of Wal-Mart), but I have had experience in other retail stores many years ago.

big deal regarding what happened, in my opinion. If he was going to steal something, why didn't he steal a TV or a camera, etc., correct? To me, it sounds as though this Walmart manager and the Police must have the brains of a goat, right?