Yeah, I had a similar experience. A friend and I were standing in an aisle, discussing what shampoo it was his girlfriend had asked him to pick up. A non-descript guy came up behind us, accused us of shoplifting, and threatened us with a baseball bat. Needless to say, that didn't go over too well and his threat had the opposite affect to what I think he intended. I didn't back down or cow to him and instead made my way to the store's office with him following me screaming to stop or he'd call the police. I acted as if he no longer existed, went to the manager, and demanded that HE call the police so I could press assault charges. They then refused. I sent my friend to the pay phone outside to call them. When they showed up, they denied it all, and claimed we had been acting suspicious and were believed to be the people who had been shoplifting there recently. I showed the cop my drivers license, pointed out that I lived over 500 miles away and had never been in that store before. My friend and a woman shopper backed up our story about the threat, but the cop said is was still our word against his, and told us it wasn't worth pursuing. The manager asked the cop to give him our licenses so he could copy them, and distribute to his corporate security office with a recommendation of banning from the premises. That's when the cop turned on him and told him that then I'd have something to sue them about. The manager shut up, the cop gave us our IDs, and walked out with us and kept the manager and security guy from following (they threatened to get our license plate too). Since I started following some of the anti-walmart sites after that, I've seen a lot of similar stories about their staff and security people getting rude, and even physical with people. Detaining people, searching them, etc.. If that's how they treat their customers, it's not hard to believe the stories about how they treat their employees and their competitors. David VanHorn wrote: >> Can somebody document a bad experience at WalMart so I can get >> understand this? >> > > > My wife and daughter were detained there one afternoon, on suspicion of > shoplifting. > > They had receipts for everything, but the security people weren't > interested. > They took my granddaughter away from my daughter, went through EVERYTHING, > and managed to break something on the stroller. The girls were not allowed > to call anyone. > > In the end, we resolved it satisfactorally, the manager was unaware, and the > appropriate people were sacked. If I'd been there, things would have gone > down VERY differently. At the point where they tried to separate the > granddaughter, someone would have needed hospitalization. > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist