Walmart Humiliates College Student, Then Bills Her For It

[One Sweet World]

What a brutal story -- A college student in Houston needed money to pay for school and so she sold her car. When she took the payments (I think they were money orders) to Wal-Mart to cash them, the manager became suspicious about why this girl was handling so much money and called the police, who subsequently arrested her on allegations of shoplifting.

Austinist has the story of what happened after that:

Only two days later was she finally released from jail, after submitting the original purchase receipts used to acquire the money orders.

"Humiliating is not the word for it," said Gipson to KHOU. "I was horrified. I think they singled me out because of the amount of money that it was and (thought) I was trying to get over on them."

Despite her already harrowing ordeal, Wal-Mart still wasn't done exacting revenge on its former customer: Gipson later received a bill in the mail from the company demanding a $200 payment to remedy the "shoplifting" charge.

Company officials are said to be "looking into the case."

Brutal. If you needed another reason not to shop at Wal-Mart, here's one.

[demodonkey]

1. Ka-ching! Hope this girl sues the s**t out of them, and get her whole education thru PhD paid for.

Wal-Mart = The Mart of Darkness

[NOLALady]

11. It seems she's suing.

She spent three days in jail and lost her job. The charges were later dropped when it was discovered the money orders were genuine.

"Here's a black person with money, suspect. And they need to stop that 'cause both these cases were cases in which the banks themselves had easy access to check the facts," Kelley said.

Gipson and the telecom executive are suing Wal-Mart and Wachovia for tens of thousands of dollars.



http://www.click2houston.com/news/16590906/detail.html

[MaraJade]

19. Good for her. . .

I hope she wins a lawsuit so big that her great-great grandchildren don't have to work.

Wal-Mart needs to be brought to its knees on this one.

[Botany]

2. Hello trial lawyer

WalMart is going to owe her big time.

[varelse]

3. "someone" should let KO hear about this one

:evilgrin:

Not that I needed *another* reason not to patronize Wal-mart - when I need every day low prices, I head for a Goodwill, a Salvation Army, a yard sale, the "free table" at my work, or a flea market.

[MaraJade]

20. Me too. . .

I just bought a lovely Royal Dalton teapot at my local Salvation Army store.

;-)

[ret5hd]

4. i knew it! (she's black)

[my2sense]

5. Why am I not surprised?

I don't shop at Wal-mart anymore although I know many folks that do. I'm emailing this story out today. They are ass wipes.

[tom_paine]

16. Now now, the Toady Media has told us Obama mean there's no more racism in Amerika.

:sarcasm:

[MaraJade]

21. I've been told that there's no more sexism either,

but both seem to be alive and well in this story.

[eShirl]

6. cashing a money order while black is called shoplifting now?

weird

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. I wondered about that too

Someone paid Wal-Mart for the moneyorders. Unless they were reported stolen, they should have cashed them. WAL-MART ALREADY HAD THE MONEY! They wouldn't have been out a dime. On the contrary, Wal-Mart was conceivably earning interest on that money until the moneyorders were cashed.

[Hydra]

7. Walmart just keeps hitting bottom and digging deeper

"But you have to come to us! We have low prices!!!"

No, I don't, and I haven't seen these "low prices" you speak of.

[One Sweet World]

9. Wake Up Wal-Mart

I'm doing some work with Wake Up Wal-Mart. If you want to fight the good fight, we'd love to have you on board!

[kestrel91316]

8. How does cashing money orders constitute "shoplifting"?

Just curious about the logic involved here.........

[elehhhhna]

14. this story makes very little sense.

[jberryhill]

10. Malicious Prosecution, Mail Fraud, Defamation

...oh there's a bunch here.

What jurisdiction was this in?

[grace0418]

12. Always low ethics. Always.

I hope she sues the shit out of those fuckers.

[Canuckistanian]

13. All they had to do was refuse to cash the money orders

Everything that happened after that - she can sue them for.

[Indenturedebtor]

15. I'm sure she will. I wish they'd do this to me so I could retire

Go get em lady!

[realisticphish]

17. the weird thing is

Wal-Mart is INCREDIBLY sensitive to PR stuff. My roommate works there (though he's leaving soon), and they will bend over backwards for people. Often, people return products that Wal-Mart DOESN'T EVEN SELL, and get money for it. Anyone who complains about anything basically gets a gift card. I'm shocked that they would do something this retarded. Someone's getting fired, believe you me.