I went shoe shopping the morning of july 16,1986 at Montgomery Wards at pinellas square mall in pinellas park, fla. Later that afternoon I was tuning up my mother in laws car and needed some tune up parts so I stopped in at the local K Mart store on 66th street north and 49th ave.in st. Petersburg, Fla.
I was curious how much k mart wanted for their boots so as I walked to the automotive dept which you had to walk thru the shoe dept to get to the automotive dept, I stopped, sat on the bench and pulled a boot simular to the ones I had purchased that morning and conicidently had worn that day.
After noting that I had gotten the better price at montgomery ward that morning, I placed the shoes back on the shelf and continued on to the automotive dept and got my tune up parts. I had notice a guy with a black hat like a derby hat and dark sunglasses watching me as I strolled out the front door and walked to my car. I got in the car and started the engine, and heard a voice say loudly "Sir! Sir! Im going to half to ask you to come back into the store!", I asked why? And he stated, "The boots you have on were stolen and I have you on video, the cops are on the way sir, please come back into the store!!!"
Well, at first I was pi*ed off because I knew that I had not stolen anything, I had a receipt for the tune up parts I had just purchased and the boots I had on the reciept was at home in the box laying on the table where I had just left it 20 minutes earlier So I shut off the engine and followed the guy back into the store to the office at the back of the store,
In came the Kenneth City Police seargant who handcuffed me and read me my miranda. The guy was all smiles who accused me of the shoplifting crime, and making comments like, "Thought you would make it out of here huh?", The store manager was cussing at me! I said "Before you take me down and book me officer you need to know one thing" He said whats that? I said "Well you might want to take off one of my boots and look inside what it says on the insole." He did so, it read "Montgomery ward". He un cuffed me, appologized and turned and walked out of the managers office.
They never offered an appology to this day. I highly recommend NOT shopping at k mart they wrong fully accused me of shoplifting, I DONT STEAL! I wish I would have gotten an attorney at the time and sued them for wrong full arrest.
0 comments