To all concerned,
Two years ago my wife took a job with the local walmart in Dry Ridge Kentucky. She was a third shift cashier, and really loved working here. We live in a small town and walmart is the largest store in our area. So needless to say we have grown quite comfortable with their prices.
They gave her a discount card and encouraged her to use it, in fact they gave a second card and she was instructed by the top level management of the store to give it to her family to use, which wasn't a huge discount (something like 5% off an entire purchase).
She was constantly encourage to utilize these cards to her benefit. She would ask (always before purchasing anything) a CSM, before using the card. She was instructed once not to allow anyone but family to use these cards.
After about six months of employment, she allowed two friends to make two seperate purchases on her card (Two recently EX-Coworkers also). The morning after her shift she was ask to come to a room in the back. When entering she was confronted by two people one a local walmart security officer and a corporate suit from loss prevention. They confronted her with the purchase made by her friend and claimed that she allowed her to walk out of the store without paying for the product.
For two hours they continued to badger her with this one fact with handwritten reports that were written by the same security officer threaten to call they police and Quote "hauled off like a dog in chains" if she did not admit to allowing this alleged theft to happen. Knowing she was was not guilty of it she refused.
They then proceeded to show her all of the discounts she was allegedly making and claiming with paper in their hands that they were all part of her stealing from the store for six months. She told me at this point she was getting really scared and did not know what to do they wouldn't allow her to call anyone have anything to drink. She threatened to leave and they again threatened to have the police waiting for her before she made it out of the store, At this point she had only been out of this room once to use the bathroom under supervision.
This went on for five hours and then they made her an offer, that if she signed a paper saying that she was responsible for this outragoues amount, she could then handle the matter privately with walmart loss prevention.
Scared and seeing a way out of this she signed it. After all of this thinking she was able to leave they told her they have to resolve the matter of her friend taking that product earlier that morning. The loss prevention guy left the room and twenty minutes later returned with a Grant County police officer. The police officer told her that if she agreed to sign and accept the charges she could then leave the store without a scene and she would have to appear in court before this charge. If not she would be taken out of the store and taken to the local jail and held there.
She tried to explain to the officer what was going on and he had said that wasn't his concern she would have to take it up with walmart, so she signed, and she left the store.
When I heard this story I thought she was making at least some of it up, After she appeared in court and since she has never had so much as a speeding ticket she was given 12 days home incarceration.
We have since stopped paying for the BS loss pevention payments that she is supposed to be making over a span of years at $400.00 a month.
I have been researching this since then and have found two things. One: Every six months to a year someone at this same store is charged with a similar charge and when I sought them out and told them of her story and the accounts of their stories compare almost exactly to my wife's. Two: All of these incidents of employees in these situations coincide "WalMart Stores profit loss due to theft report"
When we confront a couple of local lawyers they simply said that it was too far fetched to believe and just brushed us off. We have been threateded with civil action suits from loss prevention offer settlement agreements as long as we begin paying payments again. I am reaching out to anyone that has had a similar situation with any walmart anywhere. Please contact me or reply to this report by using the rebuttal box.
Rick
Williamstown, Kentucky
U.S.A.
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