A bad day at Circuit City

[SUBMAN1]

This guy was within his rights. Seems he acted too quickly in signing a statement saying that he won't sue the city over it.

http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/09/...-circuit-city/

-S

[The Avon Lady]

I am ignorant of the nitty gritty facts but I would think it is perfectly legal for a store to demand to examine a receipt to verify a purchase.

The policeman's demand, however, seems to clearly contradict the law, which states that mentioning name, address and birthdate is all that's required.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

I am ignorant of the nitty gritty facts but I would think it is perfectly legal for a store to demand to examine a receipt to verify a purchase.

The policeman's demand, however, seems to clearly contradict the law, which states that mentioning name, address and birthdate is all that's required.

The laws over here dictate that you must 'see' the perpetraitor physically take the item, and you can't do anything about it till they actually try to leave the store with it. THey can conceal it or do anything with it while in store, but you have no case till they try to leave.

Demanding a receipt? THink about it. How many times have you walked into a store and wanted to return something and forgot the receipt? That is a dangerous precident to think that you could be jailed over trying to return something, so I can understand why you would not want a law like this.

What is worse here is the requirement to submit to a search of your bag. That is no ones business but yours. That is what I have a major problem with here - stopping a man and demanding that they can search you before you are allowed to leave.

There are major problems with this case from Circuit City's side, and I bet Circuit City gets sued big time over it - and they deserve it too.

-S

[The Avon Lady]

Did a lot of googling and I cannot make heads or tails of differences between various states.

Personally, I would hope that it would be legal for a private business to be able to verify purchases and if someone doesn't like it, they shouldn't shop there.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

Did a lot of googling and I cannot make heads or tails of differences between various states.

Personally, I would hope that it would be legal for a private business to be able to verify purchases and if someone doesn't like it, they shouldn't shop there.

Nope - they cannot. If they didn't see you take it, they can't do anything about it. This is in response to court cases in which case the store was wrong and used abusinve practices as seen in this circuit city blog to harrass innocent people. It falls under our illegal search and cesure portion of our Constitution. No one has the right to search you without just cause, and in the case of a store, this just cause would be physically seeing you try to leave with product that they watched you take.

-S

[The Avon Lady]

I would very simply assume that "loss prevention", in this day and age, would itself be considered "just cause", at least in cases where this occurs on private property, with the owner's posted policy notice.

Have a look at the 4th Ammendment. It originally referred to search and seizures within one's own private property. That is not the case here.