"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Today, after paying for my purchases, a Walmart employee asked to look at my bags. After I informed her I did not want her to look in my bags, she protested, and I said she did not have a right to look, and I continued to walk to my car. Because she followed me into the parking lot and alerted another employee to follow me (presumably to write down my license plate number), I decided to turn around and explain that I left because Walmart employees do not have a right to examine my bags or receipt without my consent.
Still, I was bothered: I felt like I was accosted and accused, when in fact I had done nothing wrong. I only declined a bag/receipt check because I have a Constitutional right protecting me from "unreasonable searches and seizures" (and yes, looking in bags or receipts is an unreasonable search and seizure, as the 4th amendment to the Constitution includes "papers, and effects."
I fear that Walmart is not concerned with its customers' Constitutional rights, as I was yelled at and chased into the parking lot for no good reason.
I applaud your decision to challenge the Walmart receipt check, but I'd encourage you to research the law to ensure you're on firmer legal footing if you have any future confrontations with the door guards.
ReplyDeleteThe Fourth Amendment applies only to the government and its agents; the Bill of Rights is a list of freedoms guaranteed from the federal government and its offshoots. As private citizens, Walmart greeters aren't bound by the Fourth Amendment. Neither are security guards -- they're not sworn law enforcement officers, just store employees with a cheap tin badge and no more power of arrest than a grocery bagger.
Your state's shoplifting law most likely has a "merchant's privilege" clause allowing stores to detain suspected shoplifters if and only if they can meet the established legal standard of "probable cause" or "reasonable suspicion" (depending on your state). Refusing to show your receipt meets neither standard; the store has no legal grounds to detain and search you unless they have some evidence of shoplifting.
See: http://www.crimedoctor.com/loss_prevention_3.htm
Good luck!
Thanks Healthy Distrust.
ReplyDeleteAt first I was hesitant to cite Constitutional rights, since that does apply to government agents. But if government agents do not have power to "unreasonable search and seizure," what would give a private individual the power to do so? I would think the private individual would have even less power to search or seize me; if a private citizen attempted to forcibly search me, I would immediately call the police, for that would be a crime in itself. And as I know from reading the Consumerist (see links in the post below), I do have the right to refuse bag searches/receipt checks. If I don't give my consent, the store employee has no right to look at my bags.
So yes, I understand the 4th amendment applies to government agents, but I don't think a private citizen (or a private business's employee) has the right to search me or seize my property without my permission, either. If they attempted to detain me because I refused my consent, they would be committing the crime.
I'm also familiar with merchant's privilege, which as you note, applies to "probable cause." I did have some concern about this, as the manager claimed that the security alarm went off (I did not see/hear this, and furthermore, I'm not sure a security alarm going off constitutes probable cause, since this manager also claimed the alarm sometimes goes off erroneously after scanning mistakes). This is also why I finally told the manager that if she suspects of me stealing, I would show her my bags, but she declined.
Or if I put it another way (skipping Constitutional language): without probable cause, the Walmart employee has no more authority to check my bags/receipt than a random non-employee. If a random person asked me to see my bags, I would politely decline. I did the same for the employee. Basically, the store and its employees have no more authority to check my bags/receipt than a random person, which is none (without probable cause).
ReplyDeleteIf I could, I would have handled it differently. When I declined to have my bags checked, I just kept walking out (foolishly assuming the employee would know bag checks are voluntary and let me proceed). If I had known that the employee would yell at me and have me chased into the parking lot, I would have stopped and calmly, reasonably explained that these bags were now my property and I had the right to decline a search of my own property.
This keeps nagging at me, and I think these details seem relevant.
ReplyDeleteThe manager later claimed the security alarm went off, but I absolutely did not see or hear a security alarm (and my brother says other people were leaving at that time, too). As we were walking in, the same employee was checking another customer's receipt and cart. I am fairly certain the security alarm did not go off, and I suspect they were just checking bags/receipts.
But here's a key detail. As I was walking out, the employee said something to the effect of "Wait, I need to see your bag." It wasn't "May I see your receipt?" As I was just walking along minding my business, an employee said "Wait, I need to see your bag."
I felt the employee had no right to tell me to wait, and no right to just claim she needed to see my bag. I felt I had no obligation to stop just because a random person told me to wait, and I had no obligation to show a random person my bag/receipt just because she said she needed to see it.
Of course she could have asked to see my bag, but she simply ordered me to stop and show her my bag. And when I kept walking, she yelled at me, and then sent somebody else to follow me in the parking lot.
And that's wrong. I keep feeling like I could have handled the situation better, but then I come back to this:
--I was given an order from somebody who had no authority to give me an order.
--I was then yelled at for not following the order.
--I was treated with great suspicion (being yelled at, pointed at, being followed, and it appeared to me having somebody write down my license plate number) though I had done nothing wrong.
So I was tense, and I wish I had handled things differently. But it was the Walmart employee that mistreated me. On that, I won't back down.