Wal-Mart charges $175 for ‘stolen’ manure — The next step in a society that confiscates money from travelers carrying too much cash under the assumption only drug dealers carry that much and where the Supreme Court says it’s OK for cities to take homes and businesses for private developers.
It could have happened to anyone: Charles Gastorf and his wife, Cheryl, forgot to pay the $10 tab for 10 bags of steer manure during a recent shopping trip to their local Wal-Mart. The two say that in the confusion of shopping on that March day they simply forgot to add in the cost of the manure.
That could have been the end of the story except for the letter from the world’s largest retailer that soon arrived in their mailbox, demanding $175 in civil damages.
That’s when the Gastorfs learned about a little-known Oregon law that allows retailers to pursue civil penalties regardless of whether a person is found guilty or innocent of theft.
“We wouldn’t want to embark on a life of crime at our ages and become manure thieves. I mean, if you were going to steal something, would you steal manure?”
These kinds of petty irritations are rampant in our society. We are nickle- and- dimed to death and told to keep smiling. So, Walmart gave the money back (no doubt because the ‘manure thieves’ wouldn’t just accept this.) What a pain to have to deal with this kind of thing- like they had nothing else to do.
The issue here is not the evilness of Walmart (which seems to be generally accepted.) The issue is that it is possible for people who like to believe that they’re free and protected by law can be fined by a big, scary corporation for an oversight on their (the people’s) part, without the assumption that one is innocent until proven guilty.
It’s not a “little known” law. EVERY F-ING STATE ALLOWS CIVIL LAWSUITS!!!! Someone rapes you. You have EVERY right to sue. Someone steals from you. You have EVERY right to sue. Guilt or innocence plays no part in whether you can sue. That’s the POINT of civil law suit, to determine who’s at fault.
Actually its not the end of story. Walmart gets an F+ (up from and F-) in realizing that the publicity damage to them will far exceed the $175 they demanded. What about anyone caught in similar circumstances but without the publicity?
The online world is full of Walmart bashers, but if you see a good deal listed at one of the tech sites, everyone runs there for the bargain.
By the way Mr. Dvorak I missed you on this weeks Twit thing. I must say it lacked a certain savoir faire. It was either that or the absence of crumugenly grumpiness, but either way the kids got too drooly over new toys. Laporte sadly tries to keep up, but like me his mind is slipping. 🙂
Guilt or innocence plays no part in whether you can sue. That’s the POINT of civil law suit, to determine who’s at fault.
What Ima said… 🙂
With the long-standing popularity of the police “procedurals” and courtroom “dramas” on TV, I would have thought that more people would have some notion of the difference between Criminal and Civil cases.
How many people don’t understand that those “trials” they saw on The People’s Court or Judge Judy were NOT Criminal trials, but Civil suits i.e. Small Claims Court?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_suit
I don’t EVER need any cheap plastic junk made in China….so, I don’t see any point of shopping at Walmart. As for the “great prices” …what’s so great about crummy made stuff that won’t last until the credit card charge is paid. The junk has zero resale value, and only suitable for landfill once “used”.
And, why didn’t these people shop at their local nursery for MANURE? How silly is it to NOT support the local merchants?
Why DO people shop at Walmart? I don’t get it.
If they settled the problem, then there’s no issue. The bigger crim is all these companies that send out $3 checks with fine print that signs you up for some sort of service. YP.com bills you $30 a month and claims that you cannot get out of the bill. Only after threatening to call the Attorney General did they drop the fee and cancel everything.