Supermarket security guard accused me of shoplifting $48 worth of food – so I sued and won $2.1million
Mobile AL Dec 4 2021 In November 2016, Nurse was arrested in Alabama on warrants for shoplifting 11 items including Christmas lights, a load of bread and Captain Crunch cereal.
The store threatened to press charges unless she repaid $200 – more than the amount she allegedly stole.
But on Monday a Mobile County jury unanimously ruled in Nurse’s favor, who, according to court documents, used a self-checkout and was accompanied by her husband and three kids when she made the transaction.
At one point, she even needed the assistance of a Walmart employee when the barcode scanner froze, but workers did not accept her explanation.
Nurse has also accused the superstore of setting “collection goals” to force shoplifters to repay the value of the goods they allegedly stole if cases are dropped or dismissed.
In 2016, Walmart reportedly set out to recoop $6million from supposed shoplifters – the very same year the retailing giant documented $482billion in sales.
Nurse said she remembers finishing her order and paying when she was stopped by a manager as she leaving the Walmart location in Semmes.
“I remember going in that little room and I was like, ‘This will be resolved, this was an accident, this wasn’t on purpose,'” she told WKRG.
Though criminal charges were dropped a year later, Nurse was served with notice a month after from a Florida law firm threatening to file a civil suit if she did not pay them $200, AL.com reported.
According to the lawsuit, Walmart directed the law firm to send Nurse the letters.
The Alabama woman told The New York Times that Walmart refused to release the surveillance footage of her supposedly stealing.
She also said no witnesses from Walmart ever showed to the trial despite her three court appearances.
Nurse then said during her trial testimony was used that alleged Walmart and other major retailers had routinely used settlements in state where loosely written laws allow it, and that the supermarket giant made hundred of millions of dollars this way in a two-year period.
Defense attorneys for Walmart said what they did was legal in Alabama.
A spokesperson for Walmart told AL.com that the company “continues to believe our associates acted properly”.
They added that Walmart could continue to file motions in this case because it didn’t “believe the verdict is supported by the evidence and the damages awarded exceed what is allowed by law.”
They added: “We want our customers to have a safe, pleasant shopping experience in our stores.
“We take measures to help prevent, identify and appropriately handle instances of theft, which is a problem for all retailers that costs the overall US economy tens of billions of dollars each year.”
Nurse reached a settlement with Walmart that saw all charges dropped.
However, she said she still has work to do to clean up the damage the ordeal has done to her reputation.
In fact, the day after she was notified of the warrant for her arrest, she reported to jail, prompting cops to post her mugshot on a popular Facebook feed.
According to The Times, her husband Ed paid the account owner more than $100 to have the photos removed.
In a 2018 interview with the paper Nurse said that she “can’t erase what people think of me in the back of their mind”.
In Alabama, theft is considered a felony and anyone who steals less than $500 worth of goods or services can be fined $6,000 or spend a year in jail.
Walmart is a publicly traded company owned by the Walton family.
