Kohls Sarasota Florida Complaint - False Arrest / False Imprisonment / Tampering with Evidence

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-10-02:

It apppears you are trying to turn what may have been a legitimate security concern into a sexual harrassment/false imprisonment issue.

Seems to me critical facts are the reason your associate was detained for questioning and what happened in the security office during the time she was held there. What date did this happen in 2010?

Posted by Skye on 2011-10-02:

Did she file a police report? These are serious allegations and that would be a start.

Posted by Anonymous on 2011-10-02:

The sooner people figure out that they do NOT have to go into the back room for 'questioning' the better. They want to detain you for what they believe is just cause? Fine, but don't leave the customer service area. Wait in the front of the store until the police arrive.

Posted by At Your Service on 2011-10-02:

You're way off base on this one. The Atari 8-bit systems, along with their O.S., was far superior to the Commodore 64. ;-)

Posted by oldisgood on 2011-10-03:

The biggest question of all!. Was she officially charged with shoplifting? You can preach all you want, but if she really did it, you have no case

Posted by Churro on 2011-10-03:

Florida has very merchant friendly shoplifting laws on the books. (Pays to have lobbyists). Basically if a merchant or merchant employee suspects an individual of shoplifting they have the legal right to the take the individual into custody and "detain them in reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time". The same law affords merchants and merchant employees protections from criminal and/or civil liability for false arrest, false imprisonment, or unlawful detention. In fact in Florida if you resist the merchant's or merchant employee's detainment efforts you have committed a misdemeanor of the first degree.

Here's the applicable Florida Statute

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/Web/Statutes/FS09/CH0812/Section_0812.015.HTM

Bottom line in Florida a merchant or merchant employee has the legally protected power to pull you into custody, imprison you for 'reasonable' period of time and there ain't squat you can do about it.

Posted by Nohandle on 2011-10-03:

Agreed John: The sooner people figure out that they do NOT have to go into the back room for 'questioning' the better. They want to detain you for what they believe is just cause? Fine, but don't leave the customer service area. Wait in the front of the store until the police arrive.

I've never been accused of shoplifting in my life but would find it most embarrassing to make a stand there in the front of the store and other shoppers walking by and watching. I may be wrong but many I know would feel the same way. Settle it in private and let me go away and never return to your business. I don't need that kind of grief.

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-10-03:

I agree with Nohandle, whose comment brought back a memory. When I was a foolish young person, I swiped a spark plug (yes, a spark plug) from a Sears. I was promptly nabbed and escorted to a security area.

Looking back, I am glad that they did this in private. Sears - where America shops (?).

Posted by MRM on 2011-10-03:

When I was a young buck, they had these nice pens at Walmart and I used to pocket them and never got caught.

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-10-03:

Sweet. When I was a young buck, there wasn't a Wallsmart. At least not north of the Mason Dixon line.

Posted by Lumi (omg,it's me) on 2012-09-02:

OMG~ THIS IS MY STORY!!! LONG(please read~ all real and all TRUE) MY STORY: It's long and I did not proofread but posted quickly so ignore the grammar because this is IMPORTANT for EVERYONE to know. Who wrote this? This is exactly what happened to me there on Nov 6th of 2011 and reading this just got my heart racing and I'm literally shaking: Yes this is 100% true nevermind I've tried to email Kohls about it and got no response on 4 different occasions. I'm not a person who harbors hatred but if what happened to me were to happen to anyone else I'd be enraged. First of all the male security guard there called me by my first and last name when I was out of the door with my friend and the 2 items we bought at the customer service counter but in his report he states we did not buy anything. I DID NOT steal anything at all (keep in mind we were about8-10 feet out the door and no alarms went off (they tag everything there) just him calling me by Name~first AND LAST (I never met him or knew of him and nobody ever asked how he knew my name and to this day I have no clue)...he (the fat male security guard I know now) asked me to come back in because he said he needed to ask me something so we walked back in (my friend Paul and I) and then he said he needed to speak to me privately about an important matter, then he guided me with his hand to go first and he got on my right side. When we were about 2-3 feet from the door he suddenly clenched my upper arm with his hand and whispered a disgusting proposition,some creepy details, and signal for me if I don't want to be charged with phelony shoplifting followed by a horrible threat about noblody finding my body if I EVER repeated anything. He grabbed me so tight that I had a claw like bruise on my right upper inner arm the next day and my entire arm hurt for a few days but the mental pain is what practically killed me. I blamed myself for being so stupid but I don't think anyone would expect something like what happened to me this evening. Certainly never happened before, not even close...so I did not know I had a monster in front of me I should fear when I first saw him (he was just an overweight, half bald guy with a crew cut in normal clothing. Upon entering his office he had me sit down and he grabbed my purse across the table unzipped the top and then rifled throught it very good because he found and took all my cash (about $180), my entire bottle of alprazolam medication, some personal things including an emerald diamond ring and a real gold and green jade bracelet that I had wrapped up to take to the jewler to fix at some point (the cost of the emerald and diamond ring is about %5-7000 and the gold and jade bracelet about $400-$600 , scissors, a triple silver necklace and charm ring, turq necklace..this was mostly just costume jewlery, a pair of sunglassed my friend Paul bought me a couple days before at the gas station and a crystal pave bangle bracelet (these last 2 items I had on but tucked in my purse while still in the car on the way there, I remember that because I was driving and I had paul put my purse on his lap since it was not a long way (I have pictures wearing 2 of the items but honestly I know I'll never see any of them at this point but it was my stuff that I was robbed of and felt like I could trust nobody at that point unless I knew them...I had a creepy feeling like there were more people involved but did not know what or how much of a part they had in this sherade but it was clear that I was not in control like prey, I mean he kept me from using the phone, walking out, and would not give me any water or let me use the rest room~I had no rights, I was imprisoned by this man in that room and I was not going anywhere unless he let me... he used to be a cop but did something and was forced to resign from the force so mayble he was using using mental tactics because I felt like I was mentally traumatized and broken down by this person. He made comments about my friend and my husband, etc etc, He was using all kinds of what I know now was intimidation techniques on me and only identified himself as "the puppet master". He made a nasty comment about my friend and if my husband knows he's with me which he did since he was from Wisconsin and staying with us for 2 weeks~He came out to vacation here and see us both. This is a vely long story with a bunch of details but I can tell you who read this some hard facts:

I did not steal anything.
I even went to trial with "faked" evidence on me (I'll explain further down).
I was found innocent by a jury after less then 5 minutes of deliberation.
Why and how did this pervert know my name.
Found out later he had been a police officer but was forced to resign (with pay like the cop child molesters or so I've read. I don't know what he did so I am not saying he's a child molestor, but I did read about one resigning with pay in Florida.)
He obviously went through and set me up but I had a good attorney who used his own evidence he planted to use against me used on him in trial. Yes I actually had to go to trial for this since he had it total a certain amout to be a phelony but this he told me when he made his propositions. Our private investigator could not even get a copy of UNALTERED video's from Kohl's (they said they don't have video in the back room/security office (said it's just their policy when my husband and investigator contacted them-if they did (which they might they would not want the public to know or at least see how I was treated by their employees(name calling,etc) (he went around protocall and kept the video's to alter for about 2 weeks but whether he did it or had someone do it (majorly alter content, basically FRAUD) the first clue where they messed up is they forgot to alter the date so instead of the date this took place Nov 6th it's another date with 2 digits which was given to the police,us, my attorney. He had made me feel so vulnerable and powerless that I was so terrifed for 2 weeks to even tell my husband everything but one morning I was watching something on ctv and I started to just ball and break down in tears and I finally just had to tell him but held a little back. It's very humiliating for a female especially when I was on the stand I did not want it to come up but if it did I was under oath and a question was directed at "did anything unusaual occur" and I was stunned and akked if I could write it down for the jury but the judge said no and I had to sit up there and talk in detail as I answered questions and cried. I was cringing because I was embaressed that I would let myself endure that but at that time I was stunned and paralized. I am not someone who's ever been through a trial or been in trouble but now I would never go behind closed doors with anyone and would advise anyone reading this to PLEASE wait outside closed doors if ever in this situation even if you DID steal something, this should not happen to anyone!!! My friend was stuck outside for close to an hour for him and this liar partner woman to make up a "bunk receipt of random items in the store so they could take pictures of things after but they botched that since the items in the pictures are different then the items on the "faKE RECEIPT" FOR EXAMPLE: when my attorney asked him this: So on the receipt of the items you claim my client stole are a pair of Sonoma sheets but in the pictures you gave us are of a package of Vera Wang sheets. Do the sonoma sheets have a brown wrapping and the Vera Wang blue correct Mr.C? He just answered: " I don't know" like everything else,evey other answer out of him was "I don't know" or "I don't recall" but he did lie on the stand when confronted with "the deal" he offered not to charge me with a phelony and have his buddy take me to jail. My civil rights were majorly violated since I know NOW it's even illegal for your car to be searched without your permission. My friend had my keys and they (him and the cop) took them from him (he was also thereatened to be arrested for sticking up for me. I yelled out to Paul to just take the car and go home (the front was left open and I was in the back of the cop car (the officer showed up took down what Sam said and arrested me I knew he may have been a friend of Sam's (security guard aka the puppet master) I was petrified to say anything that he did since Sam told me his buddy's in the parking lot on Standby I knew or was afraid to tell him anything. But before that they (Sam and the officer) were searching my car for whatever reason and the goons were slamming my mercedes trunk down and it does not shut that way it has a button you push on the top side of the trunk and it self shuts but they kept slamming it down over and over hard. Nothing was brought up about the doctored tape in this trial because I was there to prove my innocence first. The jury was sharp and saw right through him (at least the officer when asked if I stole anything was honest and just told the truth: "I have no idea", there was stuff all over that place" (his office ..sec guard) which was true. As soon as the jury said not guilty he stormed out of there in a rage(Sam, security guard, known to himself and calls himself the puppet master) and was calling someone on his phone. I wanted to thank the jury but did not get a chance since the prosecutor kept us all there until about 10pm or so into the night at the courthouse. After the case the judge spoke and said