Woman arrested at Wal-Mart for using REAL $100 bills

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204067/Julia-Garcia-WalMart-employees-ripped-womans-100-bills-thought-fake.html

A mother who says Walmart employees intentionally humiliated her after wrongfully ripping up two of her $100 bills while believing they were fake is taking legal action against the store.

In her recently filed complaint, Julia Garcia is seeking no more than $74,900 in damages after detained for four hours before customers in San Antonio, Texas who were told she had tried to use fake money.

Apparently, the store manager was rude to the lady and incredulous when police were finally called and verified the bills were genuine.

SMH at everyone involved here. Cashiers are not supposed to tear money. If it's counterfeit, a supervisor is supposed to confiscate the bills. I can understand why it might take a year for legal action to be taken, since the wheels of justice do turn slowly. I cannot for the life of me understand the dollar amount the young lady is asking.

I wonder if all the distress kept her from shopping at Walmart. If they have her on camera, then they have proof that she wasn't too stressed to come back and risk more humiliation.

BirdyBack wrote:

SMH at everyone involved here. Cashiers are not supposed to tear money. If it's counterfeit, a supervisor is supposed to confiscate the bills. I can understand why it might take a year for legal action to be taken, since the wheels of justice do turn slowly. I cannot for the life of me understand the dollar amount the young lady is asking.

I wonder if all the distress kept her from shopping at Walmart. If they have her on camera, then they have proof that she wasn't too stressed to come back and risk more humiliation.

I'm not so sure about that BB. If I was belittled and humiliated in front of people in a store and I liked to shop there it would not deter me from returning, after all the people that saw her get humiliated in all probability would not be be there again. However it it happened to be, I would just let it go as long as they gave me my money back and not even think about bringing a lawsuit.

I have been mad enough at somebody to not shop there... several times (different places).

Once, I was in Food World and they asked for my drivers license to prove my ID. Apparently, I had used the drivers license and it slipped behind the seat in my car. I had several photo IDs in my wallet and one even had a badge with it... I was an inspector. I asked to see the manager and he said the same thing... gotta see your drivers license. I had a completely full shopping cart and I said "I'm not putting that stuff back onto the shelf" and left the store. Of course, there were people in the line behind me at this cashier. I was humiliated.

I went home and finally found my drivers license and went the 10 miles back to Food World and showed it to the manager, telling him that he made me feel like a cheat and a criminal.

I had just gotten a "Welcome" letter from a Food World VP... and a check cashing card from them... but I had left it at the house. I tore it up and mailed it back to the VP with a letter that described of the event and said that "I might as well had been talking to a bag boy" when I talked to the manager. Never went back there...

I got a letter back saying that they have changed their policies and given the manager more discretion and "please come back".

Eric, if you have beer or wine in your cart, then I think that you must have a valid ID with your DOB on it to comply with ATF rules. The stupid thing IMO is those stores that say they card everyone who looks over 30 or over 40 years old. Why? The legal drinking age is 21, not 30 or 40.

Some corporate rules are really stupid. At Winn Dixie, only a driver's license is accepted as valid ID for writing a check. If a cashier checks an ID for alcohol or cigarettes but fails to key in the DOB, that's a violation of corporate policy that can lead to termination. A friend of mine lost her job that way.

BirdyBack wrote:

Eric, if you have beer or wine in your cart, then I think that you must have a valid ID with your DOB on it to comply with ATF rules. The stupid thing IMO is those stores that say they card everyone who looks over 30 or over 40 years old. Why? The legal drinking age is 21, not 30 or 40.

Some corporate rules are really stupid. At Winn Dixie, only a driver's license is accepted as valid ID for writing a check. If a cashier checks an ID for alcohol or cigarettes but fails to key in the DOB, that's a violation of corporate policy that can lead to termination. A friend of mine lost her job that way.

That makes sense, Birdy. I don't know if I had an alcoholic beverage or not. I would have gladly returned it to the shelf if alcohol was the problem. They would have accepted the Food World card if I had it with me, but I didn't have it with me. I STILL know my drivers license number from then (I don't know why), and I offered to recite it to the cashier and the manager, but they didn't want to accept that.

When I wrote to the VP, I said I filled out the form to get their check cashing card and put my Drivers License number on it from memory. I didn't need my drivers license to get their dadgum check cashing card, why should I have to have the Drivers License at the store?

Anyway, that's the story and it is water over the dam. No biggie.

Don't they have methods of detecting counterfeit bills? I thought there was a marker or something that would show if a bill was real or not. Years ago, when I worked as a cashier, I was told to wrap a portion of the bill around your finger and rub it on a piece of white paper. A real bill would leave a bit of green ink smudge on the paper because the ink on the bills never dried, and counterfeiters hadn't been able to formulate ink like that. That, of course was about 50 years ago, so that probably doesn't work anymore.

Granny4Peace wrote:

Don't they have methods of detecting counterfeit bills? I thought there was a marker or something that would show if a bill was real or not. Years ago, when I worked as a cashier, I was told to wrap a portion of the bill around your finger and rub it on a piece of white paper. A real bill would leave a bit of green ink smudge on the paper because the ink on the bills never dried, and counterfeiters hadn't been able to formulate ink like that. That, of course was about 50 years ago, so that probably doesn't work anymore.

Granny, they had one of those pens, but apparently didn't know how to use it correctly. The cop they called showed them. The metal security ribbon was sticking out of the torn edge of one of the bills.

According to the article, they used one of these, but only after tearing the bills.

Granny4Peace wrote:

Don't they have methods of detecting counterfeit bills? I thought there was a marker or something that would show if a bill was real or not.

The marker is not as reliable as you might think, nor is the light. We had a counterfeit $100 bill that passed the marker test and had the strip in it. Problem was, it was a $5 bill bleached and then printed over with the $100 markings. Somebody noticed later that it had Lincoln's face in the watermark instead of the face of Benjamin Franklin.

What I have to do is use the marker because it's store policy. Then I hold the bill up to the light so that I can see the hidden face and/or the wording in that infamous strip. For a hundred dollar bill, it should read "USA 100". The face to the right that is visible when you hold the bill up should match the face in the center. You can see it here:




I also feel for the texture in the numbers and in the collar on Mr. Franklin's jacket.

You would be appalled at how many people tell me they got counterfeit $20's from their bank ATM. Also, people are passing counterfeits in all denominations, down to the one dollar bill. I have a regular customer who has to check every bill she gets as a tip.