Caught shoplifting, clerk declined EBT transaction. Is that legal?
before my friends were officially caught shoplifting, they tried to do an EBT transaction the same day, and the register kept declining it and they did not know why. then a few minutes later after leaving out the doors, they got stopped by security. After they got home, they called and checked their EBT balance and they had money on there. IS THAT LEGAL??
please, no rude answers; because they are aware that shoplifting is wrong.
ten pts?
no no, i dont think you guys are getting it..
my friends stole a bunch of stuff, and packed it in a couple totes so they looked empty. They went to pay for the totes plus some food, (at a self checkout @ walmart) and the food stamp card(EBT) kept declining. then the clerk came over & helped void their food, and they payed for some of the other items they had actually bought, and continued out of the store, they then were stopped by security and so on..they finally got home and called their EBT number thing, and it said they had a balance of *.** $$. illegal??
no, they shoplifted other stuff (that was in the totes.) *on purpose*. but, they also had food in the cart as a cover up so they went to the self checkout, and scanned the food they had in the cart but a lady came up right after that and stood next to the cashier(obviously knowing that they had been shoplifting) and THAT is when it started declining. Then the origional cashier guy came over and typed in his number to void the food that they couldn’t get because it was declining , and they got their reciepts for the totes(they actually bought the totes just not the stuff in the totes) and they went out of the store. then thats where the security came in and stuff.
It’s not the store’s fault that the transaction was declined. It may be that the bank was having problems with their technology. Your friends should have offered to pay by check or cash or credit, if they had it. Stealing is NEVER an option.
Think of it this way… if you had something on eBay for sale and someone came to your home to pick it up, giving you a check. But you go to cash the check and it bounces. You call the guy and he says he doesn’t know why it bounced, but refuses to give back your item and doesn’t offer to pay you in another way…. is that legal? Would you be okay with that?
The store isn’t okay with it either.
How are the two connected??
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so because their card was not working they robbed the store.I do not understand the logic.
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if the clerk had actually refused to let them use their card after they were caught shoplifting then it possible the store would be in the wrong but being that the machine declined it then no, nothing illegal about that.
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I worked as a clerk before and sometimes the machines just mess up and there have been times that the system is just so busy that the card wont register it when they run it through.
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It’s not the store’s fault that the transaction was declined. It may be that the bank was having problems with their technology. Your friends should have offered to pay by check or cash or credit, if they had it. Stealing is NEVER an option.
Think of it this way… if you had something on eBay for sale and someone came to your home to pick it up, giving you a check. But you go to cash the check and it bounces. You call the guy and he says he doesn’t know why it bounced, but refuses to give back your item and doesn’t offer to pay you in another way…. is that legal? Would you be okay with that?
The store isn’t okay with it either.
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It does not matter if the EBT transactions were declined or not, that is a bank issue, and nothing to do with the store. There are multiple reasons for a transaction to not complete. You and or your friends have no legal right to shoplift!
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If they walked out without the machine accepting the transaction they didn’t pay for the items. They were stealing.
It isn’t the clerk’s fault the transaction was declined.
Did they get in trouble or did security just check on them after they left? You need to clarify that rather than just saying if that security came up and talked to them. Did they get brought into an office and information taken down to charge them with theft, or were police involved?
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Based on your question, here are the facts:
A private enterprise can deny any payment they want. If, for some reason, regardless of the reason, the private company does not accept the form of payment (and remember, they can decline any form of payment, cash or otherwise, or even decide to refuse any payment), the transaction did not take place.
If you walk out of the store without making either a transaction or an agreement to make the transaction in the future (read: credit card), you are shoplifting. If you did it accidentally, it’s called shoplifting; if you did it on purpose, it’s called shoplifting.
So, in answer to your question, yes, it is perfectly legal for a business to refuse payment, on purpose, by accident, or by mistake.
Courtney
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shoplifting is different from not paying because the register declines to make a EBT transaction.
they should have asked a customer support to check the register. they should be afraid to ask because the customer is always right.
ignorance of the law is no excuse.
so is being to shy to ask for help
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Look. EBT cards fail all the time, I see it every week at the grocery store with people who (unlike your thieving little friends) were not shoplifting at the same time. My best guess is that is has something to do with the card not reading properly when it was run through the first time, and every subsequent attempt causes it to decline, even if there is money on the card. They do not want to take a chance of the money deducting twice.
But even if the Walmart employees were deliberately causing the cards to decline (assuming it’s even possible), so what? That wasn’t illegal. Using an EBT card to cover up a crime is what’s illegal. Maybe they were doing your thieving little friends a favor—if they knew they were going to bust them for shoplifting on their way out the door, the ENTIRE purchase probably would have had to have been impounded too, as evidence, and then their taxpayer-funded charity food would have gone to waste. Now at least your friends can have some taxpayer-paid snacks while they ponder their legal and moral future.
Why people think they can steal from Walmart is a mystery. The Walmart in my town just installed an *ADDITIONAL* 350 security cameras. That’s on top of however many hundreds of cameras they already had. You’d have to be an idiot to try.
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Because a EBT card is for GROCERIES. It’s programmed to decline non-food purchases. ITS NOT A DEBIT CARD. ITS STATE MONEY, USE IT FOR FOOD. NOT FOR WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT.
I hope they get it taken away, freeloaders.
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