Man arrested for paying for service at Best Buy with $2 bill

[junkmalle]

9/11 was the catalyst that changed the front line officers ability to use discretion.

I feel so much safer knowing that guys who want to spend $2 bills are arrested and taken into custody. This will surely put an end to terrorism.

[winifreid]

Oz, where did you read that the US trained the Khmer Rouge? And are you saying the US threatened Japan's Navy in 1901? I don't think either ever happened. But I would agree that the US has made many poor choices in foreign policy, but there are plenty to choose from in reality.

// DO NOT RESPOND to political posts. Informal warning.
// -- moderator lordsmurf

[B2D327]

Who knows how many lives would have been lost if those $2 bills had exploded.

[DaveS]

hey guys - no politics is a key rule here...let's edge it back to the story or just let it end..

[lordsmurf]

Remember...




NO POLITICS !!

[Sabro]

After re-reading the article, I gotta agree with BJ, as I can see no fault with the law enforcements actions.

Was 'threating' him to pay the bill wrong (if it truely occurred)? YES, was refusing to accept the money wrong, NO...but it should of been handled differently then telling the customer 'I don't have to take these', thats for a manager to decide.

As for being handcuffed and put on public display for example making purposes, maybe not the 'nicest' thing to do but FULLY within the U.S. law to do so.

More and more locations are posting public signs stating that you give up your rights when entering the property and will lawfully submit to search, seiure (SP!), and many other things.

Depending on your location (State, County) there are alot of 'un-written' laws that specify the above without having to be publically displayed.

Counterfitting is a FEDERAL crime, so yes they are gonna play hardball at the drop of a dime, but considering his profession it's a wonder it didn't get worse. Prime suspect for conterfitting, money laundering, blah blah blah with his profession and its a wonder they haven't (or may have) already started background checks in to his finances, freezing assets, taxes and all the above, which is all perfectly legal as well.

So it might get even WORSE for the guy, but I still say 99.9% of best buy's employees are numb nuts

Sabro

[JohnnyCNote]

While I do think handcuffing a clearly non-threatening suspect was unnecessary, if it's SOP, then the cops are obliged to follow it, although I think cops have some discretion in these matters.

Obviously, this is a major embarrassment to BB, but I'd be surprised if they do anything. They're lucky he didn't pay in pennies, as has been pointed out, or even postage stamps, although they're no longer considered to be "legal tender" as they were at one time. I recall there was a lawsuit many years ago over someone who repaid a debt in pennies, and it was ruled to be legal....

[Talus]

www.bestbuysux.org

unbelievable stories by both employees and customers

[MackemX]

isn't there a limit to an amount that can be paid?

you can't exactly go into a shop and buy a £99 with 4950 x 2 pence pieces

[JohnnyCNote]

www.bestbuysux.org

unbelievable stories by both employees and customers

I used to be a moderator on their message forum, and can attest to the many stories submitted by customers who've been screwed over in one way or another. I should add, however, that the message forum is not all BB bashers. There are quite a few people who defend BB.

The sense I got is that not all BB locations are problematic, and that they do have capable and caring employees. However, the upper levels of the company put so much pressure on the stores to push their service plans, etc., that it's very hard to operate in a customer friendly manner. I also believe that many ethical managers are weeded out.

isn't there a limit to an amount that can be paid?

you can't exactly go into a shop and buy a £99 with 4950 x 2 pence pieces

In the US all forms of currency can be used to pay for goods and services, even pennies. The reason people rarely do so is because of the effort it would take to lug several bags of pennies into a store. Also, electronic transactions are increasingly taking the place of currency based ones due to the convenience of shopping with a debit/credit card. Is this also the case in the UK?

[Dr_Layne]

Taken from the US Treasury website:

Q: I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

A: The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 102. This is now found in section 392 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The law says that: "All coins and currencies of the United States, regardless of when coined or issued, shall be legal-tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

[Kunta Kinte]

gawd , what a load of crap ....america changing ???? sheeeesh have a proper look at your history , your goverment trained and armed an support groups all round the world that bullied and enslaved and murdered some portions of their population , then when they feel like it (when there is a change in goverment policies) they call those group terrorist an condem them , then go after them with armed force .... I mean people , open your eyes to japan 40 years prier to perl harbor they just did what the american fleet threatend them with, then cambodia with pol pot ,who were trained and armed by the us an other powers because they were again the communist , then the talaban in Afghanistan , same thing ...and it go's on an on....sheeeeesh lets face it , america is it's worse enemy , freedem in america is an illustion

9/11 was predictable and in some circles expected , anyone that thinks differenly with america's history is just deluding them self

gawd no wonder I would prefer to be unemployed in austalia than take up 120k a year job over there(and yes I have tuned down 2 jobs over there)

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. ABSOLUTELY NO POLITICS!
/ Moderator lordsmurf

Were any of the jobs you turned down were for grammar or spell checker. Just curious.

[MOVIEGEEK]

BestBuy hires total morons.
I shop there occasionally but only for blank media,the last time I asked a salesclerk for a phone that was on sale...he had to ask three other salesclerks...and they still couldn't find it!

[dun4cheap]

I second that,

When Harry Potter came out on DVD they had special if you purchase HP you get another DVD for $5.00. It did not state how much you had to buy the HP for.

So I asked them to price match Frys for the HP for $14.99. They would not do it.

Fry's match the deal though, so I got HP for $14.99 and the Wizard of OZ for $5

[lumis]

I feel so much safer knowing that guys who want to spend $2 bills are arrested and taken into custody. This will surely put an end to terrorism.

quote of the day

[alsyed]

i was going to add my 2 cents to this... (pun intended) about the 9/11 bs, but i thot, well... isn't this america's story, were pettiness rules with a suing happy population?

perhaps if he did sue best buys, and won damages... how much would they be, and how would they pay? They'd probably respond in a consistent petty way! 10,000 pennies heheheh

another catch cry that is never taken up: innocent to proven guilty.

9/11 in america is a synonym for internally suppressing human rights - exactly the things the america says it is against.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. Congratulations, you just won an award for discussing politics. As mentioned about a dozen times already in this thread, ABSOLUTELY NO OUTRIGHT POLITICAL POSTS!
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[MOVIEGEEK]

@alsyed,
Read Lordsmurf's post above.

[RabidDog]

quote "My great-great-great grandfather lived in a time when women were burned at the stake for "practising" witchcraft. " ahhh *sigh* thats when a barbecue was a real exciting event... youngsters today ,, with their little squawky speaky phones with no wires....

We now burn 100,000's of cows in mass open slaughter .. as offerings to our pagan God of (Health scares).

[pfh]

[quote="Sabro"]I don't know about the rest of you, but 99.9% of the best buy employees around here are complete morons anyways.

That's what I've heard. This confirms that there are certainly a few at that store!

[ZAPPER]

I am not a lawyer, buy I saw one on TV once. Let's see, An agent of BB (the cashier) did knowing and willingly take actions that lead to the false arrest and detainment of a person, and said person did suffer public embarrassment due to said actions, and said person did lose time and freedom to use said time, and said person has had uncomfortable and unwanted attention drawn to himself as a result of these actions, and said person was exposed to enviroments and events that he would not normally expose himself to. Furthermore, BB, through the use of its agent has conducted itself as a traitor by not accepting the standing currency of the United States during a time of war and thus causing injury to the economy and security of the United States. I could go on but you get the point.

I would love to go off on profanity tirade about now, but I fear that I would smash the keys right through my keyboard.

On a mild political tangent. Keep in mind that America is a place filled with people from around the globe. If we act like we are better it may only be because so many have come here from worse.

[painkiller]

An additional point, all the Best Buy stores have a similar layout.

There is (usually) a room in the front of the store, as most customers leaving the registers will pass it as they head to the exit, where the security operation resides.

They usually take/hold shoplifters in there until the police arrive to collect them.

They could have easily placed this person in there, out of public view, until the matter was resolved.

[ZAPPER]

As mentioned above, probably not everything has come out. Yes this was a form of protest, Maybe the clerk was affraid or maybe the clerk was just plain stupid. The cops did have some lee way as to what to do. The guy with the Two Dollar bills could have made it all go away by talking sense to the cops or the manager. I would still like to see BB take a hit in the wallet, but that is only from the bad press that I have heard about them. And in all reality any puplicity is good puplicity if played right. A much as we all bitch and moan about BB, they wouldn't still be in bussiness if they weren't doing something right in the way of making money. Keep in mind when dealing with the kid behind the cashwrap or on the sales floor, that this may be the best that they will ever be.
It is still a free country, shop where ever you like and spend what ever want. BB is not the only game in town. Be an educated shopper and buyer beware, Yadde Yadda Yadda....

I am better now.

[presto]

I'm so glad you posted Zapper. I was feeling kind of lonely.

[ViRaL1]

Maybe I overlooked someone else making this comment, but I haven't seen it thus far.

WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD COUNTERFEIT $2 BILLS???
(...and what kind of moron would believe that someone actually went through the time and trouble to do so?)

Is it possible to even make any profit from it? I know that $1 bill haven't had any of the latest anti-counterfeitting security features that the larger bills have. My understanding had been that it would not be profitable to try to counterfeit $1 bills because the cost of printing even a halfway decent forgery was too high. Does the extra $1 REALLY make it worth it?

If it were me, they'd have to close that location between the lawsuit and all the bad press I'd make sure they got.

[JohnnyCNote]

WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD COUNTERFEIT $2 BILLS???

That is an excellent point. I think the most commonly counterfeited bills are either 20's or 100's. Also, 2's tend to draw more attention to themselves, which defeats the whole idea of trying to pass bogus paper, that it should not draw attention to itself. If you were going to go to the trouble to create a fake bill, why waste it on a low denomination, as you suggested?

Since a lot of this seems to be the cashier's unwillingness to count the bills, I have a strong hunch the guy would have helped count them for the bozo if he'd been asked....

[sammie]

Just adding my.......ok I refuse to make a bad pun. The poster who sumbitted about had it pretty much right per the coinage act of 1965 all monies are legal tender. There is one out that businesses do not have to take "minor" coinage (defined as pennies, nickles and dimes) for debts over some amount (I believe like $100). However, in this case just the basic rule applies BB was legally required to accept the payment.

Now, knowing a bit about the law, the fact that the clerk said the ink smeared on some of the bills will probably be enough to protect her and the store from criminal proceedings. However, the surrounding circumstances would certainly be admissable in a civil proceeding as evidence that they were trying to "get" the guy. As a side note, I thought everyone knew that the fact that the ink never completely dried and would still smear was in fact an indication that the bill was genuine! A smear proof bill is suppsedly an indication of a counterfeit, not the opposite.

[Steve Stepoway]

WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD COUNTERFEIT $2 BILLS???

You would be surprised. Criminals are stupid! If they weren't stupid, they wouldn't be criminals. How about the guy who spent a day hand drawing a (pretty good) $20, and passed it? Got caught, of course. He could have stood on the street corner begging and made a lot more! He may have been as stupid as the BB employees. It's a toss-up.

[presto]

WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD COUNTERFEIT $2 BILLS???

It's kind of a paradox. "It's foolish to question two dollar bills because no one would be foolish enough to conterfeit two dollar bills because they would be questioned".

[JohnnyCNote]

While there is no shortage of stupid criminals, there are plenty of highly intelligent ones, too. It's dangerous to underestimate people, especially ones with criminal intent....

[FulciLives]

While there is no shortage of stupid criminals, there are plenty of highly intelligent ones, too. It's dangerous to underestimate people, especially ones with criminal intent....

This After School Special has been broght to you by ABC

- John "FulciLives" Coleman