Those merchandise theft sensors at stores always give false alarms. You don't need a scientific study to conclude that an overwhelming majority of these alarms are not due to theft, but just false-alarms (I would guess more than 95%). I don't know if it is my cell phone or dental work, or what, but these false-alarms seem to happen to me a lot. I just ignore them. Once in while someone from the store will follow me out and ask to search my bag. I just ignore them and walk away. The worst case so far was that an employee tried to grab my bag. I pulled it away and said f-off as I walked away. Because most of these alarms are false alarms it seems that legally the alarm should not give the store a basis to do anything else but "request" that I let them search. What I'm somewhat afraid of is that they will call the police, who may come after me. If a store did call the police based soley on the unreliable alarm would I have any basis for a civil suit (e.g. due the suffering of humilation of being detained by the police in public, loss of freedom during the search, etc)? Similary to the false-alarm, some stores like Best-Buy have someone at the door that checks your receipt. Sometimes there's a line at the exit and I'm tempted to bypass the receipt check guy. You paid for the merchandise so the receipt and items you bought are your property so they should have no legal right to search you. Would bypassing the receipt check be sufficient grounds for the store to physically detain you or call the police? In both cases, could the police (being irritated that you wasted their time), charge you with disorderly conduct for not complying with the store employee demands (either for the receipt check or the false-alarm bag search) ?
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Editor's Response
That is an interesting question. Generally speaking, store security in Massachusetts have the right to detain you and search you if they act reasonably and have probable cause to do so (as where they witness a person placing merchandise under a coat). See this section of the Massachusetts General Laws:
Section 94B. In an action for false arrest or false imprisonment brought by any person by reason of having been detained for questioning on or in the immediate vicinity of the premises of a merchant or an innkeeper, if such person was detained in a reasonable manner and for not more than a reasonable length of time by a person authorized to make arrests or by the merchant or innkeeper or his agent or servant authorized for such purpose and if there were reasonable grounds to believe that the person so detained was committing or attempting to commit a violation of section thirty A of chapter two hundred and sixty-six, or section twelve of chapter one hundred and forty, or was committing or attempting to commit larceny of goods for sale on such premises or larceny of the personal property of employees or customers or others present on such premises, it shall be a defense to such action.
Although I have not performed any thorough legal research on this issue, I am going to guess that if the alarm goes off, that gives security the probable cause they require to detain you. It does not, of course, give them the right to act inappropriately or to use excessive force.
On the other hand, unless you have signed some membership agreement that gives the store the right to check your receipt and your packages (Costco, BJ's, etc.?) I do not think a store can require you to stop and show your receipt or open your bags, UNLESS they have some evidence of wrongdoing. In any of these cases, however, I do not advocate belligerence or violence when faced with security requests. If the security team objects to you walking by without showing the receipt, I would simply ask them to explain their legal right to detain you. Bottom line, I (personally) would not choose this issue as my reason for being and get into trouble because of it. Also, I am not familiar with any of the laws of New Hampshire, where many of us shop.
I invite other readers and attorneys to chime in on this issue. For more information or to post a question, visit our MA Consumer Law Discussion Forum.
False accusations of theft checking receipts
Anonymous
I used to work as a manager in a retail clothing store and I remember them drilling it into our heads at training that if you think someone stole something it's not good enough. We were told a hundred times that unless we could specifically say to them exactly what the item was and where they placed it, we don't say a word. So for example I would have to say I would like you to come back with me and we can discuss the situation in private, but I need the black bathing suit you put inside your backpack, we would then call the police and if the person didn't come with us we could not pursue them. We were told the company had been sued in the past for wrongly accusing someone and the accused won the suit. We were also told someone actually got caught and arrested but then sued because the manager made a scene and yelled in front of others so the crook sued because of embarrassment. I don't know the exact law but that was what we were told to do to protect the store.