Junky M.
1/5
While I've never noticed anyone be particularly helpful when I've had an actual question, while minding my business shopping for my husband's 40th birthday party, I was stalked around the store by a man as if he thought he was a 21st-century Columbo and subsequently accused of shoplifting.
I was interrogated for nearly an hour and subjected to searches of my personal belongings, which should have been satisfactory, but no. This was just the start of a long and arduous ordeal that would have lasting effects on my life.
A full year later, I stopped in to refill my filtered water tanks. When I left the building to go to my car, I looked out into the parking lot and that sociopath manager was out there with a notepad on his phone messing with my car.
Days later, I received a call from a detective informing me that the manager of Publix had reported me for shoplifting. I was told the date of this incident was the day I filled the water. I hadn't even gone past the enteranceway on that date. I told the detective as much and put it out of my mind.
At this point, one would imagine that the police would perform their due diligence and request to see video proof before filing any charges against me, but this was not the case.
A month later, I received a letter from an online service claiming I was eligible to have a theft charge dropped if i took their online class for a few hundred dollars. I'm aware of the accusation, but I'm confused because I had never been arrested or served any paperwork indicating there were any charges filed.
So, I called the clerk of the court to confirm. They told me that it was a scam and to ignore it. They were unable to find anything under my name, so I assumed there was no issue.
THEN ANOTHER year later, I attended a court date for a traffic violation, and was arrested on a bench warrant and thrown in jail. Out of nowhere, I had a bench warrant. I would later discover that I HAD been charged 16 months earlier and was meant to attend a court hearing. Never served papers... nothing.
"Video" evidence was submitted, but no video of my interactions in Publix however. The video showed a worker who admitted he was not present at the time but had been asked to report an incident by his manager. When it was shown in court, the judge dismissed the case immediately. That should have been the end of it, right?
Wrong.
Simply having been accused of this crime still affects my quality of life in real ways. For instance, I have been seeking employment for over 6 months. Three times I was given an offer of employment, only to have it rescinded days later. I inquired with a legal advice hotline about this and was informed that business owners may deny employment to people who've been accused of a crime rwhether they were convicted or not.
I was exonerated for the crime, but the record of this incident still appears in a background check. I am not treated the same as I was before. I shudder to think what will happen the next time I move and need to find a place to rent, but at this point I'm just struggling to find work. So much for having a college education, lot of good that does me now.
If you think this seems far-fetched, unrealistic and unlikely, just a few years ago, I would have agreed with you. Unfortunately, people like this manager feel the need to behave in this way. I've read that rapists are motivated by the desire to feel powerful. Perhaps the psychology is similar. I don't know.
I do know that psychological damage that I live with as a result of the entire experience is unquantifiable. The near-constant fear and anxiety that is always there in the background whenever I leave the house. Knowing it's increasingly common, to find oneself caught up with charges or incarcerated because you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'd never have expected that the grocery store was one of them. I hope by sharing my experience others out there are made aware that this store is one of those "wrong places" and protect themselves and their loved ones from the danger that lurks within it.
