Walmart Employees Rip Up Customer’s Money, Claim It’s Counterfeit

Two Walmart employees who thought a woman was attempting to pass counterfeit bills reportedly took her money and promptly ripped it up, according to The Huffington Post. Here’s the problem: The customer’s $100 bills were real, and now, roughly two years later, she’s suing the company for subjecting her to such a humiliating situation.

“The cashier inspected the $100 bill, turned to another cashier and had a brief discussion, and returned to her register telling the plaintiff her money was ‘fake,’ ” the complaint explains. “The cashier proceeded to rip the $100 bill in half without performing any counterfeit detection tests. The metallic strip in the $100 bill was clearly visible.”

According to Court House News, things only got worse once the manager arrived on the scene. The gentleman, who Garcia remembers as Russell, didn’t treat her any better.

“At this time, she took out the other $100 bill she had in her possession,” the complaint states. “Russell took this bill from her, told her it was also counterfeit, ripped it in half and again told plaintiff she had to wait for police.”

The Daily Mail reports that Walmart employees forced her to stick around until police arrived. To make matters worse, the whole exchange took place in plain sight of other customers. Humiliation and embarrassment promptly ensued.

Once published, it didn’t take long before the story caught the attention of folks over at Reddit, who quickly jumped on the story. “There is no policy in place telling anyone to do this with counterfeit bills, and in fact, because the bills have to be turned over to investigators, the tearing up of the bill would count as destroying evidence,” one user observed.

For the anguish these Walmart employees caused their customer, Julia Garcia is currently seeking “punitive damages for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

Do you think Walmart was in the wrong for ripping up the customer’s money?