Two Walmart employees are in hot water after they allegedly destroyed two $100 bills when a customer tried to pay with them.
According to Court House News, Julia Garcia is suing Walmart Stores after the "humiliating ordeal" she endured at the hands of two employees who accused her of using counterfeit currency at a San Antonio, Texas, location.
Garcia says she was Christmas shopping with her children at a [Walmart] in San Antonio in December 2010 and entered a checkout lane around 2 a.m. Garcia says she paid for her $150 purchase with a $100 bill, a $50 bill and change.
"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 states. "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."
(To see the complaint, go to Court House News)
Garcia claims that a manager named Russell was then called over. Russell allegedly told her that the money was counterfeit and that she would have to wait for the police.
According to the complaint, Garcia then pulled out another $100 bill that she had in her possession. She alleges that Russell took the second bill from her and ripped it in half as well, saying that it, too, was counterfeit.
Garcia claims that Walmart made her wait at the front of the store, "in plain sight of all passing customers," until police arrived. She said she was publicly humiliated by the store's employees who told other shoppers that she had been trying to use fake currency.
Finally, two police officers arrived at the store. Upon checking the torn notes, they determined that both were legal tender.
Garcia is reportedly seeking "punitive damages for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
After a user on the social news site Reddit posted Garcia's story online, readers responded with anger -- and plenty of bewilderment.
"For the record, there was zero reason for them to tear up the bill, even if it was counterfeit. 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. Just wanted to point that out. If the employees actually did what the report says they did, then they were idiots on top of being asshats," said user "this_isnt_happening."
This is not the first time that Walmart has been involved in a contentious face-off with potential customers.
Just this month, a Walmart in Florida came under fire after it complained to police of a "flash mob situation" after a school choir sang "God Bless America" in memory of the Sept. 11 attacks.
For more incidents involving Walmart, click through this slideshow:
