A SHOPPER says a scuffle with a Costco receipt checker left him with a broken leg – he tried to sue but lost big time when officials sided with the store.
Timothy Walls, 38, racked up $100,000 in medical bills after refusing to have his receipt checked when leaving a Costco warehouse in Portland, Oregon.
2
The incident happened on January 28, 2013, after Walls became upset when the employee asked to see his receipt.
The shopper refused, despite the Costco membership agreement requiring customers to have their receipts checked when they leave the store.
Walls picked up the store employee, Dale Holsclaw, by his shirt collar and shoved him against a pillar, said store employees.
At the time of the incident, Walls weighed 320 pounds and Holsclaw was only about 130.
A second employee, Gavin McClaskey, pulled Walls away from Holsclaw.
However, Walls then grabbed him by the collar and began swearing and pushing at him.
Acting in self-defense, McClaskey tripped Walls, who suffered a serious leg fracture.
Walls needed two surgeries and was bedridden for weeks. He had to move in with his mother and use crutches for nine months.
His attorney, Clayton Morrison, argued that Walls made a bad decision to push Holsclaw outside the store.
Morrison said that McClaskey, who had Muay Thai martial arts training and served four years in the US Navy, used too much force.
McClaskey called himself “Bruce Wayne,” the alias for Batman, on his Facebook at the time and made several posts about the lawsuit being filed.
In one comment, McClaskey described as “the kid with the meanest leg sweep at Costco.”
Morrison said he wasn’t allowed to question McClaskey on these posts, however, McClaskey explained to the judge that he was repeating what another commenter said about him.
He told the judge that the comment was deleted, resulting in the judge not allowing the jurors to hear about it.
McClaskey has since left Costco.
Walls, on the other hand, had a different version of events, saying that he’s always shown his receipt in the past but that Holsclaw had his back turned and didn’t ask Walls as he left the store.
Moments later, Walls claimed that Holsclaw grabbed his cart and demanded to see the receipt, telling Walls to go back to the store.
Walls said he tried to show his receipt to Holsclaw several times for a few minutes, however, there was no surveillance video of the incident.
“I had my receipt in my hand and said, ‘Here it was, OK?’ And he didn’t care,” said Walls.
“He’s still saying, ‘It doesn’t matter, we still have to go inside.’ … He’s acting like he’s going to haul me back inside. I didn’t understand. … I’m yelling ‘Somebody get a manager! Somebody call police!'”
When officers arrived and investigated, no criminal charges were filed against anyone.
Walls argued that he was protecting his property and that all he wanted to do was get to his car with his groceries and go home.
Then-store manager John Bartlett said at the time: “Costco has one of the lower shrinks in the industry, which is loss of product. And I think it’s in large part because of how we perform our checkout procedures.”
He added that he never had an issue with customers showing receipts before.
Costco’s attorney, Bill Stockton, told jurors that the law didn’t allow Walls to use force to protect his purchases and how Walls reacted was “totally unacceptable conduct.”
Morrison, however, told the jury that “there’s limits to the amount of force you can use. … The leg kick that was employed was excessive.”
After two hours of deliberation, the jury found that Holsclaw didn’t unlawfully restrain Walls’ “freedom of movement.”
However, they found that McClaskey committed a battery by breaking Walls’ leg but felt that his use of force was justified.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Costco for comment.
2
Credit Gist New Today News in Newspaper Nigeria Headlines
