TN Man Arrested After Spending Old $50 Bill

If the city were nice, they would compensate the man a day's pay, personally visit his employer to assure he was not affected by his job, and call it good. I bet you the lawyer, though, will draft a $800,000 "emotional distress" lawsuit over the incident.

 

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I can see both points. A mistake is a mistake and , maybe, should be treated with disciplinary hearings, but when these mistakes continue to happen, you have to do something. What do you do when these mistakes become standard operating procedure? How do you stop them from becoming standard operating procedure?

 

There it is!

You and me both my friend.

 

Personally sir, I would hope the State or Feds would step in to prosecute violations of civil liberties by the police force. I know they have done so in the past with other police departments.

We do not disagree much sir. Maybe I am just too theoretical thinking innocent taxpayers who have no control over the issues are getting shafted. I agree that something in such a situation should be done, I would just hope it would involve actions not sending these taxpayers to the cleaners.

You are completely right though that we need to take control of our government more, be more responsible. People do not realize how much this can affect them. There was a small town in AZ like 30 years ago who hired a cop. This cop did something horribly wrong and the town was sued. The judgment was so large, and the town so small, that basically everyone lost their house. Every single house in town had a judgment apportionment greater than the value of the home, so they entire town just ceased to exist. I know this is an extreme outlier, but I think of it every time a bus crashes and 26 people file lawsuits against the city, (unfortunately for them in this one case the bus crashed in the maintenance yard before it had started for the day). I always wonder if those 26 people ever went to jail over that.

 

"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need"

 

Btw Hobo, I wonder if someone here has an old copy of a guidebook of US paper money they wouldn't mind mailing to the police chief in this city.

Americans really are lazy knowing about our money. I blame it on so few lasting changes to our money for so long. I look back longingly 100 years ago where they printed brand new beautiful vignettes on ever series of notes they produced.

 

Idiot policemen, they're everywhere!! I hope the old guy don't have a police record now. Those cops are lame, not that they're all lame but cities should make sure their officers understand and have at least a mediocre amount of common sense. geez!!

 

I wonder how many of the people recommending legal action have read their local laws as they pertain to civil action against their local government.

We have a blurb on the books here in Montana that exempts government agencies and employees from all civil liability for false arrest and imprisonment unless those actions were willful and malicious in nature. Which basically exempts them from arrests that stem from ingnorance or incompetence. I don't know the whole story here of course, and maybe this police officer is upset at this guy for sleeping with his wife, but in the absence of such information, it would be reasonable for the court to assume this was an honest mistake and the city is not liable for any damages.

 

Shelbyville...Quik Mart. Ok, you got us- this was an episode of the Simpsons, right? lol
Guy

 

Here was the case of the guy arrested for passing $2 bills:

http://www.wnd.com/2005/04/29732/

Bottom line on suing--it's quite expensive to get a lawyer and get into court and takes a lot of time. Most such claimants are not successful.

But suing makes sense when dealing with criminals, dealing with egregious abuses of the public trust, when people will not pay a bill or have defrauded you of your money and your peace of mind. Those who always say "let it go", "let bygones be bygones", "laissez faire", etc., may have been the victim of malicious lawsuits or may have criminal records--you never know where people are coming from unless you know them. I have only sued when people owed me big bucks playing me for a sucker.

 

The store is just as responsible in this, if not more so. A few dollars spent on the proper training of its cashiers would go a long way might save thousands later.

 

Now, suing the store for their clerk's actions? I have no problem with that, since the owner should be held responsible for his employees actions.

 

In the late 60's, at the age of 16, I got a job in a neighborhood super market. I was not thrown at a cash register right away, but had to go through 20 hours of training first. They made sure I knew how to count change, how to calculate sales tax (in my head, no calculator) and most of all, how to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit money. That does not happen today. Now, if you can breathe, you are qualified to be a cashier.

 

I think I am one of the last to ever work in a job that the machine does not tell you how much change to give back, (maybe not anywhere, but a place I rang up 10 transactions a minute or more for hours on end). I worked at a convenience store in the late 80's/early nineties that you had to memorize the price of everything, and you rung it up but made change on the fly. Nowadays go to McD's and the cash register is a kids picture monitor where they cannot even go by words, but by little pictures of the food. Try giving them 50 cents after they rang up what cash you gave them and see the classic "deer in the headlights" look back.

Man, we are getting old, huh?

 

they'll be more careful the next time around! I'm against suing for the most part, unless its for a legitimate reason like trying to end the ever increasing police state in America. How the heck are the cops so stupid to arrest a guy for using $2 dollar bills? Heck even if it was some goofy guy trying to pass off fake (lets say $3 dollar bills), is it the most logical thing to do is arrest him and spend tax payer money on a trial and possible imprisonment? How about using a little common sense, confiscating the fake bills and maybe give him a written warning or just tell him he got lucky this time but if it happens again he will be in trouble. Just because the law states you can put somebody in prison for X amount of time doesn't mean its the right or logical thing to do.

Why is this guy getting arrested for having one fake $50 dollar bill? Anyone can easily get a fake bill without knowing it, not all places check bills for being fake with a marker. (even big bills) So you could easily get it in change or have been paid the bill in a transaction. The arrest makes no sense unless they had evidence he was producing or knowingly passing along counterfeit (working with the producer).

 

The guy was humiliated by a clueless police officer for no good reason and that's not a big deal? The police office should of offered him a fair settlement as soon as it was over with the stipulation that he could not bring further litigation on the matter. I don't see why he shouldn't get a grand or two for having to put up with an unlawful arrest/humiliation that was the fault of the police. Obviously this shouldn't be a million dollar case but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be compensated in some manner.

 

You must have missed the part of the article that said the $50 bill was genuine. It was a genuine, old $50 bill - not counterfeit.

 

didn't miss it, although I may have stated my point poorly. I was saying even if he did have a $50 fake bill, why would he be arrested for that?

 

No harm? No foul? See below.

That an excellent point. How does this guy truthfully answer the question, "Have you ever been arrested?" when he applies for a job, applies for a loan, applies for or renews a professional certification, undergoes a background check, etc.?

He WAS arrested. So can he truthfully answer, "No." to that question?

 

Because passing (spending) counterfeit money is illegal.