An Alabama woman falsely accused of stealing from Walmart has just been awarded $2.1 million in damages.
Lesleigh Nurse was shopping in the Semmes, Alabama Walmart in 2016. As she tried to pay for her items using self-checkout, the device began to malfunction. She got a Walmart associate to assist her and thought that the issue was resolved. After paying for the items, her husband and their three kids attempted to leave the store but were confronted by an asset protection manager. She was marched into their office and accused of stealing $48 worth of groceries.
“I remember going in that little room and thinking this will be resolved. This is an accident. This isn’t on purpose,” Nurse explained. Instead, the incident ended with her being arrested and charged with shoplifting. Though the charges were eventually dropped when Walmart representatives failed to show up in court, she still had a criminal record, and the company began harassing her with letters from their lawyers, demanding that she pay $200 back.
She filed a lawsuit against Walmart in 2018. During the trial, it was revealed that the company regularly uses this tactic to force people into paying unfair fines for alleged shoplifting. An expert testified that Walmart made roughly $300 million through their civil demand letters.
A unanimous jury sided with Nurse, which means Walmart will now have to pay her $2.1 million in damages. During the trial, the company never produced any surveillance footage of Nurse committing any crime in their store.
“It would have shown the truth, and that they didn’t want the truth to be shown,” Nurse stated.
