A Wal-Mart in the tiny town of Niles, Michigan has banned a gay couple from the entire chain of stores for life. The banning follows an incident on August 16 when the couple reportedly "caused a scene" and were placed in police custody after being accused of stealing some Bic lighters, which later turned out to be a false allegation. Wal-Mart is now demanding the couple pay 10 times the value of the lighters to settle the matter, but the couple has refused.
According to the South Bend Tribune, the couple, Joe Paolucci and his partner, Thomas Hitchcock, were shopping at the Niles Wal-Mart with their twin boys, who are both special needs children from Romania. The couple, both attorneys, live in Chicago but own a home, a small shop called Front, and some investment property in nearby Buchanan.
The couple and the twins paid at separate registers - Paolucci at a cashier and Hitchcock at a self-checkout - when they were approached by Wal-Mart employees who insisted that Hitchcock had not scanned the lighters, worth $15.84 Video surveillance tapes clearly showed Hitchcock scanning and paying for the lighters.
When they were approached by Wal-Mart staffers, Paolucci insisted the police be called, thinking they would be helpful in resolving the matter. Instead, Paolucci was instantly handcuffed without questioning and placed in a squad car. Hitchcock was also put in a sqaud car, but not handcuffed. According to the couple, the boys were "crying, screaming, and freaking out."
The police said when they arrived, Paolucci and Hitchcock were "causing a scene, being loud and disrupting customers." The twin boys were taken to a detention room by Wal-Mart security, where one of them claims he was pushed by a guard. The couple also claim the boys were subjected to disparaging remarks about their dads' "lifestyle" by Wal-Mart security agents.
The manager on duty at Wal-Mart finally came out with a letter which informed Paolucci and Hitchcock they were banned for life from every Wal-Mart store worldwide. The reason for the banning was not shoplifting (which could not be proven), but for "being uncooperative". Paolucci says he and Hitchcock were cooperative with Wal-Mart staff in every way.
The couple attempted to press charges against Wal-Mart employees and Sherriff's deputies but were unsuccessful. The local prosecutor told reporters he found no basis for action.
Paolucci and Hitchcock claim their special-needs twins were traumatized by the events, having nightmares about a particular Wal-Mart security guard. Their medications have been changed twice since the incident, said Paolucci.
Is this a case of discrimination against a gay couple in a small town, or simply punishment for "being disruptive"? The fact that Wal-Mart is demanding 10 times payment for the lighters, which were proven not to have been shoplifted, is telling - would a straight couple be forced to admit to something they didn't do?
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Comments
Wow! Note to self: never move to Michigan if this is how they treat people.
I was followed around by a Niles Wal-Mart employee once who thought he was being slick. I'd been shopping there for over 16 years! I knew the staff, but pretended not to notice. After paying I walked to my car and 3 male workers came out and asked me to stop. They began asking me for their merchandise back and they wouldn't press charges.
I told them I had payed for everything, showed them my receipt and offered my bags for inspection. They said that they found a box of a woman's product box opened where I had been "hovering". I explained that I was comparing prices but they insisted that if I gave them their "stolen" merchandise they wouldn't call the cops.
I said, "Call the cops, then. I just spent over $100 here and stole nothing." I told them to check the security footage if they didn't believe me.
Then 2 of the employees started apologizing and explaining that they had to check out "suspicious behavior", but, the one who had been following me kept being extremely rude. He told me that they could get my address from the transaction I had just made at their money center and would have the sheriff come to my house in the middle of the night and arrest me if their footage turned up anything.
I just ignored him and thanked the other two and left. Luckily there are several Wal-Marts in my area that are about the same distance as that one. But, I can totally see that jerk being a homophobe. I hope that couple sues and get's those jerks that terrorized their kids fired!
Note to self - never shop at Walmart, if this is how they treat gay people.
Quit listening to notes of people who weren't there.. I was there, this story is 98% bull.. Their names and the date are correct.. Other than that, fiction.
Oops,even the date on this site is incorrect. It was August 16, 2009..
I hope that couple sues Wal-Mart's a** royal and I hope they win!!
I don't believe in self-scanning at any outlet. this shows you there will be suspicion if someone scanned all items or not. now that these two people happened to be gay, walmart is now in a heap of mess. walmart is always tragic when they slip up. now this lawsuit might be so big, they might become straight arrows.
This is too funny, I mean really. How how how can they enforce a worldwide band? Never happen
This store is 98% false. I was there. Only things really factual are the names and the date. The rest should have been in the comics section with a wonderful picture about the self proclomations of being stereotyped while stereotyping every person there who was doing their job, recovering unpaid for merchandise. Circus from the word go, even 3 months later. Pay for an item, take it home. Don't pay, don't take it home. Make a scene, shop elsewhere. Make a media event based on lies, feel better about yourself. The mens sexual preference had NO bearing on the fact that there was unpaid for items. Nor was it known prior to approach that the men were together, as the story says, they were at seperate registers. Not all LP's are short fused hot heads, but it sure makes a better story.
note to self: walmart specializes in ripping exploiting people far away so Americans can save a few nickels. Its capitalism run amok and at its worst. It destroys communities, shuts down main street and should be avoided by all persons with a conscience. These men should be ashamed of themselves for spending their dollars at the exploitative Walmart and glad to have an excuse to shake its hateful dust from the soles of thier shoes forever.
OK "Self," let's hear the true story then, if you were REALLY there, which I'm sure you weren't.
They may not want to sue Walmart, but they ought to appear in a series of commercials about the way they were treated by Walmart. That should get the store's attention.
Niles is not tiny, between the city and townships, it has about 40,000 people. How is that tiny?
What self respecting gay person would shop at Walmart in the first place? I, for one, am happy to pay more at a smaller, more personalized store that's not hell bent on world domination at the price of the public well being.
For a good LOL check out: people of walmart DOT com (all one word)
This is how walmart treats everybody. Numerous people since Old Sam died have been treated this way...accused of stealing merchandise that turned out to be paid for and then ordered to pay ridiculous amounts of money in order to avoid a so-called worldwide ban. The only thing that makes this a targeted incident is the fact that the children were subjected to hateful remarks about their dads. Which probably still would have been done if they were a straight couple...I remember when someone accused a friend of my mother of stealing at walmart. She had paid for her purchase and was on her way out with us. My mum's friend was there with her husband and two young boys, and was shopping for school with my mum, who had brought me and my younger sister along. Our mothers were called "Theiving whores" and "A couple of sluts who can't tell right from wrong."
I was the oldest, at 8 years old at the time. The next oldest was the older boy, who was 7, and my sister and the younger boy were both
Banned from Wal-Mart for life? Finally, a Wal-Mart bargain I can't live without. Where can we sign up for that?
I'd like to get a lifetime ban from Wal*Mart too, but I'd have to go into one to get it I suppose. Never mind then.
I don't see being banned from Wal-Mart as a negative action. All kidding aside though, if this happened to a family that was a racial minority Wal-Mart would be on National television trying to talk their way out of a class action suit led by Jessie Jackson.
What are to gay men, both attornerys, who own property in two areas, including investment property, doing shopping at Walmart in the first place? They cannot possibly need to save money. When will we learn, as a community, that we only weaken ourselves by shopping at places that discriminate against us? Why did the expose their special needs sons in the first place? Walmart gives employees a rotten deal, will not allow unions, ruins the local economy, refuses to stock certain prescription medications and STILL people shop there. Will we never learn?
If the story is accurate, it seems likely to me they could sue WalMart for defamation of character or something similar to that. I always wonder, though, how close the depiction in the story is to reality. "Causing a scene" could mean anything -- I'd want to see the videotape and see for myself what actually happened.
I am very much on the side of this couple. That being said I would think that store videos would easily prove their case and net them and their children millions if they do. It wouldn't suprise me as Wal Mart is well liked by the "right" and caters to them. It wouldn't suprise me if such actions would play very well to much of their base client range.
Self are you a store employee? If you were an eye witness please tell what you observed. I would love for this to be an untrue story and it may be, however you claim to be an eyewitness? If you are give us more.
yes, walmart, yes. dig your own grave, little by little.
i've been banning myself from walmart for years, and i feel great about it.
It's like being banned from a trailer park.....
There is a website with helpful advice to get yourself banned from Wal-Mart in a funny way that does not harm the innocent:
bannedfromwalmart DOT com.
messed up. officially boycotting walmart
yeah that happen over here to but it was a 8yr old kid who stone a lighter to he is banned from walmart that sucks
The Examiner should "hire" freelance "journalists" who actually know how to report accurately and factcheck their work. Niles is a somewhat large town in ILLINOIS, not Michigan.
All you had to do was check the countless other real news items written by real journalists on the topic.
Dearest Amy,
1. Fact check is two words, not one, so fact check that.
2. Niles, MI (as someone else pointed out) is but 5 minutes from Buchanan. Also fact check that before opening your ignorant mouth.
Thank you.
well, there IS a niles, Michigan, too... quite close in fact to the south bend tribune and the town of buchanan....
Wal-Mart is "home" to too many judgmental, narrow-minded, less than brilliant people in management positions. (I know that's a judgmental statement, but stuff such as this story gets my dander up) IMHO, everyone that's been discriminated against by W-M should sue the pants off W-M. In "Rainman" Dustin Hoffman's character says, "K-Mart Sucks." However, the dialogue SHOULD have been "Wal-Mart sucks." BOYCOTT WAL-MART!!! ... again IMHO.
I love how Niles Walmart looks bad just because of this story. I LIVE in Niles. Infact, quite a few of the employees there are gay themselves. This story is a bunch of bull. This is just one way for the couple to make stereotyping against gays a big issue when it really isn't. Infact, quite a few of the gays in Niles love being here because so many people are more open to it. This story is sickening and it's sad to think that someone would have to write such a lie just to make walmart look bad and to make Gays to be the victims. It's ridiculous.
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