In article ,
"Charles Self" wrote:

The order was placed earlier...it didn't say how much earlier. Regardless of
what the Feds want, Wal-Mart is not an enforcement arm, and GAF is a major
company, so you'd think that their check, assurances of the guy's business
card and ID and a call to the company accountant would suffice. This was NOT
a personal check.

And the Miami Herald says, in part
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13316814.htm:

Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called deputies last week to apprehend
Reginald Pitts after he handed over a $13,600 check to pay for 520 gift cards
that were to be given to employees at GAF Materials Corp., a roofing
materials manufacturer where Pitts is a human resources manager.

Note the guy's not some drone off the manufacturing floor, he's an HR
manager. Those people usually dress pretty business-like; at least they
do in my wife's HR office. They're also pretty well versed in
business-like behavior and have decent educations.

The company, which had $1.6 billion in revenue last year, had been spending
about $50,000 a year on Wal-Mart gift cards and never had a problem when it
sent another employee -- a white, female administrator who according to The
St. Petersburg Times was on vacation that day -- to pick them up.

''I keep going over and over the incident in my mind,'' Pitts told The St.
Petersburg Times. ``I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was
treated like this except that I am black.''

SNIP

Pitts said that when he went to the store last week to pick up the cards,
store managers stalled for about two hours while he stood waiting by the
customer service desk. He had handed over his GAF business card, his driver's
license and the toll-free numbers to GAF's bank. His accounting supervisor
assured them over the phone that the check was good.

It's certainly difficult to tell what really took place from reading an
article but it certainly sounds as though the guy had the ID, supporting
information and a company history with the practice.

What's criminal in all of this is making him stand around in a Walmart
for 2 hours! See? The slippery-slope of making torture acceptable has
trickled down to Wallyworld.
--
Owen Lowe
The Fly-by-Night Copper Company
__________

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
Corporate States of America and to the
Republicans for which it stands, one nation,
under debt, easily divisible, with liberty
and justice for oil."
- Wiley Miller, Non Sequitur, 1/24/05