Woman Tracked Down and Busted for Using Restaurant's Customers-Only Bathroom

This is a town with less than 1500 people. The question is if you put up a sign that says you charge X amount of dollars for a service and someone uses this service and does not pay what are your options? Call the police and have them arrested? Have them tresspassed? Or in the case of a small town a more off the record approach of writing them a letter. Places have the right to charge for whatever service they want and if you use that service and do not pay then you do not get to walk away.

so they lose 1 customer for life, and now a bunch of others from the publicity

wouldn't surprise me if they go under because of this

Originally posted by MrSpad
This is a town with less than 1500 people. The question is if you put up a sign that says you charge X amount of dollars for a service and someone uses this service and does not pay what are your options? Call the police and have them arrested? Have them tresspassed? Or in the case of a small town a more off the record approach of writing them a letter. Places have the right to charge for whatever service they want and if you use that service and do not pay then you do not get to walk away.

You are correct. If they wanted it persued, they should have filed a complaint with the sheriff to have her arrested.
Bad for business, most likely. Can they charge what they want. Yes. But, on the other hand, if you say you have a public restroom and then proceed to charge for it, it could be trouble sooner or later. There are certain expectations that go along with it.

Writing them a letter. No problem. If you already know where to send it. To have the abuse of power and get the sheriff to get it for you. NO!

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
so they lose 1 customer for life, and now a bunch of others from the publicity

wouldn't surprise me if they go under because of this

Yes, What one would call a very stupid move. Just because of maybe a dozen people a day using it and they might even buy something. If they did not buy something that time, if your food looked and smelled good, they most likely would come back for a different meal.

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
Uhhh. I say sue the restaurant. The Owners of the restaurant. Especially the sheriff. The Sheriff department. Take that two bit town for everything it's worth.

I say she's got a good chance of winning the lawsuit and I say the town deserves to be sued into oblivion for being such asses.

You could, but that would not be the right answer in MHO. I would have to stick to filling a complaint against the sheriff at the county level, if not the state level. Every state has a department like the FBI for in-state affairs, usually called Special Agents that investigate just these types of things. Most states, all you have to do is make a call, write a letter or an email to get things moving. If they find anything illegal was done, which in this case is pretty easy to figure out, then it would go to the state prosecutor.

I am wondering if there is some connection between the business owner and the sheriff or if this sheriff is just a 'nice guy' and would do the same for anyone in town. If it is a small town I would think someone at the business might know the person.

Aside from an inappropriate use of policing to do this, the other thing is, any business that would do this is really doing bad business and that is bad PR, when you should be seen as a really good ethical and friendly place to visit.

Originally posted by j2000

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
so they lose 1 customer for life, and now a bunch of others from the publicity

wouldn't surprise me if they go under because of this

Yes, What one would call a very stupid move. Just because of maybe a dozen people a day using it and they might even buy something. If they did not buy something that time, if your food looked and smelled good, they most likely would come back for a different meal.

exactly right. smart business people use any means possible to get traffic, they will eventually buy

they should just put a menu in there ! lol

reply to post by j2000


Here is the kicker, so once the resturant owner has reported this "crime"
and gets the Sherriff involved, to tack a bill on the ladys door, the lady patron
tried to pay the bill, but the owner would not take the 5 bucks!

Barnes said she wasn’t angry about the bill, which she attempted to pay, twice, and which the Flood Zone owners refused ("I would not take her $5," Lisa told Shine). What did upset her, though, was that the police shared her and husband Randy Edwards’ address with Lisa so she could mail the bill.

Why call the cops and make a federal issue out of nothing and then refuse to settle the matter?

Depending on what system the sheriff used to do the license plate lookup, he could incur federal charges. Misuse of NCIC is an offense - at a minimum it's misues of government property for private gain. But then again, unless the victim wants to pursue a complaint (the FBI seems the best most likely venue) that their personal information had been improperly accessed and disclosed - nothing will probably happen to the "gool ole boy" sheriff.

I imagine the current "bad press" has already had an effect upon the restaurant's business.

ganjoa

The only reason I can see why they wouldn't take the $5 is because it would open up a new counter case on them. If they go as far as to hunt down and charge some one $5 to use their bathroom. That must mean they do it to everyone that uses it.

So if they have some one buy a $1 item and let them use the bathroom that's a difference of $4 for no clear reason. So she would have a discrimination case on them.

I am really surprised they did not hunt her down and shoot her or at the very least throw her into jail for 6 months!!!!

I mean come on! CUSTOMERS ONLY if you are not a customer you must use the riff raff public toilets...OH WAIT there are none!

LOL

Next time maybe she should buy something then drop pants and leave a dooky on the floor...

Or not...

It's a Mickey Mouse legal case for the women. She won't get much from the store but the county she can get a nice chunk of money.

I feel a lot safer now knowing that at least one dangerous illegal bathroom user was tracked down by the sheriff and brought to justice, watch out all you terrorist and illegal aliens, barney fife is on the case,go get em sheriff billy bob.

reply to post by j2000


My husbands family owns a restaurant, we defiantly have had people run in and ask to use the restroom without buying anything, it it is not a huge problem, maybe with the restroom across at the gas station broke.

But the main point is we are all HUMANS, we have to GO...how can anyone say NO hold it please! I just can't see being so inhuman as to deny a flush to someone in need!

Originally posted by Char-Lee
reply to post by j2000

 

My husbands family owns a restaurant, we defiantly have had people run in and ask to use the restroom without buying anything, it it is not a huge problem, maybe with the restroom across at the gas station broke.

But the main point is we are all HUMANS, we have to GO...how can anyone say NO hold it please! I just can't see being so inhuman as to deny a flush to someone in need!

Exactly. Just make sure if they stiff you a tip that you don't have their plates run to send them a bill or you might end up here in a different light

After seeing all the comments, I wonder what else is "no big deal" to this Sheriff?
Any thoughts ATS?
How about where you are from, have you heard of such things? I have.

reply to post by j2000


Well sure. As someone else said the is only aprox 1500 people in the town and there are only about 8k people total in entire county. Its a tiny, rural, backwoods Tennessee place. Here is their county paper.. Stewart Houston Times

What I'm trying to say is that due to its size and location law enforcement officers there may not be the brightest bulbs in the lamp and likely personally know a large % of the local population.

I'm not really defending the sheriff's actions - he not only gave the restaurant owner the lady's info, he also gave the lady the restaurant owners' info. He shouldn't have given either but he played "fair" in what info he gave. I'm thinking this is more ignorance or a "small town mentality" than malice on the sheriffs part.

I think all small towns are corrupt like that.

Back about 30 years or so ago I was visiting my brother who lived in a small town near a beach resort area.
One of my brothers buddies owned a gas station/bar/convience store that was located on the main route leading into the tourist beach resort area.
They had been selling raffle tickets for about a month or so,the prize was a large basket filled with bottles of assorted liquors.
My brother and I went up to the bar there to drink some beers and while we were there they decided to draw a winner for the raffle.There were only about 3 or 4 locals and my brother and I in the bar at the time.
They draw a raffle ticket out of a large glass fishbowl looking thing that was full of raffle ticket stubs.The guy that drew the ticket anounnces the name on the ticket and then asks if anybody knows that name, everyone said they never heard that name before so the guy throws the ticket in the trash.
He draws another ticket and asks if anyone recognizes the name, before anyone could answer he says, nevermind the phone number on the ticket isn`t a local number so he throws that ticket away too.

The third ticket he draws has the name of a local person who lives a few miles from the bar so he asks one of the people standing in the bar to take the basket of liquor over to the winners house.

I can`t say for sure but I think he was going to keep drawing tickets until a local good ole boy won.
If you were a tourist who bought a ticket on your way to or from the beach resort I don`t think you ever had a chance of winning that raffle

Restaurant uses sheriff to track down woman for using bathroom : www.foxnews.com...

Funny. This article states that there is a sign on the door and another sign on the mirror in the restroom. It also says that an employee tried to collect the $5 charge, but, the woman left without paying. I think that $5 is a bit much to use the restroom, but, that isn't the issue. The legal term is "theft of services" and is no different than if you walk out of a store with $5 of merchandise that you didn't pay for. She's lucky that she was only sent a bill.