Unbelievable! Woman is handcuffed and arrested for a late video rental

Libertarian Party ^ | Feb 12, 2002

[UberVernunft]

So much for the right of people to enjoy and protect the use of their own private property as they see fit, as well as personal responsibility. Undoubtedly the renter signed a consent form, too, but that little matters to ideologues. They just plain hate the police, period.

I wouldn't mind it so much if I could start calling the police to start arresting the presidents of companies that are ripping me off.

[UberVernunft]

You folks are willing to distinguish not between right and wrong....but between wrong...and less wrong

Yea, I think the term for that is called justice.

[discostu]

Your assumptions depend on a lot of things. One of the first things is the assumption that there was no fraud. If the credit card company feels it has evidence that you never intended to pay back the debt they will press charges and if you lose you will spend time in jail. Another big one your assuming is what happens if you don't show up tothe court appointment. The answer to that one depends heavily on the state and on the value of the court case. They might just judge against you, they also might issue a bench warrant for your arrest for failure to appear (in some states the bench warrant is automatic, in others it depends on the value of the case, if the case is past 6 digits it's usually assumed that you're skipping out on the whole thing and the bench warrant will almost always be issue).

Also keep in mind that ALL that happened was she was arrested. That's IT. No criminal charges have been filed. She got arrested and the vehicle she was in got impounded which almost always happens if you're arrested (they either impound it or just leave it, if you're on private property other than your own they'll definitely impound it). Maybe I'm the only one on this thread that's been on the wrong side of the law. Being arrested isn't that big a deal, usually for a bench warrant arrest they don't even "book" you (finger prints and mug shot), they throw you in a holding tank for a while find out why the bench warrant was issued and either handle it right there or give you a court date to get it handled, then you walk (almost always). If you had a vehicle impounded then you need to get the unimpound paperwork done and go to the impound yard to get your car. With some luck on the timing you can be back out in a couple of hours with nothing showing up on your record. Easy stuff.

[discostu]

Usually the prospective fine is steep. Remember our court system (both civil and criminal) works on a concept of over shooting. What you hear as the "possible" sentence is generally a few times (sometimes MANY times) more than what most "offenders" will get nailed with. In my stupid youth I got busted for shoplifting, now in AZ shoplifting carries a sentence of 6 months to a year, but if you're a first timer they'll give you a free plea bargain down to criminal tresspassing, that has a "book" value sentence of 60 to 90 days, I paid a fine of $110 (would have been $90 if I could have afforded it at the time, they add $10 and 10% if you can't pay on the same day as the judgement), never even got hauled in on the offense, they ran my paperwork where it happened and set up the court appointment and everything (and this was over a decade ago before all this stuff got really computerized).

So with a possible fine of $1200 I expect a real fine of less than $300. Unless she's been hit up on some kind of rental fraud before (and it's on her record which it probably wouldn't be anyway). By and large these things are an excercise in scaring the crap out of the person, trying to teach them a lesson and getting them to straighten out.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Old Hickory was joking.

[Prodigal Daughter]

I hate Blockbuster. I'd boycott them altogether but my husband rents a movie, and I get to return it. If you put the video in the slot on time, they still claim you were late. Then they don't notify you until you get a postcard that says that your credit card will be charged $120.00 for a movie that's five days overdue, or if not, they say you owe $10.00 for one day overdue, go figure. They've deducted the charge everytime because we have years and years of perfect membership, but it's time consuming to get those charged deducted everytime. Now I've started going inside and getting a receipt for the return and SAVING the receipt. Who needs that?

[Prodigal Daughter]

Okay, but can we have a year amnesty please for all those mattress tags I tore off?

[Iowegian]

Is English your native language?

LOL I don't think so, I've ran across many of his/her posts and none have been coherent.

[ThreePantherEightyDuce]

If all the people who download movies who have the machine and high speed connection were jailed for this sort of crime, we would need a prison construction boom to handle the load.

[Cultural Jihad]

I wouldn't mind it so much if I could start calling the police to start arresting the presidents of companies that are ripping me off.

LOL! The CEO of Sony still owes me for a $30 mail-in rebate on a CD burner they claimed I didn't mail in correctly!

[OldEagle]

There is another even more sinister possibility: that she actually returned it through a drop-slot and was never credited. It happens a lot.

[motzman]

Ow, Ow, you're killin' me.

The warrant was issued in 1997 for a movie that came out in 1996. It had to be (significantly) less than a year overdue prior to the warant being issued, so following your logic, if you're overdue on your mortgage or credit card bills, the cops can come and jail 'ya. Your non-payments are depriving the credit card companies and mortgage banks of the revenues necessary to create profits.

Gee, on the other hand, I like that idea, since I'm a mortgage banker, and evil. More "incentive" for consolidating that debt!! We'll throw you in jail!!!

[Prodigal Daughter]

Debtor's prison on the horizon? Oh for the good old days when creditors would file a lien on your car or house and serve you with papers via a process server. That way you could advise the creditor if it is their mistake. But now everything is done by computer and there's no possibility for commercial mistakes (even by high school kids on their first jobs making minimum wage who might not enter the correct information into the computer, right?).

[motzman]

Many people could use the "incentive" of jail time to keep their credit clean...

[JakeWyld]

LOL! You are correct....they have a habit of hiring some real doozies...

[AlligatorEyes]

>They obviously lost or misplaced it while moving.<

Perhaps...but did they find it on their own shelf?

My friends was...

[Bobby777]

this just shows how stupid our society has become by criminalizing everything ... every minor thing becomes a major offense under "zero tolerance" ... we'll have a *terrific* society in 50 years of this garbage going on ...

[VermiciousKnid]

Our local video rental stores have had the following problem:

Customer rents movie.
Customer views movie and returns video via the "QUIK DROP" slot outside the video store.
Video store's teenage employees "borrow" returned video and view it themselves.
Employees "forget" to return movie on time.
Customer receives past due notices but cannot prove that video was returned.
Much yelling, screaming and rending of garments ensue, usually resulting with customer's rental privileges being revoked.
Wayward employee finally returns video (sometimes; sometime he just keeps it).
Customer never receives apology of any sort and may have to pay for entire cost of video and/or be subject to arrest.

Happened to me, except for the last part. I got lucky, as the manager had dealt with this problem in the past and gave her employees a "pep talk" that included the threat of arrest. The video miraculously appeared on the shelf the next day.

Regards,

PS: My advice is to always return the movie INSIDE the store, and get a clerk to sign the receipt or stamp it "RETURNED" with the date on it.