Lesleigh Nurse was grocery shopping with her husband and their three children back in 2016 when she had a pretty unfortunate experience. Lesleigh was using a self-checkout terminal that kept going out. After she called an associate for help, Lesleigh believed that the problem was figured out and she and her family could leave with their bought-and-paid-for groceries.
They were greeted by an asset protection manager at the store's exit, and Lesleigh was arrested for alleging stealing $48 in groceries.
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At first, Lesleigh thought everything would be OK. She told a local news station, "I remember going in that little room and thinking this will be resolved, this is an accident, this isn’t on purpose."
All in all, she was accused of shoplifting 11 items, including Christmas lights, a loaf of bread, and Cap’n Crunch cereal. Then Walmart sent her letters stating that it would drop the entire thing if she paid the store $200.
At first, Lesleigh considered the offer. "At first you think ‘well, I’ll pay it and it will all go away," she said. "But then I’m like I didn’t do anything wrong. Why would I pay for something I didn’t do?"
Instead, she ended up filing an "abuse of process" lawsuit against the store. It turns out the store had never released any video evidence backing up its claim that she stole anything in the first place, which helped her cause.
The lawsuit was filed back in 2018 and only resolved recently. Lesleigh was awarded $2.1 million. Despite the fact that the store plans to appeal the ruling, Lesleigh is hopeful it will stick.
"I hope it makes a difference," she said. "I don’t want anybody else to have to go through this again."
