Sheriff Helps Restaurant Track Down Woman Who Used Bathroom Without Purchasing Food

cancerman1120

cancerman1120

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I will try to explain this one as best as I can. Woman (Patricia Barnes) has to use the bathroom so she stops at a restaurant. According to Barnes she asked permission (The proprietor Lisa "X" says she did not) to use the bathroom and then left. A few days later Barnes receives a handwritten letter billing her $5 for using the bathroom. Turns out the local sheriff ran the plates for the restaurant owner and provided the home address. You can read the rest of the details of mostly he said she said stuff but it seems like an abuse of power for the sheriff to run someones plates to give to a business owner. It is kind of scary that law enforcement can just give out your personal info to anyone they deem fit outside of an actual criminal investigation.

The kicker to all of this is that Barnes has tried to pay the bill two times and Lisa now says she won't ever take her money. fuck


http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-livi...rant-s-customers-only-bathroom-204931199.html
 
Did the broad ever hear of a lock? If the proper channels were not used the sheriff can get in trouble. I'm almost positive the are not allowed to do that and might be even illegal. Only in Appalachia I guess. =/
 
Local PD used to give us information tied to license plates all the time when I worked at Job Corps... could be that we were a federal program but none of us had backgrounds in law enforcement.
 
While it may seem ridiculous, it would seem the restaurant owner would have a claim against the bathroom bandit similar to a dine-and-dash.

*If* she had wanted to, she could have signed an official complaint with the Local PD/Sheriff and pressed charges. Instead, she tried the nice thing and sent a letter - and that's when the fit hit the shan.

Next person to do this is likely to just have charges filed.
 
Why a claim? Public places must have public restrooms (although I have seen places in some jurisdictions with signs posted saying they don't). That's why bathroom stalls no longer have the coin boxes on them (although it sounds like people want to go back to that). Really, though, this is no different than going into McDonald's to use the restroom only... how is it Dine-and-Dash?
 
I'm trying to figure out if this scenario is the perfect microcosm example of everything that's wrong with the world today, and then further debating if I actually want to waste the time typing out an analysis that proves that everyone is wrong and a fucking idiot.
 
[quote name='soonersfan60']Why a claim? Public places must have public restrooms (although I have seen places in some jurisdictions with signs posted saying they don't). That's why bathroom stalls no longer have the coin boxes on them (although it sounds like people want to go back to that). Really, though, this is no different than going into McDonald's to use the restroom only... how is it Dine-and-Dash?[/QUOTE]

I frequently see signs that say "....for paying customers"
 
[quote name='soonersfan60']Why a claim? Public places must have public restrooms.[/QUOTE]
You are right if I go to the park and want to use the public restroom. I have that right but a restaurant is a privately owned operations and therefore they have no public restrooms for anybody off the street to use. It is there for the use of employees and paying customers. With that said I don't agree with the owner trying to charge $5 and for a corrupt cop abusing power. This is not the same as someone doing a dine and dash since the person didn't waste the staff's time or the cost of food. Only thing I could see the owner do is charge for traspassing at the time the person was still in the building after being asked to leave.
 
I think the only issue I have really is the Sheriff giving out the address. If there was a real criminal issue the Sheriff should have driven out to the house and investigated the problem. He could have even passed on the "bill". The article is kind of wishy washy about the legality but in the end I think they say it would be against the law. I am not trying to dial the situation up to 11 but what about a scenario where the owner drives over to the person's house and they have a confrontation? What if in that confrontation someone is injured? The Sheriff has to be accountable for that right? It is just a scary proposition that anyone with friends in law enforcement could have this type of ability to locate my home.

The bathroom issue itself is not really a problem to me. I have seen plenty of places that want to restrict bathroom access. In fact I was in a gamestop once that denied someone access to the bathroom (for a child) because the manager said it was store policy. The bathroom was in the back room so this made sense to me. It is slightly different from a place serving food but again I can see an establishment restricting access to customers only.
 
Even a trespassing charge would be excessive if there was no provable damage done. It'd get pled out before it even reached a judge and if it made it that far, it'd probably piss the judge off and they'd toss it anyways. If the woman broke the toilet and/or smeared her business all over the place, then throw the book at her, but seriously, this was someone that used the toilet and there are other ways of controlling access other than charging an Abe Lincoln.

As for the cop, there is absolutely no way that this can be legal without a formal complaint and even then, personal information like that should never be turned over.
 
I can't see a flush costing more than 5 cents for a typical toilet. I'd piss my pants before paying $5 for a flush. As a practical matter, I think dohdough is right that a judge would get annoyed and throw it out. A flush is not something to waste the court's time with.

If the door were locked and someone broke in to use the toilet, then maybe you'd have something. Then again, I will not patronize any business that bars non-customers from using the restroom. I may not be a customer at the moment I need to piss, but chances are I've been a customer before in one of the other locations. This is why you'll want to go to a chain to make a pit stop because the employees have no stake in the business and will ignore you or just give you the key/token.
 
The only solution I see to this is for the internet to organize a poop-in. Two-dozen or so people, shitting up the restaurant all at once, is what the dumb bitch owner deserves. Oh, and then fire the sheriff.
 
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