I'll have to stop by and buy a game or two with a bunch of $2 bills, see if they've picked up on this important lesson on "How Not to Be a Dumbass".

Sounds like Mr. Bolesta should speak with his lawyer. And I predict he'll permit Best Buy to pay the settlement in $2 bills.

Man, guilty until proven innocent, I guess. And my sister works at Best Buy, too. *sigh*

That story is disgustingly one-sided. I don't believe for a split second that a guy was placed in handcuffs solely on suspicion of passing counterfeit money. There's obviously an important side of this story that didn't get recorded by the reporter who wrote that article.

My bet? The reporter omitted the part where Bolesta became belligerent or threatening — he's a big guy, remember — or where he in some other way pushed the person in charge at the store up against the wall.

Situations just don't escalate from zero to handcuffs. I don't believe that's what happened for a second.

Situations just don't escalate from zero to handcuffs.

You've obviously never been to a public school lately, Jeff.

Counterfeiters around the world probably have that article pinned to the wall of their room now just for a good laugh (after a hard day of cranking out $20, $50 and $100 dollar bills). What counterfeiter in his right mind would try to duplicate a $2 bill? And then risk 100 years in prison by taking them to a store to purchase an installation service HE ALREADY HAS HAD DONE. Yeah I know criminals are stupid but counterfeiters, probably not a dumb bunch.

Also, it doesn't suprise he was told there was no charge just to be called back later that night and told he had to pay up. Ask three Best Buy employees the same policy question and you'll get four different answers.

Please tell me he is suing them. I'm not sue-happy myself but good grief, Best Buy is gagging for a lawsuit here.

... where he in some other way pushed the person in charge at the store up against the wall.

That would probably be some sort of felony assault. Was he charged with that, my bet is no. We're talking about a guy who goes through the trouble of going to the bank to pickup $2 bills because he gets a kick out of seeing the kids react to them when he hands them out. Doesn't sound like someone who gets belligerant and assaults store managers.

Dan, the phrase you're groping for here is "figure of speech." As in, "'Pushed up against the wall' is a very common figure of speech."

This story is a wee bit fishy.

Why did the police arrest him? They know $2 bills are legit. They would see the smeared ink was from the clerk's marking unless there were other ink smears. Still, they shd be able to tell it's only an ink smear. Because they were in sequential order? Well, you would have to believe that counterfeiters are passing $2 bills. Ha Ha Ha. The police would know this guy doesn't have a rap and has lived in the community for years and is not going on the lam. So assuming the arresting officer made a mistake, once down at the station there would be a more senior and experienced officer.

I'm not buying the story OR a bridesmaid dress.

I'm THINKING about buying a PSP from Best Buy (only because they still have the "promo pack" with the Spiderman 2 movie included), but I think I'll be going to my bank to get $2 bills to pay with, now that I've seen this. Who knows, I could get my school (including law school) paid for, right?

how about you buy the prom dress instead julie ;)

Prom dress? I didn't see any prom dresses, Henry. Oh, you mean *that* prom dress. ;-)

Having been abused by the morons at Best Buy south of Boston, I have no trouble whatsoever believing any aspect of the story relating to their store personnel. I'm little surprised that the cop on site would handcuff the guy "until this thing gets straightened out."

What does this guy sue Best Buy for? Let's see...Nothing in the story suggests that Best Buy initiated his arrrest or accused him of a crime, so there's no malicious prosecution, abuse of process or slander...Doesn't seem to be any false imprisonment (unless he insisted on leaving and was prevented from doing so)...How about intentional infliction of severe emotional distress? Do we characterize Best Buy's conduct as extreme and outrageous?

I don't see a tort here against Best Buy that's a clear winner. There's sure room for a significant nuisance value settlement though.

We need to see some more of the facts fleshed out --- Best Buy really is horrific.

Jeff, if being "pushed against the wall" is a figure of speech, then exactly what kind of non-physical behavior justifies both handcuffs and leg irons?

The Baltimore PD is the model used for the Keystone Cops. The actors had to tone it down to make their role believable. I was pulled over, arrested, and taken to jail for driving a car with US Government plates. He thought they were fakes because I wasn't in uniform at the time.

Jeff's "figure of speech" was usd in the context of the man being "belligerent or threatening -- he's a big guy, remember?"

Gee, that would be in the police report, wouldn't it?

Regardless of whether this story is real or not, I have boycotted Best Buy since they made the stupid decision to not allow Salvation Army bell-ringers by the front door.

It wasn;t the $2 bills that offended them, it was the phrase "In God We Trust."

I have to agree that we are hearing only one small part of the story here. Jeff was right to question why the man was handcuffed and shackled if the only thing he did was "pass" a $2 bill. As always happens in these stories, there's something we don't know.

For example, a few years ago, a nurse in Memphis was fired because she brought a monkey into the ER and treated it despite the hospital's policy that no animals could be brought in. She then proceeded to whip the story up into a national story, appearing on all the morning talk shows. It appeared that she was just an animal lover who wanted to save these people's "baby" and the ER was the only place to do it. There began to be public outrage directed at the hospital. She was entitled to an appeal of her firing and demanded that it be an open hearing despite rules to the contrary. The hospital immediately agreed but pointed out that certain details about her work history would then become public (there had been hints that the monkey incident was not the only reason she had been fired.) The woman immediately dropped her appeal and disappeared into the sunset.

Apparently her hope had been that the hospital would not agree to an open hearing, and she would forever be a martyr. Needless, to say, it didn't work out for her.

I do ahve to take exception to Kevin's comment about Best Buy and the Salvation Army. While I agree that it is sad that companies have chosen the route they have in this area, I can't blame them. More and more organizations hav resorted to "begging" as a way to raise money. At some point, you have to draw the line. Unfortunately, to save themselves grief, companies are forced to adopt a "no" policy. Once you let one organization solicit in front of your store, you are almost forced to allow all organizations to solicit in front. If you don't, you risk lawsuits and even more negative publicity.

He'll take them to court, win an emotional distress civil case, and Best Buy will pay him his millions in $2 bills :)

Mohammed Atta had a huge wad of $2 bills. He had them in case the boxcutter wasn't sharp enough to cut the crew's throats.

I think that Best Buy could have refused to accept the payment because he was making a point by doing so.

Where is the point where a business can refuse an obvious protest? If he'd tried to make a payment with penny, nickles, dimes or quarters, Best Buy would have been justified to refuse the payment.

What about dollar coins or dollar bills?

Of course BB's react was over the top and I would think that there ae several legal avenues of redress open to him.

Best Buy's attitude isn't rude. It's "Minnesota Nice". ;-)

I think CollegePundit is on to something here.

We should all go to our local Best Buy and buy something really cheap (so they don't make too much profit) and pay with $2.00 bills.

This would send a pretty serious message to Best Buy, and would be a nice show of support for Mr. Bolesta, and anyone else who's been terrorized by these people.

RWR

Jim in Texas:

Businesses can refuse to accept payment in coins or small bills as a matter of policy, oddly enough. Heck, they don't have to take cash at all.

...but, in this case, it wasn't the fact that he had a bunch of $2 bills, it was the fact that they had a bunch of dumb folks at the counter who didn't know what a $2 bill was. I've had this problem before in some restaurants. It's a recurring problem nationally at a lot of fast food joints.

Jim, I can't point you to anything to support this (translation: I'm talking out my ass), but I've always heard that the only limitation that businesses can place on the form of cash received for payment is coinage. But you can pay for a new car with a stack of $1 if you so desire. They're legal tender.

But, as I said, I have no proof that this is true. I'm just contributing to the pool of urban myths, for all I know.

I am an attorney, but I don't play one on tv. Here is what Best Buy corporate counsel should be doing, if they're not: crapping themselves in their rush to throw a high 4 figure amount of any denomination at the customer, before his butt got warm in the seat after getting home from jail, plus giving him a truckload of dvd's, cds, etc., and then taking out a full page ad in the local paper, aplogizng profusely and accepting all blame.

But if I know corporate/liability counsel (and I do) they're, at best, circling the wagons and hoping the bad man goes away. At worst they've sent a score of their sleaze PI's to do a tsunami on the guy's reputation in the community. Like asking his minster: "Do you know whether or not he has stopped the child-sacriifce part of his Baal-worship?" Asking his childhood YMCA coach: "Did his pedophile tendecnies ever show when you coached him in the 3rd grade?" Or asking his neighbors: "Do you ever have to clean up any used condoms off your lawn after he and his wife's swing parties?"

I hope their management is as ignorant as their employees, and that this winds up costing the #@%&*! at Best Buy about a zillion dollars.

I have no problem if after he was arrested he was handcuffed for transportation to the co. jail. It's for officer safety.

He says at the station he was handcuffed and leg ironed. Which again, may not be against acceptable procedures if they did not have a holding cell for him. Personally, I would rather be chained in the hallway where all the cops are in and out and doing the paper work then in a holding cell with Bubba.

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy had a traffic warrant or two and that is why he was arrested and transported to the station. It wd allow them to detain him long enough for the feds to check the bills. Whether it would let Best Buy off the hook civilly for calling the police initially, I don't know. Best Buy may also say they called the police b/c the guy was creating a disturbance. So, don't all go rushing down to BB with your $2 bills just yet. :-)

I actually did something like this at a bank once, I now remember.

They weren't interested in depositing my paycheck as cash, so I took the thing to the bank where it was drawn and came back with a bunch of $1.00 bills. I took one out so that it would be wrong when they machine counted it twice (and hand-counted it once).

I laughed all the way home, and I was NOT arrested.

RWR

When one side of a story refuses to comment, it's to be expected the other side is going to get more play.

Best Buy's best response to this incident (from their point of view) is, in fact, to refuse comment. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak (without a lawyer's hand up your @$$) and remove all doubt.

Cirby and Boyd, D'UH, I should have realized that the idiot at BB didn't realized the $2 bill was legal tender.

I ran into a lesser, more comical incident when I paid for lunch with a bunch of Sacajawea dollars and the lady looked at the coins for several seconds and then called over another lady who recognized them.

Jumbo,
I am a corporate security manager, but I don't play one on tv and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Corporate security departments have one overriding rule; protect the (security department’s employer) from liability.

Hiring sleazy P.I.s fall into that category of risky behavior that most companies will avoid at any cost. Besides as you are probably aware, if the lawsuit gets anywhere then the discovery process is much more suited to dragging out the dirt in a legal fashion.

I think BBs corporate attorneys are probably already trying out some various remedies in the low - mid 5 digit numbers on his lawyer now.

Trust me on this, this will eventually fall off the screen when the settlement with BB includes a gag order.

So, if the gentleman begins driving a new Lexus and declines to be interview, you can be pretty sure that a deal has been struck.

It's actually cheaper to throw some money at most problems to get them to go away rather than risk a court settlement.

A few points:

1. My grand-parents (God rest their souls) used to give me a $2 bill every week for "fun money", and I never thought twice about it. When I got a little older, they bumped it to $10 (a "pad" of 5 $2 bills) every now and then, still never had a problem.

2. Yes, business can refuse to accept payment in coins because of the problem that occurs with storage and transport to the bank. Can you imagine trying to carry hundreds of dollars in coins to the bank (even if they were all quarters or larger)? But, they are not saying the coins aren't valid money, just a nuisance to store and take to the bank, but paper money is a different story.

3. While this man may not have too many options other than a "nuisance" charge, he could try slander (or libel if they wrote about it) because to call the FBI to "check the bills" implies he is a counterfeit money printer, which could damage his reputation. People could stop using his tour company because they think he'll give the kids fake $2.00 bills. Although the question still comes up, if you're going to print your own money, why do it with a TWO DOLLAR bill and not a twenty or higher?

4. I am a little perterbed that Best Buy would say no to the Salvation Army, as they have been doing what they do for A VERY LONG TIME and haven't had any complaints thus far. I've never even been asked to donate when I walk by them, they just say "Merry Christmas" and ring their little bell. I don't know the specifics of this decision, but if I am remembering this right, they actually did this because some customer(s) were "offended" because the Salvation Army is a Christian group, and that means they aren't saying "no soliciting" but rather saying they would rather say "no Christians" because a few people said they were offended.

Finally, I am still planning on buying my PSP at BB (if they still have the promo pack with Spiderman 2) and I'm pretty sure I'll pay with 2 $100 bills and the rest in $2 bills, just to see what happens. You can bet that within hours (or less) of this happening, they have notified ALL of their stores to "educate" their cashiers about the $2 bill, but I guess we'll see won't we?

skybird:

Because Best Buy may have thought they were counterfeit for other reasons than the fact that they were $2 bills.

IANAL but I did study U.S. currency laws quite extensively in the mid '80s. IIRC, pennys are legal tender for debts up to 25 cents; nickles, dimes, quarters, and halfs are legal tender for debts up to five dollars; coins valued at one dollar and greater and all federal reserve notes, silver certicates and gold certificates are legal tender for all debts of any amount.

Whether the form of currency you are using is to make a protest or not does not enter into it -- refusal to accept payment results in loss of any claim on the debt.