Alabama Newlyweds' Lives Ruined By A Bigoted Walmart Security Guard

Wal-Mart's false accusation against two Alabama newlyweds caused the wife to be falsely arrested and lose her job, her husband to be deported, and both to lose their car, all their possessions and their house - though Wal-Mart's security video showed they had paid for the $2.90 bag of chicken bones they were accused of stealing.

The lives of Mary Hill Bonin and her newlywed husband (who was not yet a U.S. citizen) changed forever the day they decided to go shopping at the Adamsville, Alabama Walmart. They used the self-checkout counter to save time. The scanner would not register the $2.90 bag of chicken necks, so she asked a Wal-Mart employee for help. The employee checked the machine and told her "it's okay."

The Bonins left and showed their receipt to the greeter, but according to Mary Bonin, things went downhill fast when the security guard accused them of stealing the neck bones. The Bonins told the guard to look again as the item was on the bottom of the receipt. The security guard asked to see the identifications of the plaintiff and her husband, screaming that they were going to be deported. When the guard shouted that the Bonins were illegal and asked what were they doing in this country, the couple asked for a manager-- the guard responded by saying the newlyweds were going to jail.

Bonin and her husband offered several times to scan the chicken bones again, and asked the Wal-Mart guard to look at the security video, saying that the video would show that they scanned the items purchased. The guard refused to look at the video, but an assistant manager did. The assistant manager admitted that the video showed that they scanned all the items, but remained at an impasse with the security guard. The assistant manager then asked the security guard, 'Well what do you want to do?' The security guard said he wanted to put plaintiff and her husband in jail.

The guard refused to let the couple leave the store, going so far as to call the Wal-Mart where Mary Bonin worked and told them that she was being charged with theft. Overruling the assistant manager, the Wal-Mart guard called police, who arrested the couple.

The Wal-Mart guard is also believed to have called INS and had Mary Hill Bonin's husband deported. Mary Hill Bonin was denied bail and was not given an appearance before a judge. Eventually, Mary Bonin was exonerated-- but not after being fired from her job and being ruined financially try to defend against the charges (and losing her house being unable to make mortgage payments while in jail). After all the false charges were dropped, Mary Bonin says, Wal-Mart refused to refund the $2.90 she had paid for the neck bones.