IT OUGHT TO BE A CRIME

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True Stella Awards #49: 5 May 2004

www.StellaAwards.com

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IT OUGHT TO BE A CRIME

by Randy Cassingham

Tanisha Torres, 26, stopped frequently at the Radio Shack store at

the

Airport Plaza mall in Farmingdale, N.Y., to pay her cell phone bill.

Torres, from Wyandanch, on Long Island, noticed that her town was

listed

on her computer-generated receipt from the store as "Crimedanch", not

"Wyndanch".

The first time, she thought it was a mistake. But it happened again

and again.

Why "Crimedanch"? The moniker is a common nickname for the community

among people who know the area, like, say, the cops in town. Wyndanch

"is

one of our busier areas" for crimes such as drug-dealing and

prostitution, confirms Inspector James Rhoads, the commanding officer

of

the Suffolk police's precinct that covers the township. "It takes a lot

of our attention."

"I'm not a criminal," Torres complains. "My son plays on the high

school football team." (Um, yeah, that proves there's no crime there!)

"I

was raised there and I am proud of my community." She says she is

"outraged" by having her town mistyped on her receipt. "That's

embarrassing."

What, she hasn't heard the joke name before? Sure, she says. But, she

complains, "I have to go through this every day. But then I go to make

a

payment on a bill and it was just the end."

It's a good thing to be proud of your home town, to be sure. So did

she complain to the store and ask them to correct the entry in their

computer? Did she tell Radio Shack she is proud of her town and didn't

appreciate the joke? Certainly not! This is America! One doesn't

complain, one doesn't ask for corrections, one doesn't suffer from

"outrage" or "embarrassment", one sues.

The store's manager had no idea the receipt was wrong. When a New

York

Newsday reporter called manager Bill Sullivan to check after hearing of

Torres' plight, Sullivan called up Torres' record from the computer and

found the joke spelling. He checked to see who entered it that way: it

was an employee who was no longer there. A spokeswoman for Radio

Shack's

headquarters told the newspaper, "As soon as we were alerted to the

situation, we changed it in the system, and immediately rectified the

situation."

Good enough? Nope. Torres had already taken her receipts to attorney

Andrew Siben of Bay Shore, who duly filed suit against Radio Shack in

New

York State Supreme Court. The suit claims the store was "negligent and

reckless in its operation and maintenance of the store and the receipt

system, and in the hiring, supervision and monitoring of employees." It

begs unspecified damages to help Torres to get over being "embarrassed,

flustered and shamed", as well as her suffering emotional distress and

mental anguish. All that because the joke spelling "implicitly or

explicitly labeled her a criminal," the suit says.

"Clearly, it is defamatory to Ms. Torres and the entire community,"

says attorney Siben. "It's a violation of civil rights to be

characterized in a way that infers that everyone from Wyandanch is a

criminal." Oh, yeah, "clearly"!

But wait: maybe Siben does have a point. Just consider how a few

opportunistic sue-for-anything attorneys leads the public at large to

infer all lawyers are slimy money-grubbing criminals! Where should the

suit filed in Court of Public Opinion be served on you, Mr. Siben?

SOURCES:

1) "No Writing Off This Receipt", New York Newsday, 4 February 2004

(No longer available online)