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Kohl's allows Video to falsely accuse Grandmother.

A local resident feels like Mark Twain's quote "A lie can run around the world six times while the truth is still trying to put on it's pants" is especially true in his family's case ever since a video of his wife and grandkids aired on an Atlanta news station and went viral worldwide spreading misinformation about them. The video alleges the Pike County resident found a wallet, handed the money to her sons and then went on a spending spree. In reality, all the money and other items in the change purse were returned to the rightful owner.

"I just want people to know the truth," she said. "When I found the change purse, there was a gift card and a receipt on top of it and the license was in a pull out pocket. The video says I was handing out money, but I handed the receipt and card to my grandson so I could look at the license. My young grandson was excited because I said we could go to Game Stop after Kohl's."

The family wants to clear up the story but are scared to give out too much information about themselves since the video has been posted to thousands of websites where viewers have posted nasty comments, even death threats from sites such as AK47.net.

A simple google search of 'Woman finds wallet" will result in more than 4.5 million videos, photos and web stories. Most of them are about Barbara and her 8- and 15-year-old grandsons and they tell only a part of the story, stating that the three found a wallet, passed the money out amongst them and never returned any of the contents. The original news story even encouraged people to call 911 and turn them in to be arrested. Many of the webpage comments condemn the woman and even threaten her life and that of the young boys.

"I tried diligently to locate the young lady from Mississippi and if additional video had been shown, it would show me walking around inside Kohl's with the wallet in my hand looking for the owner," said Barbara. "It would also show me waiting at the location where I found the wallet to see if the young girl exited or entered the store."

The three took the missing wallet, walked out of view of the front door surveillance tape and into the store. They took the wallet to the customer service desk, but hesitated to turn it in for fear workers would take the cash inside of it. Barbara called her husband, a retired fire chief, to ask him what he thought she should do with it.

"He told me to bring it home since she was out of state and he would use his contacts with the sheriff and police offices to get it back to the owner," she said. "We thought since the license said she was from out of state and under 21 that she might be a college student and we were scared with the amount of cash in it that the customer service workers would take it."

Once home, the family searched facebook and even called in a favor to a relative to look up the owner's phone number using information from the wallet. They called repeatedly over the next few days, expecting someone to return their call. They were excited when they heard there was a news story about a missing wallet, because they were hoping to find the owner.

"My grandmother taught me that when you find something that's not yours, you get it back to the rightful owner and that's what we were trying to do. This has really affected these two young boys," said their grandfather Wally. "Noah, who is 8, asked me if he was going to jail. He asked me why his Mimi was crying after they saw the news story."

Noah was the one who took the wallet to the Pike County Sheriff's Office after getting out of school. According to investigator Maj. David Neal, the wallet has since been returned to the owner.

In the original news coverage which aired just days after the wallet was lost, Joseph Smith says "She's setting an example for her kids. What are they going to do the next time they see a wallet or they see somebody drop something?"

Well, the 8- and 15-year-old boys were tested on that when they found $60 cash inside Wal-Mart a few weeks after the lost wallet incident. They looked for a store security officer and when they couldn't find one, they called the Griffin Police Department and immediately turned the money over to Officer Andrew Dorsey.

Location: Louisville, Kentucky

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Guest

Kohl's headquarters knew the surveillance video,when viewed in its entirety would disprove the false allegations made against his woman and her grandsons.

The Fayetteville Georgia Kohl's loss prevention personnel ,had previously viewed the surveillance video and reported this fact to Kohl's headquarters. Loss prevention was reluctant to give Joseph Smith a copy of the video and only did so after been ordered

too by the home office.

After speaking with loss prevention personnel at Wal-mart,Belks,J.C. Penny Home Depot,Sears,Targets and many other major retailers. I discovered Kohl's is the only store that has a policy that allows the public access to surveillance video.โ€It's unprecedented.โ€

Eventually Kohl's will become their own worst enemy.โ€Corporate Ethics,โ€ are very important to the โ€œAmerican Consumer.โ€

Guest

Shame on you Kohl's..Your only concern is that it was not illegal to give surveillance video to the public.. May I suggest you re-examine you code of ethics.

Guest

Some people believe that if the grandmother had turned the wallet into Kohl's everything would have turned out ok. According to a Georgia Police Officer just opposite is true.

The man who claims to be a seminary student and owner of the wallet made false reports to the police and the media,it is very doubtful that he would have recanted his story if the wallet had been turned in to kohl's.

This is why I have an issue with Kohl's loss prevention personnel. They saw the complete video,they knew that the woman did not remove money from the wallet and give it to her grandsons as reported in the media.

Kohl's has more than on video camera in their stores. Why didn't they show video of the grandmother and her grandsons inside the store? Why didn't Kohl's do the right thing?

Some people have been misinformed about the responsibility of someone who comes in contact with lost or mislaid property.

The grandmother did exactly what ever decent person should do when they find a wallet ,she immediately began taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner. Neither Joseph Smith or Kohl's Department Store was the owner of the wallet or its contents.

Georgia Code - Crimes and Offenses - Title 16, Section 16-8-6

A person commits the offense of theft of lost or mislaid property when he comes into control of property that he knows or learns to have been lost or mislaid and appropriates the property to his own use without first taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner.

Guest

One of the most ironic parts about this story surfaced when the Woman confronted the local Kohl's loss prevention team and asked why they gave a total stranger surveillance video of her and her grandsons..They were very apologetic and said they refused when Mr.Smith asked for surveillance video,but then were called by Kohl's headquarters and ordered to give the tape to him. Again saying they were sorry,but they had to do what they were ordered to do.

Guest

you keep saying you did nothing wrong as you bashed kohl's employees saying you were worried that they would steal the money. what about saying sorry to them?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-668372

Not bashing Kohl's employees,have some friends who work there.They said they would not have turned a wallet with cash over to customer service either.Web search "Kohl employee steals money out of purse left in store.January 3, 2012 Lake Wales Florida..

Guest

Well that is your side of the story, but which is more believable, your story or the videos from the store?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-666974

The video is showing the absolute truth.Videos just report the information..Why would Kohl's not allow the video to continue after the woman and her grandsons entered the store? I asked the Fayetteville PD this question..Their response ..We did see the full video..."The Woman did nothing wrong."She did try and find the owner of the wallet..This is all documented.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-667854

Some people believe that if the grandmother had turned the wallet into Kohl's everything would have turned out ok. According to a Georgia Police Officer just opposite is true.

The man who claims to be a seminary student and owner of the wallet made false reports to the police and the media,it is very doubtful that he would have recanted his story if the wallet had been turned in to kohl's.

This is why I have an issue with Kohl's loss prevention personnel. They saw the complete video,they knew that the woman did not remove money from the wallet and give it to her grandsons as reported in the media.

Kohl's has more than on video camera in their stores. Why didn't they show video of the grandmother and her grandsons inside the store? Why didn't Kohl's do the right thing?

Some people have been misinformed about the responsibility of someone who comes in contact with lost or mislaid property.

The grandmother did exactly what ever decent person should do when they find a wallet ,she immediately began taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner. Neither Joseph Smith or Kohl's Department Store was the owner of the wallet or its contents.

Georgia Code - Crimes and Offenses - Title 16, Section 16-8-6

A person commits the offense of theft of lost or mislaid property when he comes into control of property that he knows or learns to have been lost or mislaid and appropriates the property to his own use without first taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-666974

Don't believe,the Grand Mother her Grandsons or Mr Smith..Believe the surveillance video and then ask yourself why Kohl's only showed a small portion of surveillance when additional video existed. Then ask yourself how many other people have been falsely accused or incarcerated by Kohl's surveillance video..Philosophical investigatons By Ludwig Wittgenstein may be a good place to start.

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