If you’ve ever shopped at Best Buy, you’re probably familiar with their policy of checking receipts as customers exit their stores.
It’s a quick and painless anti-theft procedure that other stores (including Sam’s Club and others) also engage in with minimal inconvenience to the customer.
However, some people seem to feel that they are above the rules and should, somehow, be exempt from such treatment.
For example, during the recent Christmas holiday shopping frenzy, East St. Louis City Councilwoman Latoya Greenwood and her companion Hickey Thompson found themselves in police custody following an incident at the Best Buy store in Fairview Heights, IL.
According to police and witnesses, the pair had been asked to show their receipt upon exiting the store by a Best Buy loss prevention officer.
Greenwood reportedly became angry and began yelling obscenities while Hickey Thompson, according to police witnesses, struck the Best Buy employee (61-year-old Gary Thompson) in the face with an open hand, causing the employee to fall to the ground.
As a result, Hickey Thompson was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, a class 3 felony, with bail set at $20,000 and the possibility of two to five years in prison.
Greenwood was issued a ticket, with a pending court date, for disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. If convicted she could face 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,500.
Councilwoman Latoya Greenwood is the daughter of ESL School Board President Lonzo Greenwood and also works for ESL School District 189.
So this unfortunate incident did not have to happen.
If Greenwood had only let the poor Best Buy employee know about her ESL political pedigree or, at the very least, explained that she was Councilwoman Latoya “cuss-em-out” Greenwood, then I’m certain that she would have received the VIP treatment that she routinely receives in ESL.
And, as a result, her companion Mr. Hickey “slap-em-out” Thompson would not have found himself in a St. Clair County Jail cell.
However, this could be the springboard for a new Real Housewives of East St. Louis series.
That way the honorable councilwoman could get into regular cussing matches and ghetto skirmishes while humiliating herself on national television.
At least, that way, she and her companion would get paid for their buffoonery instead of doing it free of charge.
If you like my column, then you will love my radio show on WGNU-920am every Sunday from 4-5 pm. Please tune-in and call-in. I love to hear from my St. Louis American readers. Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com; Twittter@JamesTIngram.
