# Jury awards $1.2 million for false shoplifting arrest



## MVS (Jul 2, 2003)

_For all you LP folks_Posted on Sun, Apr. 24, 2005
Jury awards $1.2 million for false shoplifting arrest

CHARLESTON - A jury has awarded $1.2 million to a mother and daughter who were arrested on shoplifting charges after paying for cookies, toys and other items at a Babies R Us store in North Charleston.

The Charleston County jury found that Luba Lynch and her mother, Tatiana Kotova, were wrongly detained for 10 hours in February 2003 after a store manager had them arrested.

Jurors found Babies R Us at fault in four areas: false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, slander and outrageous conduct. They assessed actual damages of $50,000 on each of the four counts and punitive damages of $250,000 on each of the four counts.

Lynch and her mother, who was visiting from Russia, placed four packages of baby cookies in their tote bag while shopping in the store. The practice is common in their native country. Lynch and her mother paid for all their items before they left the store. Still, they were arrested after walking out.


----------



## Guest (Apr 26, 2005)

Id sue like crazy to, when I worked at walamart a manager needed to see them shoplift or else they would let them go free for this exact type of thing. Better to lose 100$ on an item then 10 million.


----------

