My girlfriend shops for hours at Walmart.

One night, we were in her home-town and she was shopping at Walmart, and I was going in and out of the store a lot because I was bored, physically uncomfortable, and listening to a talk-radio program but couldn’t stay in my car with the engine running for hours.

As she was about to check out, the police showed up en mass and accosted us. I was accused of shoplifting and stealing CDs (I had been looking at CDs, decided to purchase one, changed my mind and put it back—several times).

Someone reported that I had been taking merchandise out of the store and taking it to my car.

I let the police check my car. I have a lot of stuff in my car, including stuff I have purchased from Walmart. Although they didn’t find anything, the police did take a couple of CDs that I had actually purchased in Mountain View, Arkansas folk center, not Walmart products.

The fact that I didn’t have any new Walmart merchandise in my car probably kept me from being arrested. But they still told me to get out of there and never come back. I really think they wanted to take me to jail, and I still think that particular Walmart believes I was shoplifting. Ironically, my GF bought about eighty dollars worth of stuff that night.

Last spring I warned my neighbors that I had seen coyotes in our neighborhood and to keep an eye on their small pets. Every one of them told me I must be wrong, that I seen a dog, that I was being paranoid. A few cats went missing, then the local paper warned of coyote activity on my street. Suddenly they wanted to know all about coyotes.

Not 100% me, was 50% me, 50% my brother.
We saw our dog climb our fence. It’s like, i don’t know, 6ft tall and looks like this

He literally climbed it like a human to get into our neighbors yard. No one believed us.

They did eventually though, when the neighbors witnessed it and told my parents.
He was using a trailer that was close to the fence as leverage and was climbing the rest.

Years ago I was involved in an incident where it was said that, because of a minor spat I was having with a co-worker, I had my grandmother call the guy’s wife with a report that her husband might be cheating on her. (The female caller did not identify herself.) When the branch manager told me about the call, I stated that I didn’t do it, and implied that I had nothing to do with it. It seemed as though I wasn’t believed.
Five years later I figured out that it was actually the branch manager’s wife who had made the call, and her husband knew the whole time.

A whole night crew got fired at the movie theater, for stealing cash. Til was always short. Hurt my feelings badly. Ended up being our shift manager, the one who fired us.

My dad spanked me for something my sister did,

I don’t want to share specifics but nothing irritates me more than being called a liar. I can’t lie. I don’t have it in me. I can’t even pull off a prank because I’m horrible at lying. I have no poker face. It hurts me to the core when I’m not believed.

Okay, sharing specifics. When I was raped and my friends didn’t believe me. I was barely 15 years old.

Despite our differences, we are a caring community on Fluther, and I speak for everyone I think,when I say we are very sorry this happened to you. The question was not intended to bring up such bad memories. It is really intense and scary to not be believed when you have undergone an ordeal so traumatic. Thanks for sharing, trust in the anonymity of this community, but we are real people with real feelings—and God Bless.

That is very sweet of you. Thank you @Yellowdog. I needed to hear this today.

You are welcome, and your story means a great deal to me. Sorry it happened. Goodnight.

Well. When I was 4 or 5 my best friend was my next door neighbor who was a bit older than me. Maybe 2 years older. Geri Turlicker.
She and I were sitting on her mom’s back stoop when she started coloring on the stoop with crayons.
I said “I don’t think you should do that.”
She just kept coloring.
Then her mom came out and busted “Us.”
We both got spankings!
I was SO outraged! When the spankings were over I ran home to Mom to express my outrage!
In 1999 I brought this particular childhood outrage up to Mom, and she said..“Oh. I guess I never told you that Mrs. Turlicker apologized to me.”
I was 40 something and I yelled “She was supposed to apologize to ME not YOU!!!!”

I told my sister I was going to Club 33 in Disneyland for lunch. My sister laughed at me, and abusively accused me of telling ridiculous lies.
So, a few months later when I went, I didn’t invite her.
I did send her a picture of us at the club.

My ex sister in law didn’t believe me when I told her that her father was a lech.

It’s a horrible thing to tell the truth and not be able to prove it. I put a $500 deposit in the night deposit at the bank. Days later it had not posted. I drove over to the bank and they said they didn’t get it. I explained that I put it in the night deposit and if it is not still there, then yes, you did get it. What you did with it is an unknown. They told me there was nothing that could do. I told them I was not going to get out of the chair until they found my money. They called security. The branch manager finally joined us and said ” well, let’s get the envelopes from that day and go through them to be sure we didn’t miss it.” They did miss it. There it was in the stack of envelopes….never even opened. I was their favorite customer from that day forward.

@Jonsblond Just want to say the same thing as Yellowdog. Was hoping this question could be a bit cathartic for some. But didn’t mean for this question to bring up such painful memories. I’m so sorry that happened to you.

@Yellowdog Have you gone back since that incident? Or has it soured for you?

@canidmajor Sad for the pets that went missing. How many before they finally realized you were right?

@SergeantQueen That’s an impressive dog! Maybe if the pets from @canidmajor ‘s story could climb a fence they’d have been able to ditch the coyotes!

@kritiper I’m kind of confused by this story! Did your grandmother make the call? Or did the branch manager’s wife make the call? Are we talking about one call or two?

@KNOWITALL Ugh! What happened when they finally figured out it was the branch manager?

@YARNLADY Oh yes. Got in trouble for something my siblings did all the time. Bet a lot of people can relate to this one.

@Dutchess_lll Ha! 35 years later!

@filmfann That must have been satisfying! I feel satisfied just reading it. Did you gift her a framed copy for Christmas? :P

@lucillelucillelucille EX sister in law. Well…that sounds like the whole family had major issues. Good riddance!

@Sagacious Really glad you stuck to your guns! Can’t believe it took that long for the branch manager to join you though. Is the moral of this thread that branch managers are terrible?

@raum He got fired, but none of us were re-hired or got an apology. Really makes you feel some kind of way in your very first ‘real’ job at age 16.

There were, I think, two cats and a small dog. It was very sad but then everybody got much more vigilant. At least once neighbor expressed anger at me about that, probably just because they were upset that their pet was taken. Now everybody pays attention.

@raum One call. My grandmother did not make the call. The branch manager’s wife did. I got blamed for it.

@KNOWITALL Ugh! That’s sucks. I guess they can’t exactly rehire a whole crew back. But at the very least they should have apologized. Or made him apologize before firing him. That would make me feel pretty jaded about the hierarchy in work places. :/

@canidmajor He got mad? At you? For what?! People are nuts.

@kritiper Thanks for clarifying! What happened after people figured out that it was the branch manager’s wife? And what was her motivation for making the call?

@raum I figured the reason the call was made was because the manager’s wife thought she was doing the right thing, and she and her husband were Mormons and they believe in the sanctity of marriage. No one ever figured out (or cared to since it was obviously me) who made the call except me, five years later. Nothing could be done about it then, but I have managed to inform certain people who were there what my side of the story was and who the real culprit was.

@kritiper Glad you were able to clear things up with at least a few people.