Can you be detained for not showing a receipt at stores in Kansas?

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (WDAF) — The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department has disciplined two officers for how they handled a situation at the Walmart near the Legends Outlets.

The department said one officer used a technique not approved nor trained by the department. That raises the question of your rights as a customer.

Are you required to show a receipt before you leave a store?

Dayton Borisouth said he bought a $5 pizza at Walmart, but it turned into an attempted arrest.

Witnesses say shoppers were screaming, and an officer threatened to break Borisouth’s nose before the officer put his knee on Borisouth’s neck for seven seconds.

Three KCK Police officers, one of them off-duty working security at Walmart, thought Borisouth stole the pizza.

“As I walked past him, he didn’t ask me for my receipt or nothing,” Borisouth said. “He said, ‘Do you have your receipt?’ He said, ‘Got your receipt?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and I continued to walk. As I stepped through that door, he pins me up against the claw machine and brick wall, and he said, ‘You didn’t pay for that,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I did. The receipt’s in my pocket,’ and I was like, ‘But you don’t have the right to detain me.'”

WDAF asked an attorney if you can be detained for not showing a receipt.

In Kansas and Missouri, Kate Corwin said it’s the same.

“You never have to show your receipt, but it may be beneficial to do so, whether that be self-checkout, whether that be an actual person checking you out,” she said.

Although it’s not generally required, Corwin suggests you take the extra time to show proof you purchased the items.

“If they have enough probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that you’re shoplifting, then they can detain you for a reasonable amount of time to reasonably investigate,” she said.

Sam’s Club and Cosco Memberships may be a little different.

There, you agree to their terms, signing on the dotted lines, which could include stopping at the exit to show your receipt.

Corwin said using self-checkout could open you up to being targeted as a shoplifter.

“It’s personal preference,” she said. “Just know that you might be more singled out, you might be more targeted as someone who maybe has something that they haven’t paid for if you do, do the self-checkout. Just because you’re not going to have a cashier right there to verify that, ‘Yes, I ran this over myself.'”

“Because you’re not interacting with a human and you’re not looking at a person who is actually going through and scanning your items, you might have a little bit more of a risk of giving rise to the probable cause that reasonable suspicion, that something’s in your car that shouldn’t be or that hasn’t been paid for,” Corwin said.

In regards to the video circulating on social media, police took Borisouth to a police car, then, finally read the receipt and realized he had paid for the pizza.

KCK police sent WDAF a statement saying the first officer “should have disengaged” with the shopper as soon as he refused to stop and show his receipt.

Police also said the second officer used techniques that are not approved or taught by the department.

KCK police said the two officers have been disciplined and will go through training.