Wal-Mart Stores faces suit over shopper's claim he was wrongfully accused of theft, detained

A man is suing Wal-Mart Stores, claiming he was wrongfully accused of stealing and unlawfully detained for two hours.

Alexander Ulteanu filed a lawsuit Oct. 21 in Cook County Circuit Court against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and three unknown employees.

According to the complaint, Ulteanu was shopping at the Walmart in Niles on Aug. 22, when he selected a number of items he wanted to purchase, proceeded to a checkout counter, waited for the cashier to ring up the total and paid the cashier.

Ulteanuas claims that when he approached the exit with his fiance and a friend, two loss prevention associates seized him, accused him of theft and took him to a small, windowless room where they interrogated him. Ulteanu says the store manager was present for some of the time, supervising the two employees' actions as they told him he could not leave the premises and detained him for two hours.

The suit states Ulteanu remained detained hours after he had given the employees his identification and after they had ascertained that he did not steal the merchandise in his possession, then was released without notifying a peace officer.

As a result of the incident, Ulteanu claims he suffers from sleeplessness, has sustained damage to his reputation and has been in a highly nervous state.

He is seeking more than $50,000 in damages and is represented by attorney Alexander M. Tolmatsky of Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court case number: 2014L010945.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt and it represents only one side of the story.