Homeless man, Emory Ellis, jailed for three months after trying pay for Burger King with $10 bill files suit

[Satanica]

We seem to have our own class of "untouchables" right here in Murica.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...-months-after-trying-pay-burger-king-n875346?

Emory Ellis, a black homeless man in Boston, was hungry so he went to Burger King one morning in 2015. But instead of breakfast, Ellis got a ride to the police station and more than three months in jail after he was wrongfully accused of using counterfeit cash, he says.

Now Ellis is suing the fast food giant and franchisee for nearly $1 million, saying he was discriminated against because of his appearance.
[....]
Ellis' attorney said the cashier likely wouldn't have questioned if the money was real if a white man in a suit handed him the same bill. Even if he did, the cashier probably would have apologized and said he couldn't accept the cash instead of calling police, attorney Justin Drechsler said.

"A person like me would've gotten an apology, but a person like Emory somehow finds his way in handcuffs for trying to pay for his breakfast with real money," said Drechsler, who's white.
[....]
Two Guys Foods, Inc., the franchisee, didn't immediately return a phone message on Wednesday. A number for the cashier, who's also named in the complaint, couldn't be found in public records and it wasn't immediately clear if he has a lawyer.

Ellis' lawsuit, which was first reported by digital legal news service Law360, was filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court. He's seeking $950,000.

Ellis was arrested in November 2015 and charged with forgery of a bank note. His arrest triggered a probation violation and he was held without bail until his final probation violation hearing, according to the lawsuit.

He wasn't released from jail until February 2016, when prosecutors dropped the forgery charge after the Secret Service concluded Ellis' bill was real, the lawsuit says.
Ellis, 37, never got his money back, the lawsuit says.

I hope he wins!

 

[Sejanus]

America,
Please stop this with black people.
It really is way out of hand.

Besides,
Burger King IS for blacks.
McD's and Starbucks for whites
Sonic is for tourists
Wendys is for old people trying to eat junk food
Arby's is for truckers
Checkers is for yuppies
Subway is for folks trying to convince themselves it is healthy fast food.

 

[Turd Fergusen]

I hope he gets every penny. That is messed up.

 

[JackBurton]

I cant imagine working fast food and giving a single shit about the legitimacy of the dollars coming through. Seriously, who gives a shit? What the fuck is wrong with this worker that they would do that???? That person should be put in a fucking cage.

The worst thing is that his 10 dollars wasnt returned. I dont get how he didnt have a case against the city over this arrest and lengthy incarceration. Why not sue them too? It's not the restaurants fault that this overzealous workers suspicion led to a probvation violation or that it somehow took the geniuses in this police dept nearly 4 fucking months to figure out what a 10 dollar bill looks like(did they think this hobo was some mastermind counterfitter or something turning out SUPER accurate fakes!????). Outrageous it took 4 months to conclude the investigation into a 10 dollar fucking bill. They need to sue the city, and the city and its law enforcement officials deserve to be publically shamed for this ineptitude. Seriously fucking embarrassing. if they can hardly crack this case, you gotta wonder and worry what other, actually serious crimes, are going unsolved or at least unsolved for such lengthy periods of time.

 

[CentreAussie]

FFS... Nobody counterfeits 10 dollar bills. It's not worth the time and effort. $50 bills is where it's at. Large enough to get a substantial amount of genuine currency in change and they don't attract attention like a $100 note would. It should have taken about 2 minutes to sort this shit out. I hope he gets every penny of that million although I agree with Jack, he should be aiming his anger at the authorities. Once he gets paid I hope he goes back to that store every day for lunch and pays with a big sack of pennies.

 

[Sue sue]

FFS... Nobody counterfeits 10 dollar bills. It's not worth the time and effort. $50 bills is where it's at. Large enough to get a substantial amount of genuine currency in change and they don't attract attention like a $100 note would. It should have taken about 2 minutes to sort this shit out. I hope he gets every penny of that million although I agree with Jack, he should be aiming his anger at the authorities. Once he gets paid I hope he goes back to that store every day for lunch and pays with a big sack of pennies.

Not even 30 seconds. They could have just used the pen on the bill to check.

 

[lithiumgirl]

FFS... Nobody counterfeits 10 dollar bills. It's not worth the time and effort.

You're wrong ... You should have seen my face when my supplier started pulling tens out of my stack saying this is bogus ... and this garbage. Because I ended up being short, and got a lesson in counterfeit $10's that day. It ended up being Myron ... you should have seen his face when I held his money up and said ... this is bogus ... this is shit ... only the twenty is good. And then you should have seen him smile when I told him I'd give him stones anyway, because I knew a cab driver that would move them for me. Dollar for dollar but i didn't tell him that because I was UP!

 

[CentreAussie]

You're wrong ... You should have seen my face when my supplier started pulling tens out of my stack saying this is bogus ... and this garbage. Because I ended up being short, and got a lesson in counterfeit $10's that day. It ended up being Myron ... you should have seen his face when I held his money up and said ... this is bogus ... this is shit ... only the twenty is good. And then you should have seen him smile when I told him I'd give him stones anyway, because I knew a cab driver that would move them for me. Dollar for dollar but i didn't tell him that because I was UP!

Well I stand corrected, I kinda forgot that you yanks still use those old school greenbacks. Here we use polymer notes with clear windows and holograms. They can be copied but a decent forgery is comprised of about 7 different pieces, painstakingly assembled with tweezers and a magnifying glass. From what I hear a single note can take between 45 minutes and an hour to put together. Once they are complete they are usually spent in corner shops or milk-bars, buy a can of coke and a pack of gum and you get $45 in real cash in change. I don't think many people bother given that you can get a factory job here on the night-shift that will pay close to that. Plus you are pretty much guaranteed to get busted sooner rather than later. For any Fed types that might be reading this, you already busted the guy I knew who was doing this, then the magistrate in his infinite wisdom let him out on bail and he skipped the country on a borrowed passport.

 

[cubby]

Ellis' attorney said the cashier likely wouldn't have questioned if the money was real if a white man in a suit handed him the same bill.

They're wrong about that. A white guy in a suit is more the one that is trying to pass them, like sweet little old ladies are the biggest shoplifters.

The only time I ever got scammed out of money in retail, it was a white guy, nice friendly white guy who scammed me out of $10.When he came back a few weeks later I told him he'd better run cause I was calling the cops. He wasn't getting a chance to do it again.

If you don't find them at the store level the bank will find them, I took a deposit bag to the bank and they found a bad $50, I had to have my picture taken holding the $50, why I don't know, but you can be sure it never happened again.

 

[lithiumgirl]

Well I stand corrected, I kinda forgot that you yanks still use those old school greenbacks. Here we use polymer notes with clear windows and holograms. They can be copied but a decent forgery is comprised of about 7 different pieces, painstakingly assembled with tweezers and a magnifying glass. From what I hear a single note can take between 45 minutes and an hour to put together. Once they are complete they are usually spent in corner shops or milk-bars, buy a can of coke and a pack of gum and you get $45 in real cash in change.

Um ... I'm Canadian and we have high tech money too .. but old money still circulates.

 

[CentreAussie]

Um ... I'm Canadian and we have high tech money too .. but old money still circulates.

There I go making assumptions again. My apologies. I know that can be annoying. Whenever I'm overseas people assume that I'm British because I don't sound like crocodile dundee, or insert 'crikey' randomly into sentences.

 

[CentreAussie]

You do carry a big knife though, right?

Yeah, but only when I'm on my way to a knifey spoony tournament...