Okay so early this morning I decided to take my girlfriend to six flags. As we went to get on our first ride, one of the workers noticed I had a backpack and told me I couldn't get on with it so I went and put it in the locker that he told me too. To rent a locker you must pay 1$ and enter a 4-digit combination. I rented the locker and placed my backpack which include my wallet, my cellphone, girlfriends wallet and her cell phone and car keys as well. We then proceeded to get on the ride, once we come back to get our things from the locker we noticed it was half way open with nothing in it. Everything was gone! We told one of the worker and they ended up getting supervisors and LP involved which did absolutely nothing. I has 1,200 cash and my social as well as credit cards which managed to max all of them out. Over 2,000$ was lost due to this. My question is should I be suing them for this ? Or can I ?

Nope... you will see a sign posted around there saying they assume no responsibility for your stuff, they offer them for use at your own risk... just like parking garages, Health clubs, swimming pools, etc... You have two chances to win anything... slim and none... unless you can prove it was one of their employees that did it.

Anyone can sue anyone for anything. The question is, will you win? In this case, I'm sorry to say, you will not win. There are signs posted everywhere that they assume no responsibility for lost or stolen items.

Did you make sure the locker was indeed completely locked before you walked away? Did you make sure no one was standing over your shoulder videoing your combination numbers at the locker or kiosk where you obtain your locker number and combination?

You do, though, need to contact your credit card companies, local police, and the credit bureaus, to report the theft.

$1200 to an amusement park? $1200 cash anywhere is just a recipe for being out $1200.

Did you ask about security cameras? If it's been a while then they may have taped over it by now. I would assume the park would want to know if they had a bad employee as well.

Stealing is such bad karma.

I slightly disagree with the others. The signs that they referred to have no legal standing. You cannot sign away your rights just because someone puts up a sign like that. But what it means is that you would have to prove the park was negligent in some way. And I doubt if you can do that. For example if there were cameras or a security guard monitoring the lockers, there might be a case for negligence. But in small claims court? I doubt if you could win.

I agree with Oliver that you were asking for trouble here. Bringing $1200 on a trip like that was foolish. I could understand requiring that you store the back pack, but why put your wallet and the cash in there? Whenever I go to a place like that I wear something like cargo pants/shorts so I have lots of pockets or use a fanny pack for valuables. I am sure the park will point out your contributory negligence if you do sue.

The last point is your statement that your credit cards were maxed out to a loss of over $2K. By law you are limited to a $50 per card liability and only if you don't report it right away. So you should not have that much loss. And if you tried to sue for the $1200 how will you prove that you had that much with you?

Bottom line, you have the right to sue. But I doubt if you can win such a suit.

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... My question is should I be suing them for this ? Or can I ?

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As others have noted, you can sue but you are not likely to prevail.

What were you thinking? Sure, put your backpack in a locker, but never put your wallet, keys, and cell phone in you backpack. Put them in your pocket.

I learned that you are not liable for the first $50 on a credit card unless a merchant verified picture ID along with the charge, which they never do.
Since there's a good chance that an employee was looking at you enter 4 digits (anyone can remember 4), I would go to the top ownership, the BBB, and small claims (there's a fee for that), just in the hopes of compensation to stop you from making waves.
You could also tell them that you plan to picket outside the place with a big sign.
Anything you can think of.

Joy makes a good point about making waves to try to get some compensation. Frankly though I suspect that when you told them you had $1200 in cash, they proceeded to think you were running a scam on them (I would if I were them). And that's why they offered nothing.

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Originally Posted by J_9

There are signs posted everywhere that they assume no responsibility for lost or stolen items.

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Hello:

No matter HOW many signs a business puts up, his RESPONSIBILITY under the law does NOT change.. It's called bailment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailment

YES - SUE!

excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello:

No matter HOW many signs a business puts up, his RESPONSIBILITY under the law does NOT change.. It's called bailment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailment

YES - SUE!

excon

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Excon, the Wikipedia article to which you link describes various standards of care for bailees; it's not always strict liability.

The idea behind the posting of warning signs goes to another principal of law: assumption of risk. The idea is that, if you read a sign describing a certain risk (risk of theft, for example), you assume the risk of that sort of a loss. Warning signs are not an ironclad defense, but they can help.

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Originally Posted by AK lawyer

Excon, the Wikipedia article to which you link describes various standards of care for bailees; it's not always strict liability.

The idea behind the posting of warning signs goes to another principal of law: assumption of risk. The idea is that, if you read a sign describing a certain risk (risk of theft, for example), you assume the risk of that sort of a loss. Warning signs are not an ironclad defense, but they can help.

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Hello lawyer:

That's why you're the lawyer... But, even if my citation was wrong, I was NOT wrong on the law.

excon

And how about proof that it was $1200? The reasonable person in me has trouble believing that anyone would bring $1200 to an amusement park.

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Originally Posted by AK lawyer

Excon, the Wikipedia article to which you link describes various standards of care for bailees; it's not always strict liability.

The idea behind the posting of warning signs goes to another principal of law: assumption of risk. The idea is that, if you read a sign describing a certain risk (risk of theft, for example), you assume the risk of that sort of a loss. Warning signs are not an ironclad defense, but they can help.

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Originally Posted by Oliver2011

And how about proof that it was $1200? The reasonable person in me has trouble believing that anyone would bring $1200 to an amusement park.

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Hello O:

The park DENIES responsibility when they're clearly responsible, and the plaintiff CLAIMS he had more money than he did.. Sounds like business as usual in small claims court. The judge will sort it out. If the plaintiff can prove liability, and he can, the judge will probably give him around $250..

excon

Agree on he probably wouldn't get the full amount and therefore may not be worth the time. Had it been me with the $1200, my shoes, socks, pants, boxers, and shirt would have been in that lockbox before my $1200.

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Originally Posted by Oliver2011

And how about proof that it was $1200? The reasonable person in me has trouble believing that anyone would bring $1200 to an amusement park.

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I said that earlier. That's part of the reason I can't see winning any suit.

Agree.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

I said that earlier. That's part of the reason I can't see winning any suit.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

I said that earlier. That's part of the reason I can't see winning any suit.

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Hello Scott:

I agree. The judge wouldn't believe the $1,200. But, I don't think he'd throw out the entire case because of it. And, he MIGHT...

Small claims court is a crap shoot... Most of them are operated like REAL courts, with REAL judges, who use REAL law... And, then there are SOME, like the ones in Arizona, that are the archetypical kangaroo courts.. They're presided over by an elected Justice of the Peace, who doesn't have to be a lawyer, and often times isn't.

excon