Man Fights For Rights Of Comparison Shoppers Sues Store After Arrest For Taking Notes On Prices

A shopper looking for the best buy on a television set has sued an electronics chain that had him arrested after he refused to stop writing down prices.

Ronald Kahlow, 54, is seeking $90,000 in damages from Best Buy.

The company on Friday denied wrongdoing, but a spokeswoman would not discuss details because of the lawsuit.

Kahlow, who owns a small computer software company, said he decided last July that he needed a couple of TV sets for his new house. So he created a special software program, took his laptop to local stores and recorded model numbers and prices.

His first stop was Best Buy.

“One Saturday afternoon I went into there very shy and sheepish and I proceeded to mark down all the prices,” he said Thursday.

A store employee asked him to stop. Kahlow told the clerk he was not from a competing store. But when he kept trying to punch prices into the laptop strapped to his waist, the man stood in front of him to block his view of the prices while another employee pulled price tags off the merchandise.

“I was stunned and embarrassed. People were looking. I never expected it,” Kahlow said.

The store also called police. When Kahlow refused to leave, he was arrested on a trespassing charge.

Kahlow paid a $500 bond and the next day he was back - this time with a notepad, a pen and a friend with a camera to record what happened. That landed Kahlow back in jail on a $2,500 bond.

Best Buy officials said the Minneapolis-based company encourages comparison shopping but has an unwritten policy against allowing anyone to record prices in its stores.

A month after his arrests, Kahlow was found innocent by Fairfax General District Judge Donald P. McDonough, who compared him to the civil rights activists of the 1960s.

Kahlow then asked Best Buy for an apology, $3,000 in legal costs and a change in store policy. He said he never heard back, so he sued.