QuizLaw

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Dude, you can get it on the internet for free - any real geek would know that

So, back in March, Hao Kuo Chi went out on a service call. He’s part of the “Geek Squad,” which Best Buy sends out for computer repairs. So Chi shows up at the house to find 22-year-old Sarah Vasquez. Vasquez left him to his computer work and went to take a shower. When she got out of the shower, she noticed a cell phone propped up against the sink, with its camera pointing towards the shower. She went to get her 13-year-old sister, Kelly Rocha, and when they came back, the phone was gone (what, exactly, did the 22-year-old think her 13-year-old sister would do that she couldn’t?). Rocha later found the same phone sitting in her bedroom. So she took the memory chip out of it, and she and Vasquez rolled over to a Verizon store (ah, the 13-year-old was a smart gadget nerd - that’s why the 22-year-old went to get her in the first place).

At the Verizon store, they saw video of Chi setting the phone up in both the bathroom and the bedroom. So they called their stepfather who, in turn, called the cops, and Chi was arrested while still at their house (on misdemeanor charges of using a camera to record someone without their consent and annoying or molesting a minor).

A civil lawsuit has of course now been filed against Best Buy and the Geek Squad, on behalf of Vasquez and her mother (the article doesn’t really explain why the mother comes into the picture, though I’m guessing it’s as the parent of the other sister, who is a minor). They’re suing for, among other things, fraud, negligent misrepresentation and hiring, and invasion of privacy. The lawsuit claims that Best Buy is responsible because the family relied on the chain to properly screen the employees it sends into folks’ homes, and because their ads say they have “agents you can trust.”

Posted by Seth on April 13, 2007 | Comments (2)