Confiscated popcorn.

[sallybb]

Don't know how this warrants front page news in our local paper, but there is someone threatening to take a cinema to the European Court of Human Rights for confiscating his popcorn. He had it in a canvas bag and they searched him.

Im sure we have all done this, but in a more discreet manner, and sneaked in cheaper snacks, in a pocket or bottom of handbag. Rather than pay the sky high prices at cinemas?
This opens a whole new can of worms, does this mean when I go shopping with the other ladies and we pop into a restaurant for a quick bite of lunch, they can search our shopping bags and confiscate Mr BB's supper?

[Old_Geezer]

Only if you intend eating it on the premises. In which case I suspect it is out of your shopping bag.

[Frank97]

Why did he not ask for it back after seeing the film?

[Wrongn3mber]

"This opens a whole new can of worms, does this mean when I go shopping with the other ladies and we pop into a restaurant for a quick bite of lunch, they can search our shopping bags and confiscate Mr BB's supper?" I would hope that you took your husband with you to the restaurant instead! Why would you take shopping bags to a restaurant? Wouldn't they bar your entry for that?

[Wrongn3mber]

Who searched this guy and why did they search him? Have the cinemas near you started hiring bouncers?

[sallybb]

D97 Hope he told them not to eat it while they were holding onto it.
Think the man feels his rights have been breached, by being searched . He states a police officer isn't allowed to search him without a reason. So why should the cinema be able to.

[Frank97]

I was just thinking that myself.

[Wrongn3mber]

Sallybb who exactly was it tha searched him, the managers, the cleaners the popcorn guy? Why did he let anyone search him in the first place, you can only be searched by bouncers, the police and customs but this is the first time I've heard that the cinema staff searched someone illegally like this.

[wolf63]

With all the 'stuff' going on in the world it is nice to see that some kind person is making sure we have the right to bear ...... popcorn. The world is a much safer place for this.

I rarely go to the cinema but last time I was horrified at the cost of everything. It isn't a cheap night out any more.

:-)

[sallybb]

Wrongn3mber. Often meet up with friends do a bit of shopping, grab a bite to eat. Point I was making that if I have a bag with me, with lets say a pork pie in it with no intention of eating it. Does the restaurant has a right to search and conficate. I was making a comparission.
This guy wasnt caught eating the popcorn he just had it in a bag, personally I can understand him being annoyed but a bit extreme in his reaction.

[rockyracoon]

I've heard of this before, I think they started doing it in a local cinema although I've never been stopped (I never keep stuff in my bag, it's always in pockets. I suppose if you want to go on their property then it's their rules, you couldn't go into Starbucks with a cup of coffee could you. Perhaps if they brought their eye watering prices down people wouldn't feel the need to do this.

[Old_Geezer]

Dunno about that. My bag was searched as I entered a festival recently. Surely if they can search for stuff, a cinema can. But anyway his gripe is the confiscation isn't it, rather than the search.

[mike11111]

Totally illegal, and if the ECHR backs him up I will adopt a more favourable view of them. They may have the right to forbid consumption on their premises, but that's as far as it goes. The worst they can do is deny him entry, in which case he goes to a more friendly cinema.

[Wrongn3mber]

Does the restaurant has a right to search and conficate. maybe if you're scared by non official people preforming an immoral and illegal search you could always declare your pork pie in your bag and declare loudly that you do not intend to eat it until you're at home to be on the safe side.

[sallybb]

No wouldn't do that that Wrong3mber, would simply throw my toys out of the pram and walk out with out paying and tell them to keep the pork pie. ;0)

[mike11111]

I don't actually believe this. When I was a kid we always bought our sweets before going to the pictures because they were so much cheaper. No one batted an eyelid. I remember my mother taking me once and refusing to buy me a packet of Butterkist at 1/6, when it was only 6d in the shops. That was a long time ago.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah yes Mike, but you may have noticed the world is much sharper now on what they can force on you in order to increase their profits. It ws suddenly realised there was money to be made from Joe Public if they banned that sort of activity.

[ladybirder]

wrongn3mber you say "you can only be searched by bouncers, the police and customs". Is this true? Does a bouncer really have the right to search you?

[Old_Geezer]

I expect the cinema bouncers have the right so say that you don't gain entry unless you volunteer to be searched.

[237SJ]

They may have the right to search your bags (as in entry to certain buildings etc) but it`s extremely unlikely they have the right to search the person.

[mike11111]

I can understand seaside café owners being annoyed when people come in, order a pot of tea then proceed to unwrap their own sandwiches; similarly publicans when a lady orders an orange juice then pours copious amounts of vodka from a bottle in her handbag. The difference is that these activities are subverting the fundamental purpose of the institution. Cinemas exist to show films, not sell sweets &c. All this is purely ancillary.