7 April 2025, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Steven Zimmerman – “I live in Las Cruces and shop at that Walmart on Valley,” says Amanda Rubens, “do I have to show a receipt to get out of the store?”
Amanda is one of several people who shared that on 28 March 2025, Walmart, located at 1550 S Valley Dr in Las Cruces, utilized a private security company to check customer receipts as they left the store.
“He was an older man, nice, but said I had to show him my receipt because that was the law,” says Ms. Rubens.
Louis Mendoza of Las Cruces, who also emailed us about a uniformed security guard at the door, asked, “Why do they make you feel like you did some crime, like shoplifting? Why was a guy in uniform asking about receipts?”
Do you have to show your receipt before you walk out of Walmart? The short answer is no, you do not. Still, Walmart and other retailers often check receipts to reduce theft, ensure customers leave with all their purchases, and verify that items have been correctly processed.
Do you believe that @Walmart should be able to utilize a third-party security company to check receipts and detain you should you refuse to show your receipt? Please keep in mind, this question concerns the security company used to roam the parking lot, not Walmart employees.
— My Catholic Life (@sanelceario) April 7, 2025
In New Mexico, you are not legally obligated to show a receipt to leave Walmart. There are, however, instances when an employee may ask to see your receipt.
Loss prevention officers may approach you and ask for your receipt if they reasonably suspect you may have shoplifted. Does this mean there is reasonable suspicion in the case of all customers when staff or third-party security asks to see your receipt? No.
In New Mexico, store owners do not have blanket reasonable suspicion toward customers; they must have probable cause to believe a person is willfully concealing merchandise based on the totality of facts and circumstances before detaining them.
New Mexico law, specifically Section 30-16-23, states that a merchant can detain a person only if they have probable cause to believe the person is willfully concealing merchandise.
Section 30-16-23 reads:
If any law enforcement officer, special officer or merchant has probable cause for believing that a person has willfully taken possession of any merchandise with the intention of converting it without paying for it, or has willfully concealed merchandise, and that he can recover the merchandise by detaining the person or taking him into custody, the law enforcement officer, special officer or merchant may, for the purpose of attempting to affect [effect] a recovery of the merchandise, take the person into custody and detain him in a reasonable manner for a reasonable time. Such taking into custody or detention shall not subject the officer or merchant to any criminal or civil liability.
Any law enforcement officer may arrest without warrant any person he has probable cause for believing has committed the crime of shoplifting. Any merchant who causes such an arrest shall not be criminally or civilly liable if he has probable cause for believing the person so arrested has committed the crime of shoplifting.
Sam’s Club, which Walmart owns, does require you to show your receipt before exiting the store. Not showing your receipt at Sam’s Club would violate the store’s policy, which you agreed to when joining, and could cause your membership to be revoked.
While a security guard can ask to see your receipt, you are not legally obligated to show it unless they have probable cause to suspect you of shoplifting. If there is probable cause, you would be stopped by loss prevention, not a security guard.
Because we received a large number of emails and phone calls about the security guard at South Valley Walmart in Las Cruces, we decided to contact Walmart’s media relations office.
Our question to Walmart was to ask them what Walmart’s policy is concerning third-party security guards, in this case, security guards from Securitas, stopping customers at the door and asking them to produce their receipts before leaving the store—a seemingly straightforward question.
On 7 April 2025, we received two emails from Kelsey Bohl ([email protected]). The first email indicated they had received our media inquiry and were working on it. Later in the day, we received an additional email that stated that Walmart does not discuss security measures.
Though we were not requesting information about security measures, Walmart interpreted our questions as such.
We decided to reach out to Securitas. By publication time, we’ve yet to receive an answer.
It appears that Walmart has contracted Securitas to patrol the parking lot and provide a visible presence inside the store. However, in all my visits, I have yet to see a Securitas security guard ask for receipts, leaving me curious about their actual role within the store.
“This older man, in some security uniform, was sort of saying we had no choice; we had to show our receipt,” says another Las Cruces resident, Jessica Rand. “He made it like we couldn’t leave until he saw that receipt.”
While I generally show my receipt when leaving Walmart, it’s not required by law or store policy. The fact that a security guard was requesting customer receipts made me pause. Would I provide my receipt to a security guard, not knowing if that is his job? I don’t know. Still, it is a bit worrisome.
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I shop at the same Walmart. You should see the older lady that will watch you do everything, and then want to see that you scanned everything. Swears we are trying to take her stuff. They don’t care. They think we all thieves.
Go to the on off Lohman. There’s a man there that won’t let you buy beer if you have your little kid with you. My 6 year old isn’t drinking. I don’t get it.