Thomas Hitchcock and partner Joe Paolucci with their children Harry and Joey (Tribune Photo/GENE KAISER)
Joe Paolucci and his partner Thomas Hitchcock rewarded their 11 year-old twin boys' good behavior with a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. They left with a lifetime ban and two traumatized children.

Paolucci and Hitchcock, two Chicago attorneys who adopted two special needs children from Romania, what could these two have possibly done to earn the scorn of the mighty Wal-Mart?

Turns out, they didn't shoplift. It also turns out that the Wal-Mart employees in Niles, Indiana are unbelievable jackasses.

The South Bend Tribune has the details...
Hitchcock bought groceries totaling some $200 and checked out at a counter operated by a cashier. Paolucci, meanwhile, went to a self-checkout lane to use scanning equipment he had operated before.

Later, he said, he returned to the shopping area to pick up additional items, including the lighters, which he scanned and placed in bags. He grabbed his receipt for the items, totaling some $60, and headed for the exit, as did Hitchcock and the boys.

Before they got outside, store employees stopped them.

"They asked if I had Bic lighters. I said, 'Yes,' and handed them over," Paolucci said. "Then they asked if I had a receipt. I said, 'Yes, you're holding it.' Then this group of Wal-Mart employees started forming around us."

Paolucci and Hitchcock said the employees were threatening and that one used a vulgarity. Their accusations frightened the boys, who began "crying, screaming and freaking out," they said.
After this initial confrontation, the couple asked that the police be called so that they (and not the irrational Wal-Mart employees) could clear up this misunderstanding. Upon the police officer's arrival
(Paolucci) said he was shocked when he was immediately handcuffed, without a question being asked, and placed in the back seat of a squad car. Hitchcock wasn't handcuffed but also was placed in the back seat of a second squad car.

The twins, despite the protests of Paolucci and Hitchcock, were turned over to the store's security personnel, who took them into the "detention room" or what police referred to as a security room.
At this point, the two special needs children are detained, separated from their parents and placed into a "holding room" while police view Wal-Mart's security footage of the alleged Bic heist.
Paolucci and Hitchcock estimated it was at least 45 minutes before officers told them they had reviewed the store's tapes and had determined that the lighters hadn't been shoplifted. The two said they expected an apology and were surprised once again when personnel from the store walked up to the squad cars with the twins and read from a statement that Paolucci and Hitchcock had been banned by the store chain for life. Rather than shoplifting, the reason they were given was "being uncooperative."
And if "favorite" means "despicable, disgusting, shameful, offensive, repulsive and revolting"... then this is my favorite part:
the twins had told (Paolucci and Hitchcock) that the security staff had allegedly threatened them in the security room and had made disparaging remarks about Paolucci and Hitchcock's lifestyle. Paolucci and Hitchcock said they asked police to take statements from the boys but the officers refused, telling the couple they'd have to contact Child Protective Services.
Every outrageous story needs an absurd cherry on top. Enjoy...
Paolucci and Hitchcock e-mailed The Tribune a copy of a letter from a law firm representing Wal-Mart seeking 10 times the retail price of the items the store still claims were shoplifted by Paolucci. The letter states the matter will be dropped if Paolucci submits the $158.40 payment.

The couple said they won't pay it, and should civil action result, they'll fight it.
As should we all.