Minn. man drops suit over free-sample ruckus at Cub Foods
Article by: JIM ANDERSON , Star Tribune
Updated: April 28, 2014 - 11:10 PM

A yearlong legal squabble over the alleged beating of a retiree that made national headlines and triggered a brief furor over the socially acceptable limits of helping one’s self to free grocery samples has come to a quiet end.

Erwin A. Lingitz, 69, has agreed to dismiss the lawsuit he filed in federal court last March seeking at least $375,000 in damages...

Under terms of the agreement...a confidentiality clause that prohibits all parties from discussing the case or what led to the final resolution...

According to the suit, Lingitz, a long-standing customer of the local Cub store, left his wife in the car while he went inside to pick up her prescription. He said that while he was in the store, he was offered free food samples along with additional samples to bring to his wife.

When store security guard Frank Patterson spotted Lingitz putting items in his pockets, he followed him out the door and confronted him...the guard yelled at him and forced his hand into his pockets, setting off a physical struggle...

At that point, Daniel Eggers, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in plain clothes who had been nearby, tried to handcuff Lingitz. In the process, Eggers grabbed Lingitz around the head and slammed him face down to the sidewalk.

The deputy then pinned Lingitz to the ground with his knees in his back in an action the suit called an overreaction. He also kicked the back of Lingitz’s head and ribs and Patterson kicked his knee, the suit said...

Items found in his pockets included 14-16 packets of soy sauce, more than a half-pound of summer sausage and nearly a pound of beef stick. The items had been offered by the store at two unattended sample platters.

According to court documents, Lingitz had been warned previously by store workers about taking too many free samples. Specifically, he had been seen filling plastic bags with 10-20 cookies from the store’s “kids’ cookie club tray,” which is limited to one cookie per child. He was told that cookies were only for children...

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