''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.... Everything they asked us to do, we did. We cooperated 100 percent. We objected only when they tried to get us to go into the detention room.''

Joe Paolucci, who along with his twin sons and his partner, Thomas Hitchcock, have been banned from all Wal-Mart stores -- not because they stole anything, but because they resisted being taken out of sight by store employees who falsely accused them of stealing. Apparently, one of the gay fathers went to check out groceries while the other went back to get some Bic lighters. The second one, separately, took the lighters to a self-checkout aisle to purchase them. Soon after, they were both detained by Wal-Mart employees, who they said were rude and threatening and demanded they proceed to an isolated area. When they refused and asked for police to be called, the responding officers were not friendly to the couple either, they say. After 45 minutes of being separated from their children and each other -- one put in handcuffs, no less -- they were told that store videotapes showed they had done nothing wrong. But instead of an apology, the store's staff read a statement that said they were ''being uncooperative,'' and that they were banned for life from all Wal-Mart stores. Later, they received a letter in the mail from Wal-Mart still demanding that they pay 10 times the value of the lighters -- items that were never shoplifted to begin with. (South Bend Tribune)