Black Friday shopper starts line, says he was threatened with jail-time

JENSEN BEACH, Fla. - Max Sherry said he drove 40 miles from his Okeechobee home, to do what millions of Americans have been doing for years before Black Friday—to wait in line for a good deal.

“Brought my chair up, sat down by the door. There’s a sign here that says, ‘Door buster, lines form here’,” he said.

He said he started a line outside the Treasure Coast Mall Sears store, when he claims a mall security officer told him he had to leave.

“It was private property, and they didn’t want anybody on the property until 8 o’clock,” he said.

But Sherry explained, there was a reason he was there so early.

“The ads in the paper say six o’clock, they’re going to come out and give coupons for these TV’s so you know you’re gonna get one,” said Sherry.

He said the security guards called the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

“The deputies told me I was going to have to leave, so I said, well, I don’t like to,” he recalled. “I come real close to letting them take me to jail because I didn’t think it was right. ”

He said he argued at first, but then decided to leave after he was told he could park across the street. When the line started again, he was in fourth place, but he said he thinks the situation was mishandled.

“It is orderly, we don’t have any problem with that,” said Sherry. “It’s just that I think that we got treated badly. ”