Pedicure Nearly Lands Woman in Jail

A Flower Mound woman says she just about ended up in jail when she tried to use a gift certificate at a salon near her home.

The certificate had expired by four days, she didn't have enough cash to pay, and the manager called police.

It all started last Christmas, when Stacy Schriever’s neighbor and friend, Tharine Wells, gave her a $35 gift certificate to Serene Nails.

"I thought it would be a great Christmas present for Stacy,” Wells said.

Schriever, a mortgage consultant, went to the salon last weekend and got her nails and toes done. But when she went to pay, she learned the certificate had expired – four days earlier.

"I said that could be a problem because all I have with me is my driver's license and $20," Schriever said.

She said she then told the manager she had to leave to get the money, but she didn't make it far.

"Two police cars came up behind me, flashing lights," Schriever said.

The salon manager had called 911.

Schriever said officers told her she had committed a theft.

"I did leave, you know,” she said Monday. “But I didn't speed out of the parking lot. It wasn't like I was trying to make a fast getaway."

Wells said she regrets causing her friend trouble with what she thought was a simple gift.

"I can't fathom why you would call the police when somebody is trying to get more money,” Wells said.

The manager, Tiffani Nguyen, said she called police not because Schriever didn’t have the money, but because she made a big scene in front of other customers and threw the $20 bill and certificate at her.

"I never did such a thing,” Schriever said. “That's ridiculous."

Nguyen said she would have allowed her to bring her the money later, but that Schriever took off.

"If she would have stepped outside and talked to me, I promise you she and I would have talked things out," Nguyen said.

After officers stopped Schriever, they escorted her back to the salon, where she called her mother to bring money to pay her tab. Police then considered the case closed.

"I just couldn't believe how out of control it had gotten,” Schriever said.

She and her neighbor both complained the expiration date on the gift certificate was in tiny print.

"I have pretty good eyesight,” Schriever said. “I don't wear glasses. But I couldn't read it."

Nguyen acknowledged the type is small but said salon employees always circle the date and point it out to customers.

"Every company prints it small,” Nguyen said. “We weren't the ones who said, 'Print it small.'"

Wells said nobody ever told her about the expiration date when she bought it.

"It makes me very sad that something that I gave somebody caused... so much grief," she said.