Christy R. Standard sued Nathan Falstad and his employer, Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P., for maliciously prosecuting her for the offense of felony theft by shoplifting, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and sought the imposition of punitive damages and the award of attorney fees pursuant to OCGA § 13-6-11.1 Standard appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart. For the following reasons, we affirm.
The relevant facts are undisputed. Falstad worked for a Wal-Mart store in Peachtree City as an Asset Protection Associate trained in shoplifting investigations and prosecutions. On April 5, 2011, video cameras at the Wal-Mart store where Falstad worked recorded a woman attempting to steal a television from the store by bringing an empty television box into the store and obtaining a return sticker representing that the box contained returned merchandise; then leaving the empty box in the store; placing a similar boxed television in her shopping cart; removing the store’s security device from the box; and attempting to leave the store with the television without paying for it. Falstad was alerted when the security device was detached, at which point he saw the woman with the shopping cart and television already past the registers attempting to walk out the front door of the store. When a Wal-Mart People Greeter asked for a receipt, the woman left the cart and the television, walked to her car, and drove away. Falstad followed the woman from a distance as she walked to her car, saw the license plate on the car, and wrote down the number. While following the woman from behind, Falstad did not speak to the woman or see her from the front and did not see her face. Falstad then returned to the store and reviewed the store video which contained various images of the woman from the front and side showing her face. On the same day, Falstad contacted the Peachtree City Police Department; reported the woman’s actions to a police officer; showed the officer the store’s video of the woman; and gave the officer the license number from the woman’s car. The officer’s affidavit confirms that he conducted a search on the car’s license number; determined that the car with that license number a silver 2006 Mazda 3 was registered to Christy R. Standard; and searched for and obtained Standard’s driver’s license registration information. The officer further states that he concluded Ms. Standard appeared to have a similar driver’s license photograph as the female seen in the security video, but that he told Falstad that there was not sufficient evidence of an attempted theft at that point to pursue any criminal charges. Nevertheless, based on his personal observations, the store’s video, and the information obtained by the police officer, Falstad submitted an application on April 7, 2011 to the Magistrate Court of Fayette County for a criminal arrest warrant for Standard’s arrest for the offense of theft by shoplifting. Based on the application, the Magistrate Court scheduled a pre-issuance hearing for May 11, 2011 for the purpose of determining if there was probable cause to issue the arrest warrant.
