Differs from place to place depending on management and staff attitude, many a time I've argued with big w staff about price screw ups and they'd key in the code and let me go with the price I thought I saw, but these were younger staff who had no clue what they were doing.
Other's they'd search the whole store just because a single hotwheels car was missing its barcode (one of those odd promo cars) just to get the price confirmed.
I don't see the reason why they'd take it off you personally, makes sense for movie tie in stuff like an experience with the exclusive black series figure they had at toys r us (but they were able to hold it because, as I told them, no way would it be there for me on a Saturday since it was going on sale 2 days from when I found them and I had to work).
Did they least give a reason?