‘The Bottle Is Right Here, Sir’: Black Teen Humiliates Belk Store Employee Who Chased Him Through Mall and Accused Him of Stealing Sample Cologne
In another case of Shopping While Black, a white store employee chased after a Black teen who had walked out of a store with his mother to accuse him of stealing a bottle of sample cologne — only for the alleged bottle to surface at the same location where he was accused of stealing it from. The accusation was captured on video recorded by the teen’s mother in the Florence Mall in Alabama after the employee from the Belk department store stopped the family to accuse him of shoplifting the cologne. The teen had used the cologne to spray on himself before placing it back on the counter among the other bottles of cologne for people to sample. The man on the left who works at a Belk department store in Florence, Alabama, falsely accused the Black teen in the middle of stealing a bottle of sample cologne, only for the teen to show him the bottle still on the counter. (Photo: tiktok.com/@cashannawilliams0) “So you just caused all this trauma, accusing him of stealing cologne, that he did not steal,” said the teen’s mother, Cashanna Williams, who posted the video to her TikTok channel Monday. “We just went through all his clothes, all his belongings, all his bags, he has nothing on him with him so-called cologne.” ‘It’s Just Open Season on Our Kids’: Racist Harassment of Black Students Surges as Trump’s Education Department Looks the Other Way “And you say you have it on camera but you won’t let us go see the camera.” Another woman standing off camera who was with the family asked the man, “Did you check to see if the bottle was still there?” “No, it had to have been put back after …,” the man tried to explain. “So you have not checked,” the mother said. “Let's go. Let it be there. Let it be there.” “You’re about to lose your job cause this is embarrassing as hell.” “You’re going to walk up on him two inches in his face about some sample cologne,” she continued as they walked back to the store through the mall. ‘The Bottle is Right Here, Sir’ The video then cuts to another scene inside the store where the alleged bottle was sitting on the counter, along with the other sample colognes. “The bottle is right here, sir,” the teen said. “Seriously?” the mother asked. “You came up and accused him in the middle of the mall of stealing cologne that's still sitting here and you didn't verify that it was still there.” “That’s not the bottle but thank you very much,” the man responded, alleging that the alleged bottle that was stolen was still missing. “That is the bottle, that is what he said he sprayed,” the mother responded but the man had no response other than “OK.” “This is embarrassing and racist as ….” before the video cuts off but we can imagine what said after seeing her son racially profiled and accused of a crime in public without evidence because if it were true they had him on video stealing the cologne, police would likely have been called. The original TikTok video has received more than 1,550 comments, with the majority supporting the mother and son, and several commenters encouraging them to file a lawsuit. “Ma’am, I’m a loss prevention specialist. Lawyer up ASAP!!!!! You got a case that will settle out of court,” said one commenter. Another commenter agreed. “First of all.... if he left the store, he broke the law by leaving the store to confront him... I would SUE the store and him personally,” she wrote. “Kidnapping, defamation, harassment & loss of public trust-these are all examples of what you can sue for in court,” said a third commenter. Several commenters also noticed the man never apologized for falsely accusing the teen of theft or even admitted to making a mistake. “The gag is: he never apologized, or even admitted his mistake,” wrote a commenter. Prior Racial Profiling Incidents at Belk Earlier this year, another Black woman named Rachel Jenkins filed a lawsuit against a Belk department store in another Alabama mall in Gadsden, about a two-hour drive from Florence where this incident took place — alleging she was also detained by a store employee who falsely accused her of shoplifting. “Jenkins was detained by the employees without cause and forced to empty her shopping bags, which contained items from other stores and receipts, according to the legal filing,” reported the Raleigh News & Observer. “Finding no stolen merchandise, the only explanation given by the asset protection employee was: ‘It has been a long day,’ the lawsuit said.” In 2015, another Black woman named Cheryl Johnson was also falsely accused of stealing a $35 dress by a white employee inside a Belk store in North Carolina, who marched her into a security room, claiming to have video evidence of her stealing — but that turned out to be a lie. Cops were called and apologized to her for having been “inconvenienced,” according to the International Business Times. “I’ve been humiliated, I’ve been lied on, and I’ve been falsely accused of something I didn't do,” she was quoted as saying in the article. Johnson, a retired Department of Justice analyst, did not sue but launched a website called stopracialprofiling.net, which is no longer active.
