Staples wrongly accused me of stealing – I had to lift up my shirt to prove my innocence, they didn’t believe me

A WOMAN was forced to lift her shirt to prove she had not been stealing from a Staples store.

Shirell Bates from Pineville North Carolina detailed how her pregnancy became immediately more stressful when she was accused of theft.

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In 2018, Bates told WSOC-TV that she visited her local Staples store for back-to-school shopping but quickly regretted it.

Bates who was pregnant with twins at the time was in the middle of a transaction when a police officer approached to ask if she had been shoplifting.

A manager had approached the officer after believing that Bates may have been “concealing merchandise,” Pineville police told the outlet.

“Being pregnant is already high-risk, and having to deal with that, just additional stress that I don’t need,” she said.

“Mid-transaction, a police officer approached me and insisted he wanted to speak with me.

“He asked what was under my shirt.”

She explained how at first she believed that he was making a joke about her growing bump.

“I thought he was joking, so my response was, ‘Twins’.

‘I’m 34 weeks with twins, I’m having a boy and a girl.'”

However, the officer had not been joking and was not satisfied with her response so repeated his initial question.

“At that point, to avoid him asking me again, I actually lifted my shirt just a little bit, just to expose my belly, so he could see that I’m just a regular pregnant person buying school supplies,” Bates said.

Following the incident, the manager was fired from the store, but not before Bates confronted her about her allegation.

“She admitted that, ‘In the past, we’ve had a lot of people putting school supplies or merchandise in their clothes and hiding, so I asked the officer to reach out to you,'” Bates said.

“You pretty much jumped the gun without any type of evidence, except my stomach is large.

“That’s not fair. No mom should have to go through that.”

Staples released a statement about the incident: “On Friday at our Pineville location a Staples’ manager mistakenly assumed a customer was shoplifting and reported this assumption to a police officer visiting the store. 

“The police officer questioned the customer and quickly confirmed there was no theft.

“Based on the outcome, Staples issued a full refund to the customer.

“Staples has since conducted a full investigation into the matter, and determined that the manager in question did not follow correct protocol and also failed to adhere to our existing policy on how to interact with our customers. 

“As a result of this finding, the manager has been terminated and Staples has apologized to the customer.

At Staples, we want all customers to feel welcome in our stores, and work with our associates to foster an inclusive culture.

“As an organization, we would like to apologize to the customer as that was not the case in this instance.”

Bates told the news outlet that she hoped there would be changes to staff training about communication with customers, dealing with formal complaints, and sensitivity coaching.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Staples for comment.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/9760453/staples-accused-woman-stealing-lift-shirt-prove-innocence/