A Black woman said she was detained outside a Target in Pennsylvania while pushing a cart of items she had already paid for. The encounter was captured on video at a store in Cheltenham Township, in Montgomery County and first shared on Instagram on August 13.
The woman, whose name, on Instagram, is Bre Dollaaz, handle @maci_mulatto, said an employee accused her of stealing the whole cart and that a police officer told her she was being detained. The employee later checked and apologized. The woman said she planned to file a lawsuit.
The video drew attention online, with many viewers questioning why she was stopped after paying. The woman has not been publicly identified, and her account has not been independently verified.
She Said She Was Shopping With Her Cousin
The woman said she and her cousin were both shopping and that she paid for her items while her cousin kept browsing.
She said she noticed a loss prevention officer watching them around the store and wondered whether he was targeting their purses. Her cousin also noticed staff alerting Starbucks employees to their presence, she said.
When the cousin’s items spilled over at self-checkout, an employee brought a second cart to help.
The Officer Detained Her at the Exit
As she left, pushing her cart and holding her receipt, an officer and an employee approached her.
In the video, she asked an employee, “Excuse me, ma’am, didn’t you just ring up my cart?”
“They’re saying I stole this whole cart of stuff,” Dollaaz said. The employee did not appear to deny the accusation on camera.
“I did not take anything from your store,” she said. “I have my receipt, my purse is here, I let y’all go through my purse, all my items are right here,” the woman added.
The officer then told Dollaaz she was being detained. She told him to look in her cart and said she had already let them go through her purse. She said that once the employee claimed she took everything in the cart, the officer put his hands on it.
The Employee Checked and Apologized
The officer and employee walked her back into the store with her items. She went to the counter and asked, “Excuse me, ma’am, didn’t you just ring up my cart? They’re saying I stole this whole cart of stuff.”
In another video posted on TikTok, the employee reviewed the footage and returned her receipt. “Alright, I checked it. You weren’t lying. So, that’s my apology,” he said.
She said, “I saw [the loss prevention officer] stare, looking jittery; I’m not going to lie. I thought he was going to try to steal our purses.”
How Viewers Reacted
Viewers left various comments on the Instagram video. Many viewers stated why people shop at Target. One said, “I WOULD’VE RETURNED EVERYTHING!!! That’s what y’all get still going in that damn store.”
Another commented, “How hard is it to check her receipts and everything in her cart right there at the front? Why did you have to bring her to the back to check it?”
Another said, “Sorry to say, but that’s what you get for. Going to Target, you already knew they were prejudiced.”
A viewer also said, “A real cop would know that if she stole something, she would never have stopped at Starbucks for a damn coffee.”
