A North Carolina woman who is eight months pregnant with twins was humiliated by a police officer who wrongly accused her of shoplifting items under her shirt, according to reports Monday.
“[The cop] pretty much jumped the gun without any type of evidence, except my stomach is large,” the shopper, Sherell Bates, told the local TV station WSOC. “That’s not fair. No mom should have to go through that.”
Bates was shopping for back-to-school supplies at Staples in Pineville on Friday when the cop stopped her near a checkout line — and asked what was under her shirt, she told WSOC.
“Initially, I thought he was joking, so my response was, ‘Twins,'” Bates said. “I’m 34 weeks with twins. I’m having a boy and a girl.”
The officer didn’t believe it was a baby bump — and asked her again what she was stealing, she said.
“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 told the station.
She was then let go by the officer — but the ordeal was so embarrassing, she now plans to sue, according to the station. “Being pregnant is already high-risk, and having to deal with that, just additional stress that I don’t need,” Bates said.
Pineville police later said a store manager had reported Bates and asked the cop to speak with her about “concealing merchandise,” according to the station.
Bates said the manager told her the same thing.
“When I confronted [the manager] about what happened, 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.
Staples released a statement saying employees “mistakenly” thought a customer was shoplifting.
“After a quick conversation, the issue was resolved, the manager apologized to the customer and refunded their transaction due to the inconvenience,” the statement said. “At Staples, we want all customers to feel welcome in our store, and work with our store associates to try and foster an inclusive culture. As an organization, we would like to apologize to the customer if that was not the case in this instance.”
