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A woman in Houston, Texas, is accusing Walmart employees of falsely detaining her and her young daughter after they were wrongfully accused of stealing lip gloss. The mother, who shared a series of videos on TikTok, claimed they were taken into a private room inside the store without permission and treated as if they were criminals.
According to her, the situation happened shortly after she and her daughter had finished shopping and paid for their items at the self-checkout. The woman alleged that a Walmart worker stopped them, insisting that her daughter had not paid for a lip gloss. They were then made to go into a small room to be investigated.
Inside the room, the mother filmed as an employee began going through their cart while her daughter unpacked items one by one. “They said we didn’t pay for this,” the mother could be heard saying. “Scaring my daughter… you guys need to figure this out before you put a child in the middle of it.” She also kept reminding the staff present that every product had been scanned and paid for.
More on What Happened
The worker continued searching through their bags, questioning them about where some items were purchased. Later on, after he was done checking the cart and found that they hadn’t stolen anything, the woman demanded an apology. “You want to come and scare me and my daughter? No, that’s great… Do I get a gift card? I mean, what do I get?” she said.
The employee didn’t reply and kept putting their items back into the cart. However, when the child inquired about an apple pie they had taken out, the man went and picked it up from the floor, which made the mother angrier. “He just threw my food on the floor,” she said. The woman refused to accept the pie and demanded that he replace it when he tried to put it back into her cart.
Though the man removed the pie at first, he later returned it to the cart despite their continued requests for a replacement. When the woman and her child were finally allowed to leave, she said aloud, “Thank God we didn’t make a mistake on the scanner thing because they would really try to get us for that.” In her video caption, she also added that she intends to sue Walmart for false imprisonment, discrimination, and emotional distress.
Netizens React to Texas Mother and Child Being Detained by Walmart
On TikTok, the videos drew hundreds of comments from people expressing outrage over how the situation was handled. “I would have returned everything and got my money back,” one user said. Someone else commented, “The disrespect is outrageous. They need to learn to apologize when they are wrong.” A third user added, “When they are wrong, they act like they’re so busy looking for evidence, trying to figure out how to get you away from them.”
Another viewer even wondered why employees seem irritated after realizing a customer they had accused hadn’t stolen anything. “They have the nerve to be mad after they find out you didn’t steal nothing 🤣🤦🏾♀️ like how that work,” the person wrote. Some also advised the mother to take legal action, with one comment reading, “I’m pretty sure once they have you detained behind the door and then it’s proven you did not steal, you can sue.”
