A chaotic scene at a Washington state mall is sparking outrage online after Zara employees chased a Black woman over a suspected theft that police later confirmed never happened. Turns out she was innocent. Now, the woman is supposedly planning some intense legal action, and her videos have since gone viral several times over.
The incident, which took place at a Zara store in Lynwood, Washington, went viral after TikTok creator Douniya, known online as @itsdouniya, shared footage of herself being pursued by multiple store employees. In the clips, she is seen running through the mall, past the food court, and into the parking garage, with workers following closely behind and attempting to stop her.
According to Douniya, employees accused her of stealing merchandise, specifically a pink dress. But when police arrived and conducted a search, they found no stolen items in her possession. Bodycam footage, something Douniya also shared, shows officers questioning the employees, who struggled to clearly identify what had allegedly been taken. At one point, an officer noted that no merchandise was found in her car, only personal belongings, including a baby blanket.
“They did so much math, but it wasn’t adding up,” Douniya later said in a TikTok post. She also claimed employees grabbed her during the profiling, adding, “This is not loss prevention; it was the employees at Zara.” Surveillance footage appears to contradict the workers’ claims that she fled the store abruptly, instead showing her calmly leaving before being confronted. Despite this, employees continued pursuing her across multiple areas of the mall.
People Online are Calling Out Zara
The backlash was swift, and it wasn’t enough for many people to voice out their concerns and criticisms in the comment sections. Many of them even review-bombed Zara’s Yelp page, and it got so bad that Zara had to temporarily block posting. Meanwhile, TikTok users have pointed out that the particular Zara branch allegedly has an issue.
“Just insane cause those reviews went back to over a year ago! they showed that they have an actual serious issue with discrimination and rudeness at this location I read a lot of them last night,” according to a TikToker. As for Douniya’s course of action, some suggestions might as well be all-out war.
“Civil suit against the employees, and then sue Zara,” according to one commenter. Another commenter echoed the sentiment, saying, “SUE . Zara will settle they are currently filing for bankruptcy.” Even the state of Zara’s products were spared scrutiny, as one commenter pointed out, “zara ain’t got nothing in there worth chasing, no shade.”
