H&M shopper wrongly accused of stealing earrings from store by officers, pulling 'race card’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A black woman is accusing H&M of racially profiling her while she was shopping. (iStock)
An H&M shopper was falsely accused of shoplifting at a Pembroke Pines, Fla., mall last Tuesday — a mistake she says was racially motivated.
Daniela Taylor, a black woman, was at the fast fashion chain to return some earrings and buy a new pair, she said to CBS Miami. When she was leaving the store, she said two loss prevention officers approached her and publically accused her of stealing the items she had just purchased.
“It was a black thing. Period. I wasn’t the only person in there. Why me?” she said to CBS Miami.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}H&M APOLOGIZES FOR 'COOLEST MONKEY' SWEATSHIRT AD FEATURING BLACK CHILD
Taylor said one of the loss prevention officers, who work for H&M through a third party company, threatened her with jail time.
“He’s like, ‘That’s it. You’re going to jail.’ I’m like, ‘but for what?’” she asked, CBS Miami reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Taylor said she was especially upset by the comment because it was made by a black man.
“I’m cursing because obviously I have already told him I didn’t do anything. I said, ‘You should understand where I’m coming from. If you were on the other end of the table, you should understand how they do us these days.’ He said, ‘Don’t pull the race card on me,’” said Taylor.
H&M STORES DESTROYED OVER CONTROVERSIAL 'COOLEST MONKEY' HOODIE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Once the loss prevention team reviewed the security footage tape, they realized Taylor had not stolen anything.
Taylor said the officer apologized to her, but she wants more extensive training to be done for the security H&M hires.
“They need to be better at who they hire. They really need to look into people and do the extensive training that needs to be done,” said Taylor to CBS Miami.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a statement to Fox News, H&M said the third-party security company was let go.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
“We are aware of the incident that took place in our Pembroke Lakes Mall location. Unfortunately this was a misunderstanding and we are sorry. We have since let go of the third party security company that was involved and we are reviewing our internal procedures to make sure this type of incident does not happen again and that our routines are properly followed. We have been in touch with the customer to follow up on the steps we have taken.”