The accused, a Parkrand woman, said she felt her rights were violated because of the store employee’s suspicion that the motive for her frequent visits to the store was to steal.
The woman told the Advertiser that she visited the store on May 24 as part of her regular visits to the branch to collect her prescription medication. On that day, she also decided to buy a few other items.
While shopping, she picked some items including eyelashes, which she intended to buy. However, she later changed her mind and decided not to buy the eyelashes, which she then left on another shelf in the store.
She went to pay for her items but was then intercepted by staff (a security guard) when trying to leave the store, being accused of shoplifting the eyelashes.
Although the eyelashes in question were according to the woman not found in her possession and nothing stolen was found in her handbag, the staff still decided to detain her at the shop, where she was allegedly verbally abused while being interrogated about the eyelashes and frequenting the store.
The woman said she explained to the employees about the eyelashes, she initially intended to buy them, but changed her mind and left them on another shelf in the store. Apparently, her interrogators refused to believe her story nor to let her go, and they called the police.
She was kept in the store until the police arrived, and was later arrested, put in a police van and taken to the Boksburg police station, where she was charged and held for several hours. Her car was driven by one of the police officers to her home in Parkrand.
The store employee had allegedly called the police and told them that the woman may have stolen from them big time as she frequents the shop and was on the day acting suspiciously.
While the woman was detained at the police station, the family said they received a call from a man who introduced himself as a lawyer and offered to assist the woman to get bail. It is unclear who made this arrangement because the family claims they had no idea how the lawyer got to know about the incident.
The lawyer reportedly told the family that they had to pay him R2 500 to help the accused apply for an R500 bail, and avoid spending the night in the police cells.
The desperate family said they felt forced to succumb to pressure to pay the amount to get their loved one out of detention, and they paid the R2 500 and the R500 for bail.
The woman was then released and summoned to appear in the magistrate’s court the following day, where the charge of theft against her was not placed on the court roll.
The said lawyer allegedly demanded more money from the family who told him that they don’t have more money. They instead gave him the bail slip to collect the money for himself from the police station.
She said she committed no crime, yet she was detained without reasonable evidence.
The woman has not indicated whether she would consider filing a lawsuit against the retailer and the police department.
The accused and her family said they were all harmed by the ordeal as it caused them emotional trauma, humiliation and anxiety, some of which may be permanent.
The Boksburg police spokesperson, Sgt Ntsako Ledwaba, was approached for comment on the case but had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
However, after sharing with the Boksburg police the woman’s account of what she said transpired at the store, a police officer commented by saying if nothing stolen was found in the woman’s possession, there was no reasonable evidence to detain her for hours in jail cells.
“Even if the store staff suspected and accused her of shoplifting, there is no other rational basis that I can think of that would have led our members to arrest the woman.”
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