‘Put Her in Handcuffs!’: Black Woman Forced Back Into Target After Worker Accuses Her of Stealing, Then He Checks the Video and Is Forced to Eat His Words
A woman is threatening legal action against Target after a Pennsylvania store wrongfully accused her of shoplifting.
The video, originally posted by @maci_mulatto on Instagram on Wednesday, showed the woman getting stopped by a police officer. The incident happened at a Target in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania.
In the video, an officer, followed by an employee, is shown the woman as she walks out of the store, pushing her cart full of items and carrying her receipt.
“I did not take nothing from y’all’s store,” she said. “I have my receipt, my purse is here, I let y’all go through my purse, all my items are right here.”
It appears the employee first made the accusation inside the store, before the video started recording.
The officer told the woman she needed to go to the office inside the store because she was under investigation.
“I did not steal something out of y’all’s store, so now I’m feeling some type of way,” the woman told the officer.
The woman told the officer to look at her cart after he told her she was detained. She remained calm and pointed out that she was complying with the officer’s commands.
(@maci_mulatto)The employee loomed behind the officer during the exchange.
“We can go back to the office now, or we could go back in handcuffs; either way, we have to go back to the office,” the officer said.
The officer and employee then escorted the woman back into the store with all of her items. She made sure to walk over to the employee who rang her up to confirm that she had, in fact, paid for all of her items.
“Excuse me, ma’am, didn’t you just ring up my cart?” she asked the employee. “They’re saying I stole this whole cart of stuff.”
The employee could not be seen nodding on camera, but she did not deny ringing the woman up.
In another video posted by @maci_mulatto, the camera is on the employee who was following the officer in the first video. He is sitting in the back office in front of several computer monitors.
You could also see the woman’s Target cart in the shot, with her purse. The employee stared at the computer for a long time before telling the woman what he had learned.
“Alright, I checked it. You wasn’t lying. So that’s my apology. Um, here ya go your receipt,” the employee said before the video cut out.
Many people online thought the entire interaction between the officer, employee, and the woman was insane.
“No one steals and buys Starbucks,” @dtcolbert08 wrote on Instagram, referring to the woman’s Starbucks drink she was holding in the video.
The woman may have a legal case for claims like false imprisonment, false arrest, or defamation. Winning would depend heavily on specific details, such as whether she was physically detained, how long she was held, and if the store acted without reasonable suspicion.
“I’ve done loss prevention for almost 10 years; you definitely have a settlement on your hands,” @msbudgetfriendly rebutted.
“If you want, you can come join us in a Target boycott. We’ve been doing it for a while, and we’d love to have you,” @domodraper wrote, referring to the Target boycott that began in 2025.
The boycott started after the retailer scaled back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and Pride merchandise last year.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to the account that posted the video and to Target but has not heard back.