Woman throws fit after allegedly shoplifting at black-owned business

A woman in San Francisco was seen throwing a fit on a store’s parking lot after witnesses say she was caught shoplifting in a black-owned business. 

"It’s just disappointing because these are all up and coming new businesses and they really can’t afford to have items stolen. I mean 4 or 5 items can change the trajectory of their business. It’s just unfortunate," Richard Bougere, a popular San Francisco rapper who owns the Pop Up Shop with his wife Danielle Banks, said of the woman accused of stealing from his store.

Employees say the woman put several items, including a bathing suit, in her bag while shopping at the store. 

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She was confronted over the theft, and video shows the woman yelling at who appears to be a security official on a parking lot, and flashing the middle finger to a person filming the scene. 

The Pop Up Shop got the items back, and shared the incident to illustrate how shoplifting in the city hurts businesses and is spreading.

"When you’re taking from somebody, you’re really taking from what they’ve been trying to build. They’re trying to invest in their kids. Some of the brands are mother and child owned," Danielle Banks said.

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The store opened this summer and features products from Bay Area artists, including Akeem Diaz who also witnessed the alleged shoplifting. 

"I get we’re in the middle of a pandemic, and I get that people are going through financial crises you know with the wealth gap continuing to widen. But she wasn’t in there stealing necessities. She was trying to steal to get cute," Diaz said. 

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The incident isn’t an isolated one, with business owners and security officials in San Francisco recently decrying the "lawlessness" in the city over shoplifting. 

"This is really bad. I’ve been in the Bay area 20 years, I’ve never seen this," a local security guard, J.C. Hernandez, told Fox News.

"It’s just lawlessness," he added. "People are just openly coming in and stealing stuff."

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Cases of shoplifting have also been witnessed near Los Angeles, where two men were seen on camera this week brazenly leaving a TJ Maxx store with their arms full of shoplifted items. 

"They didn’t even run out, they walked out," Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Jerretta Sandoz told CBS LA of the incident. "And so, that’s sending a message that we, the criminals, are winning."

July 23, 2021 at 01:08AM
Emma Colton
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