Hi everyone, sorry if this is a long post, I just wanted to get some advice.
I frequent this Coles every morning to do my shopping for work and dinner and whatnot, it is in the same building as my job.
I usually come in with a large bag and another smaller cloth bag as well that I put my shopping in. This morning I came in with both bags, and my cloth bag had some "overspill" of stuff from my purse (a large water bottle, a kindle, a small fan, some paperwork and a bottle of coke I had brought from home from the night before).
At one point in one of the aisles I had a paper in my hand with a recipe I was getting ingredients for and one of the pages fell out of my hand, onto the floor and I picked it up and put it back in my cloth bag.
As I get to the register, the employee rudely asks to look in my bags. Now I have been going to this Coles every weekday for the past year and never ever been asked to look in my bags so it shocked me and I asked him why. He rudely said, "We saw you put items in your bag and need to check." This is when I got mad, and I asked him if he was accusing me of stealing, he said that "Security saw you put stuff in your bag a few days ago and today." I told him to bring security up there. He calls a random guy from the back, I ask him if he's security and he says "No." So I ask the clerk why he is lying to me about this guy being security. The "security" he calls up says he saw me drop something in "aisle 5" and put it in my bag. I told him it was a piece of paper, and pull it from my bag. He then starts to get angry at me and tells me he knows I am stealing items from Coles. I get very angry at this as there is a lineup behind me (there is only one register open) and I pull out every item from my cloth bag and ask him if they sell these items. The last item I pull out is a small bottle of coke, which I say I got the day before. This bottle is warm, I hadn't stored it in the fridge. The guy grabs it from my hand and asks if I have a receipt, I tell him no I don't but it's WARM. He claims that he just "put the cokes in the fridge an hour ago" and I took this coke. I get really loud and mad at him and tell him to check the cameras and he gets all flustered and tells me to leave and if I come back in they will call the cops on me.
What rights do I have in this situation? I am afraid that they are going to show up at my work with cops or something because of a bottle of coke....also I am really upset I am not allowed back in there, I haven't done anything wrong...If I go back in and they call the cops on me what will happen? Thanks for reading my long post and thanks for anyone who can give me some advice.
I frequent this Coles every morning to do my shopping for work and dinner and whatnot, it is in the same building as my job.
I usually come in with a large bag and another smaller cloth bag as well that I put my shopping in. This morning I came in with both bags, and my cloth bag had some "overspill" of stuff from my purse (a large water bottle, a kindle, a small fan, some paperwork and a bottle of coke I had brought from home from the night before).
At one point in one of the aisles I had a paper in my hand with a recipe I was getting ingredients for and one of the pages fell out of my hand, onto the floor and I picked it up and put it back in my cloth bag.
As I get to the register, the employee rudely asks to look in my bags. Now I have been going to this Coles every weekday for the past year and never ever been asked to look in my bags so it shocked me and I asked him why. He rudely said, "We saw you put items in your bag and need to check." This is when I got mad, and I asked him if he was accusing me of stealing, he said that "Security saw you put stuff in your bag a few days ago and today." I told him to bring security up there. He calls a random guy from the back, I ask him if he's security and he says "No." So I ask the clerk why he is lying to me about this guy being security. The "security" he calls up says he saw me drop something in "aisle 5" and put it in my bag. I told him it was a piece of paper, and pull it from my bag. He then starts to get angry at me and tells me he knows I am stealing items from Coles. I get very angry at this as there is a lineup behind me (there is only one register open) and I pull out every item from my cloth bag and ask him if they sell these items. The last item I pull out is a small bottle of coke, which I say I got the day before. This bottle is warm, I hadn't stored it in the fridge. The guy grabs it from my hand and asks if I have a receipt, I tell him no I don't but it's WARM. He claims that he just "put the cokes in the fridge an hour ago" and I took this coke. I get really loud and mad at him and tell him to check the cameras and he gets all flustered and tells me to leave and if I come back in they will call the cops on me.
What rights do I have in this situation? I am afraid that they are going to show up at my work with cops or something because of a bottle of coke....also I am really upset I am not allowed back in there, I haven't done anything wrong...If I go back in and they call the cops on me what will happen? Thanks for reading my long post and thanks for anyone who can give me some advice.