On May 15th,2024 at around 11:50p.m. I visited a ralphs grocery store in my local area and was there only to use the public restroom. while inside the stall one of the ralphs employee, (a man) came into the women's restroom, banging on the wall yelling that it was close to closing time, after i responded to the man, he entered into the restroom and swung open the stall door, where I was clearly still using the restroom, and proceeded to yell about closing time. this made me incredibly uncomfortable and vulnerable; he saw my bag on the floor and proceeded to grab it and began pulling my belongings from my bag, still alone with me inside the stall, accusing me of theft and began leaving the restroom with my bag in hand, and still yelling vulgar terms about me, and at me, until I managed to catch up with him towards the front of the store; pleading my innocence, and reminding the man i was just there to use the bathroom, my belongings were not from Ralphs at all; I wasn't there to shop, finally he stopped walking away from me, turning towards my direction, verbally attacked me, and criticized my facial features, he made fun of the way I looked, and began yelling more theft accusations at me, he was very intimidating and unprofessional, and the manager working by self-check-out, must have heard him, and without any thought or inquiry into the reason for the incident going on, proceeded to lock the door, so I couldn't vacate, and i felt trapped and violated. There are now about 7 other customers locked inside with me watching this go on, all finding humor in the criticism of my appearance, and accusations of theft and being demeaned. I kept insisting that they stop, check their cameras before acting with such hatred and bias, or to call the cops. without any reconsideration, him and the manager began both calling me inappropriate names and criticizing my reputation and announcing to the customers trapped inside the store watching this happen, that i was no good, and a thief and countless other remarks to humiliate me and demean my character. I clearly was uncomfortable and felt they were attacking me and put on quite the embarrassing show in front of these customers! I kept requesting they call the cops, because it would hopefully stop the hostility and accusations, and they denied doing those multiple times. This incident carried on to the point that the manager finally unlocked the door for the other people to leave, and when the door was opened, the male employee threw one of my items from my bag outside the front door, and said a few more unjustified, inappropriate, unjustified remarks about me, and while i was walking to retrieve my property from the ground, he threw another one of my items at the back of my head, and luckily i turned in the right amount of time to get out of the way from it, and it crashed into their metal carts. This could have seriously injured me if i hadn't gotten out of the way. Needless to say, this entire incident was based on no factual basis, the employees hadn't seen me shoplifting, nor was there any camera footage of me doing so. after i was outside the store and saw there was a small gathering of concerned citizens watching from the entrance, and when the employee came out again to verbally insult my intelligence and demean my character even more, the other people out-front the store began insisting he was incorrect with his actions, and could have hurt me, and asking for the man to go back inside the store. about 10 minutes later the police arrived, and stopped me in reference to the employees calling stating I was shoplifting, I told them what had happened, and one of the officers went into the store to review camera footage, and came back and apologized for whatever I went through, and reluctantly told me I was no longer allowed to enter Ralphs anymore, even though I was innocent of this accusation, and they had factual proof of my innocence, at the employees request, by law, it's their right to have the officers inform me I am no longer wanted me to go there and if I do I could/will be arrested for trespassing! This ended on May 16th, 2024, around 1:30a.m.
. Plus, the embarrassing intrusion of my privacy, left me feeling violated. The complete disregard for my reputation among my peers, that now will judge me and see me as some criminal or thief because the accusations and prejudiced language the employees chose to humiliate me with while they were forced to watch until the door was unlocked.
This is unprofessional, and inappropriate to say the least and shouldn't be tolerated by any means, i feel helpless because even the stores management at the time, took part in attacking me, and never once made herself or the other employee responsible for their actions mor has there been repercussions towards them for this. I am going to pursue this matter within my rights and to the fullest extent of the law in California regarding my Privacy rights and Consumer Protection laws.
Claimed loss: Damages to my property that the employee threw at me, and on the floor outside the entrance, each item valued at $52.99 usd, according to the Ralphs.com.
Desired outcome: I would like to know those two employees have serious repercussions for their actions. I have already contacted the appropriate legal representation, and can legally proceed with this matter, in leu of financial compensation if necessary.
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