A recent incident between a Black couple and the staff at a Bed, Bath & Beyond store in Toledo, Ohio, has gone viral due to the racial profiling the two allegedly encountered while shopping.

Lamar Richards and his partner recently purchased a new home. Excited about their new journey as homeowners, they couldn’t wait to start getting the necessary items for their decor. They decided to go to a Bed, Bath & Beyond and ended up spending $600.

On their way out of the store, a police officer approached them to ensure they paid for everything in their shopping cart. He also informed them that an employee called the cops because they thought they were shoplifting.

Shocked, embarrassed and confused about why the police were called, Richards’ boyfriend requested to speak to a manager. In the video, he can be heard asking the store manager what caused one of her employees to call the cops.

“So, apparently someone called and said they thought maybe we were shoplifting or something,” his boyfriend said. “I would like to understand why they were called.”

The manager then asked if someone said anything to them, and they both referenced the officer standing next to them. Before the employee who accused the men of shoplifting came to the front, the manager mentioned this isn’t unusual when there are “big purchases” in one’s shopping basket. When the staff member joined the conversation and was asked why she called the authorities, she said, “It’s my right to call.”

In the video, the unnamed boyfriend shared that the call happened while he and his partner were shopping since they were in the store for a significant amount of time. He tried to explain to the workers that other things could’ve been done before taking action to dial 911, but both staff members said they “call the police all the time” because “they have our back.” An officer then jumped in and told the couple to “file a complaint” since they weren’t “getting anywhere.”

Richards wrote a series of tweets detailing his experience on Twitter and posted the initial video in a tweet with the following caption: “@BedBathBeyond in Toledo Ohio called the police on my boyfriend and I because we had ‘too many high ticket items in our cart.’ Remind you, it’s a closing sale so everything was 60% off.”

“I’ve have never felt so humiliated in my entire life. I sat in the car for more than an hr after this happened, praying asking God to give me peace and calm my anxiety,” he wrote in a series of tweets.

The store is receiving a ton of backlash from the public. Civil rights and personal injury attorney Benjamin Crump was one of the many people who were appalled that incidents like this continue to happen, and he tweeted his thoughts.

“A Black couple says an employee at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Toledo, Ohio, called the police on them for allegedly having ‘too many high ticket items’ in their shopping cart,” he tweeted. “They deserve answers for this humiliating experience!”

Bed-Bath-And-BeyondohioRacial discriminationRacial profilingshoplifting