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Old Navy Accuses A Black Customer Of Stealing The Jacket He Walked In With And Immediately Regrets it

An FML moment with a happy ending: James Conley’s Facebook post about the incident went viral and he has plans to file a lawsuit.

According to whotv.com James Conley III was checking out at the Old Navy in West Des Moines, Iowa when he was racially profiled and asked if he would like to pay for the jacket he was wearing.

Conley did not take this lying down. After explaining that this jacket was a Christmas gift, he began to film the incident. And he's got to be happy he did, because what he got next was pure gold.

Wait, what? They couldn’t think of a better excuse than that? So they're saying you can’t re-enter any Old Navy that you’ve previously purchased clothes from with said clothes without having the workers there humiliate you to make sure you didn’t steal it? What kind of policy is that? Either a fake one, made up on the spot to cover up their blatant racial profiling or the literal worst company policy in existence. But, we’re gonna go with the former.

If it wasn’t bad enough that they simply did not believe him after he told them the jacket was a Christmas gift, you think they’d believe him after he insisted they check the security cameras. 

Rightfully so, Old Navy, which is owned by Gap Inc., responded to the incident:

Well, at least this terrible story of discrimination has a happy ending that will teach you never to racially profile anyone. All three employees who were involved in the incident were fired, and the West Des Moines Old Navy even temporarily closed due to the exorbinate amount traction gained from Conley’s Facebook post, which currently sits at 116,000 likes and nearly 156,000 shares. Conley also plans to file a civil rights complaint and then a civil damages lawsuit.

The internet has got your back, Conley.

By Nadine / Tuesday 6 February 2018 12:29 /
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By  NostalgiaFreak9  |  40

And sadly, people want to insist that racism is dead. It's pretty much those kind of people want to dismiss it just because they haven't been victims of it themselves. Yeah, we have anti-discrimination laws, but news flash, not everybody obeys them. Just like how we have laws against actions such as murder and rape, but guess what? There are people who still perpetrate them.

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By  Gina Marie Lombardi  |  11

I’m sorry this happened to you. NO ONE DESERVES THAT! I know this won’t make you feel any better, but I (white female) was accused of stealing from one as well. I had a pair of their cheap flip flops on they argued with me that I didn’t pay for. They actually called police on me. First off the police even said you could see that the shoes weren’t new and I’ve been wearing them and then asked manager if we needed to watch video. No apologies or anything and that was 8 years ago and I have not shopped there since

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By  NostalgiaFreak9  |  40

And sadly, people want to insist that racism is dead. It's pretty much those kind of people want to dismiss it just because they haven't been victims of it themselves. Yeah, we have anti-discrimination laws, but news flash, not everybody obeys them. Just like how we have laws against actions such as murder and rape, but guess what? There are people who still perpetrate them.

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  wolf_wizard1134  |  9

People who claim racism is gone are just sick of kissing ass for crimes our great grandparents committed, did you know that slavery has been around since the beginning of human civilization?
1) territories grew, 2) two groups noticed eachother, 3) they tried to kill eachother, 4) the more powerful group killed the men from the other group, 5) destroyed their Gods (as well as any form of art honoring them), 6) replaced said Gods, and 7) kept the women and children as slaves, then they returned to step one. I point that out to prove that white people didn't come up with this once they encountered black people.
If we keep apologizing and go with the current logic then if you kill me and die my kid can kill your kid, my kids kid can kill your grandchildren ECT. Slavery is a horrible event in humanities past however it could easily have happened if black people were bigger brutes than the white people at the time. So I'm not sorry, Instead of excusing the store workers crime as racism, call out the people as assholes and treat them as human criminals. NOT white criminals.

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  SneezyBear  |  27

Idk what you're rambling about but this is clearly racist because the man was treated differently because of his RACE.

Also, slavery has existed for millennia BUT it was Europeans who invented chattel slavery. But that's still not relevant to anything going on in this post.

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By  OCD_NME  |  17

Too many negative votes, comment buried. Show the comment

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  mike3775  |  32

He stated that “other NON BLACK” guests did not have to endure what he did. The actions of the staff was racist. He would have no case if they did that to every other customer, but they didn’t, just to the black person, which is racism.
even Old Navy themselves knew they were screwed due to the video, because they would not immediately fire those three if they did not think they did anything wrong, because they would then be sued for wrongful termination by the three, but because the guy recorded it, it was justifiable

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  Dana Stubbs Weeks  |  4

You have to have proof of guilt, or you'd have random people just accusing random people. We don't want those things being subjective at one person's whims, cause that's when you get stuff like RACIAL PROFILING.

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  Compass5000  |  5

As someone who has worked in customer service for the majority of my adult life, your response is absurd. I could forgive the cashier's original question, but the moment a customer says "oh no, this is mine" you drop the topic and wish them a nice day. The fact that 3 employees continued to lie about non-existent policies and humiliated this young man is unforgivable.

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  NostalgiaFreak9  |  40

If he were guilty of shoplifting, he wouldn't have asked the district manager to pull up the surveillance tape to prove that he had walked in with the jacket, because if he was trying to steal the jacket, there obviously wouldn't be a video of him wearing it as he walked into the store. And what clothing store scans your clothes to make sure you aren't stealing just because the clothes you're wearing happen to be from that store?

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  OCD_NME  |  17

I was just saying that it could have nothing to do with the colour of his skin. He wasn't stopped for being black and accused without cause here. It was because he was wearing a jacket they sell there. I assumed that they didn't see him come in with it and that they didn't lie about store policy (many policys go ignored and are only brought up when relevant). Then if head office saw him come in with the jacket on camera and he was obviously not stealing. Then they fired the employees out of fear of backlash because the race card was played. But then the employees who wern't being racist got fired because they were white and stereotyped as racists. Which is racist.

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  PhoenixChick  |  26

Where did it say the three employees fired were white?

Where did old navy confirm that this WAS their policy- they clearly said it WAS NOT

Even if the three employees had some other odd reason to think that he was stealing the jacket (and no, a customer wearing your product is not enough) like he had a strange tick where he looked over his shoulder all suspiciously...those employees are still required to follow store policy. Which they weren't. So they were fired.

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  mike3775  |  32

They were racist. At any time those three could have said “ aww shucks, we messed up. Sorry sir, have a gift card as our apology”, but they didn’t. Instead they kept up the lies and it cost them their jobs. In this instance, the race card was played, by the three racist employees who made up a set of rules for the black customer but not the other customers

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  Mortimer14  |  9

I've been an adult for over 40 years and no store has ever scanned the clothes that I was wearing to ensure they were not stolen. Never happened to me.

If these employees weren't accusing him because he was black, then why were non-black customers NOT treated the same way??? 100% racist, no matter how you want to try and spin it.

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By  Gina Marie Lombardi  |  11

I’m sorry this happened to you. NO ONE DESERVES THAT! I know this won’t make you feel any better, but I (white female) was accused of stealing from one as well. I had a pair of their cheap flip flops on they argued with me that I didn’t pay for. They actually called police on me. First off the police even said you could see that the shoes weren’t new and I’ve been wearing them and then asked manager if we needed to watch video. No apologies or anything and that was 8 years ago and I have not shopped there since

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  Mortimer14  |  9

Good deal, I would definitely not return to a store where I was treated that way. But, I would also tell all my friends and anybody else who would listen. Most of those people would also boycott that store.

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By  LtCmdrData  |  11

There is a store that doesn't bother with theft prevention at all. One of the side effects is they avoid any of these dumbass employee moves. cost vs benefits

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  DragonMaiden7  |  15

How odd, a man wearing a coat, a beanie and buying hoodies in the middle of winter. It must do with his race!

Were you born this dumb, or did you have to work all your life at being this dumb?

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By  Shzusuziq  |  15

I'm not sure if this is because of race. years ago I had a store run after me in the mall and ask to pay for the shirt I stole. they drug me back to the store, called the police when they didn't see a shirt in my purse, and made the police walk me to my car, where they looked in it, and made me open the trunk. Needless to say, there was no shirt. I was a 30 year old white woman.

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By  Ragnar Scott  |  2

Who decided it was based on his race? Maybe he was just acting shady, had shoplifted before and they were on high alert at his next visit... who knows. Coulda been anything. If it’s automatically “racism” every time a white person says anything about a black person (regardless of whether it’s ACTUALLY based on race or not).... well shit, man. We’ve backpedaled a good 60 years by way of equality.

I’m getting awful tired of everyone crying wolf without anything other than their own “strong opinion” to validate the claim.

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  Mortimer14  |  9

The part where he said there were non-black people wearing the same coat and not being treated like thieves is what did it for me. Or did you not bother to read the whole post?

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By  Kandice Kopp  |  8

It's amazing how many people have stated they don't see any racism in this story just rudeness leave me to believe either they're dumb as f**k or you didn't read the ENTIRE article. yes he could've been acting shady which led them to ask him to pay for a coat he wore in. however I don't believe that's the case, I've worked retail as well as customer service and it's not typical for a thief to even go to a cashier. if they're gonna steal a coat why not steal everything? given that he states others were wearing the same coat but weren't treated as he was PLUS the fact that white people coming in weren't approached about scanning their clothes shows this is in fact very racist. so you ignorant people debating otherwise needs to shut the f**k up!!!

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By  Immortal_Toaster  |  23

Okay no, this dude walked into Old Navy wearing an Old Navy jacket that he got as a gift a few months prior, and it still had the price tags on it. When the cashier saw the tags she and asked if he was going to buy that, he pulled out his phone and started going on about "Racism and descrimination!!!" No. This dude did this on purpose, just so he could have a reason to get a civil lawsuit case and get free money just for being black. This dude is a scumbag that got three employees fired just for doing their damn job. Not only that, but finding future employment is now going to be insanely difficult for them because they're now branded as racists.

TL;DR That man is a snake looking for easy money.

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  pins91  |  27

Where did you get this information?

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