A Black man filmed his encounter with employees at a Manhattan bodega who thoroughly frisked him after falsely accusing him of shoplifting.
Cellphone footage of the incident was posted to TikTok by @the.shimage.
In the video, the man accused of theft sets his phone down, then puts his hands behind his head as a bodega worker frisks him and checks his pockets.
The employee is seen rifling through the man’s pockets and removing his personal belongings, including his keys, his wallet, and his AirPods. The man welcomes the search just to prove his innocence.
“Feel free to go inside,” he repeats to the employee conducting the search. “I’ll get naked if I have to. Keep going … where else do you need to check?”
After the worker has exhausted his search for the mysterious missing store item, the man continues pressing the workers to search him.
When one employee accuses him of picking an item off the shelves, the man asks which item.
“Where is it?” the man repeatedly asks.
“I think you put it on you,” the bodega worker responds.
The man continues to press the worker for an answer on where the missing item is.
The bodega worker shouts in frustration, and the man encourages another staffer to search him again, prompting another brief frisk.
“Do you need me to spread? Do you need me to cough?” the man asks sarcastically.
After being asked again about the location of the missing item, a bodega worker repeats his earlier claim that he saw the man pull something off a shelf.
“Where is it?” the man asks again. “Check the camera. I’ll wait.”
The bodega worker finally drops the accusation, and the man leaves.
In the comments, he encourages viewers not to shop at the Libert Bagel Deli and Grocery on 9th Avenue.
Several people who commented on the video encouraged the man to sue the bodega or press charges.
“This is so dehumanizing,” one TikTok user commented.
“Nobody deserves to be treated like this,” another person wrote.
