A woman slammed Publix’s response after her car was hit by a shopping cart in the Publix parking lot. She says the store is denying her the surveillance footage.
TikTok user Myriam (@myriamestrella8) posted a video on Monday. It shows her in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store. In the video’s text overlay, she wrote, “POV: when a shopping cart gets RAMMED into your new car but Publix REFUSES to release the footage to you after they watched it.”
Myriam added in the caption, “Why all the secrecy @Publix ??” The video has amassed more than 352,000 views as of Tuesday evening. In the comments section, users weighed in on the situation and offered advice for how Myriam might handle the situation moving forward.
One user wrote, “They have to show police but aren’t required to show regular customers. Call PD, ask them to come take an accident report and review the camera footage for insurance purposes.”
A second user agreed. “File a police report. They have to show it to the cops. My daughter’s car was stolen and they wouldn’t show her the footage but they showed police,” they wrote.
@myriamestrella8 Why all the secrecy @Publix ♬ original sound – †
What should you do if your car gets hit in a private parking lot?
It obviously depends on the location and the business in question, but security camera footage outside businesses like Publix can capture fair amounts of the parking lot. And the CCTV footage can be stored for sometimes as long as 90 days. But that doesn’t always mean you’ll get the footage by asking the business directly.
A Quora user asked, “Can I ask to see the security cameras at Walmart or other retail stores?”
One of the replies came from a former Walmart employee. “I worked at the service desk. We occasionally got requests for the video from the parking lot, mostly for someone hitting their car while they shopped, but sometimes for a break in. I always had to tell them that they aren’t allow to have or see tapes, but when the incident is reported to the police the tapes can be released to them instead.”
She continued, “Give the police all the information you have regarding the times and location of your car in the parking lot, and Walmart will absolutely release whatever tapes the police need.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Myriam via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. We also reached out to Publix via email for comment.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.