A Dollar Tree customer recorded an employee swearing at him and asking him to leave the store after he questioned her on camera for snatching away items he had paid for. Things escalated quickly.
TikToker @paddyfresh_ writes in a text overlay of the clip, which he uploaded to the popular social media application, “Got accused of stealing and my items taken out of my hand. So much fun.”
He then follows the Dollar Tree employee throughout the store and repeatedly asks her to “explain” on camera what just happened. His video has received 3.5 million views this week.
@paddyfresh_ Getting acused of stealing #dollartree #customerservice #fyp #blowitup #viral #dollartreedrama #retail #wrongfullyaccused #arizonacheck #altercation #discrimination #pisspoorcustomerservice #profiled #familydollar #accusedofstealing #familydollar @familydollar ♬ original sound – pmacdaddy_
She casually walks away from him and says that the second she discovers that he did indeed pay for the items she took from his hands that she will hand them back to him.
He asks her to confirm, again, whether or not she “physically” took the items out of his hands. Again, she repeats: “As soon as I find out that you actually paid for them…”
The worker stops walking outside of what appears to be a restroom and begins speaking to who is presumably another employee at the store: “Victoria sorry to bother you while you’re in the bathroom, did you sell a guy a body armor and some cold and flu meds?”
“Yes,” Victoria can be heard saying through the door.
The employee then hands the items back to the customer while saying, “Next time get a bag or your receipt.” The TikToker and the employee begin talking over one another in the video and it seems that from the nature of their conversation that her issue was that he left the store and came back in with the items in his hand, rather than in a bag and without a receipt proving his purchase.
However, @paddyfresh_ told the worker that she was attempting to “cover” for herself, which she denies in the clip before adding that she was simply enforcing the rules of the store.
“Do not try and walk out of store with stuff bare in your hand without a receipt proving you paid for it,” she says to the customer, who replied with, “You can’t say you’re sorry and that’s the biggest thing and that’s why I’m sending it to corporate, Monica.”
“That’s fine,” she tells him after asking him to leave the store while simultaneously waving him away.
“Because the biggest thing is that you can’t even apologize for being wrong,” he replies.
“I don’t care,” the Dollar Store employee says to him. “I don’t care,” she says again, “and that’s the point you don’t understand. Do not come back to this store.” She then turns around to return to work, until he continues to speak to her stating that he paid for his items.
The employee faces him and repeats, “Get out and do not come back to this store.”
“Thank you for just assuming I was stealing—”
“You’re very [expletive] welcome… now get the [expletive] away from me.”
“All I’m saying Monica is that you’re gonna be hearing about this.”
“I don’t give a [expletive],” she says as the video ends.
According to a text overlay in the video, the TikToker’s run-in with the employee occurred at a Dollar Tree located in Arizona.
Some commenters who saw the TikToker’s video couldn’t believe that the woman was taking her job so seriously, “gonna lose her job trying to ‘save’ multi-millionaires $2.50” while another person penned, “Monica. It’s the dollar tree. Not to mention you left the front end unattended. People could have gotten away with more.”
One TikTok user who said that they previously worked at a Dollar Tree location commented that the employee’s behavior wasn’t in line with official company policy.
@paddyfresh_ said he did reach out to corporate to alert them of the incident in a follow-up video and that he was told by a customer service representative that the issue was being escalated to “regional.”
In a third video, the TikToker said he received a call from corporate and that the employee in his clip, Monica, had given her two weeks notice to the business prior to the incident, and that they ended up terminating her position at the company earlier than she was originally scheduled to leave.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @paddyfresh_ via TikTok comment and Dollar Tree via email for further information.
Update 2:49pm CT April 26: In an email to the Daily Dot, a Dollar Tree spokesperson shared the following: “The associate in question is not reflective of our Dollar Tree values and appropriate action has been taken. We are in direct contact with the customer.”
