A viral TikTok video posted on Nov. 5 shows a child wearing sneakers with price tags while standing in a Kohl's department store checkout line.
"I'm over here in Kohl's minding my own business," wrote Jennifer Wall (@wallstreet37), who posted the video. "You don't know what someone else is going through." The statement implied that the child or their guardian could be stealing the shoes.
By Monday, the video had more than 2.5 million views.
Wall posited that the child might have been forced to keep the tags on his shoes in the video's caption. In the comments, she wrote that it would be "odd" that a "13-year-old boy" would take his shoes off at the register to check out because the shoes still had the security tag on them.
"Maybe for a toddler, but not a grown boy," she wrote.
Commenters on Wall's video disagreed with her assessment and thought she overstepped. People suggested various reasons besides theft that the child might be wearing shoes with a price tag.
"1. You're assuming his age. 2. He may be special needs. 3. You, in fact, are not minding your business," wrote @buysellforfun. "4. Who are you to judge another parent?"
"It's fairly common to try on shoes, put them on, and put the old ones in the box," commented @jillybutton88.
User @jeeperscreepers.2021 also thought that the kid was just wearing the new shoes out of the store. "I used to just cuz I was excited to have new shoes."
"Could be," Wall responded. "Either way I ain't no snitch."
"Too many people on phone cameras," wrote user @dmdn2021. "Like you ain't never been a kid."
The Daily Dot has reached out to Wall and Kohl's.
