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| California woman was harassed by the cops after Safeway employees called them. They accused her of being a shoplifter. |
Erika Martin was giving food to a homeless man outside the store. She never stepped foot inside the store and felt the employees called the law on her because she was Black.
Erika Martin told the junk food media that the incident occurred when she stopped at the store last month to help a homeless man she knew hung out there. She gave him a bag of dog food and some treats for his pit bull. Her two sisters were also there and gave two men care packages with soap, toothpaste, hand sanitizer and other hygiene products.
"I help the homeless as much as I can. I see homeless people weekly and I try help them the best that I can," Martin said.
Martin said her son, who's about to turn 10, and her nieces and nephews went into the store to see if the bakery was giving out free cookies and to get samples from the deli.
Martin stayed outside and talked to her sisters and the man to whom she gave the dog food.
She said a Safeway employee came out of the store, looked directly at her and rushed back inside, which she thought was strange.
As Martin prepared to leave, two police cars drove up and one stopped behind her so she couldn't back out of her parking place. They asked why she was there and if she had any warrants, Martin said. She told them that she'd never even had a parking ticket.
Mountain View Police spokeswoman Katie Nelson said that a Safeway employee called the police and to report a theft in progress. Five officers were dispatched to interview store employees and the Martin family.
"It was extremely clear to us that no one who had been identified was potentially involved in any sort of criminal activity, and we explicitly said as much to Safeway employees," Nelson said.
Martin said one of the officers told her that Safeway had called the police because she matched the description of someone taking items from the store and said the suspect was wearing a spaghetti-strap shirt.
Martin said she was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt that said "Y'all need Jesus," and had not even gone into the store. Nelson said the description "somewhat matched" the top one of Martin's sisters was wearing.
The employee told the police that the children were running back and forth to a car parked outside.
"During the initial dispatch call, a Safeway employee informed our dispatcher that both employees and customers believed a man and a woman as well as children were working together to try and take items from the store," Nelson said.
"Racism still exists," said Martin.
Martin makes care packages for the homeless people in the Bay Area. She decided to do a good deed for those who couldn't afford a decent meal. Trust me, in Trump's Amerikkka, you're not going to get quality food at reasonable prices.
"The police just blocks me in and I'm like 'what's going on?'" she told the junk food media. "Then [the officer] was like, 'Well, we were called here because you fit the description of someone taking items out of Safeway and bringing it back to your car.'"
The officer asked if they had taken any cookies and he said no.
"My son was crying so much, he was so scared because he thought he did something wrong. He thought the police were going to arrest him for looking behind the counter," she said. "To see my child in so much fear broke my heart."
She said police let them go after about 30 minutes.
"In that short amount of time, we not only determined that no crime occurred, we explicitly told Safeway employees as such. None of the people Safeway identified in their call to us nor in their subsequent interview with us committed any crime whatsoever," Nelson said.
"We were very appreciative of the way the family allowed our officers to wrap up the call, and we apologized for inconveniencing their evening," she said.
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