Man films 'racist' encounter at Old Navy where he's accused of stealing his own jacket

  • 03/02/2018

A US man says he's the victim of racial profiling after workers at an Old Navy store accused him of stealing the jacket he wore into the shop.

James Conley III walked into one of the clothing giant's stores in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday wearing a blue jacket from the retailer that he got for Christmas.

When he went to the counter to buy some hoodies, he was asked if he wanted to also buy the jacket he was wearing.

"First, I started laughing because I didn't believe what I was hearing," Mr Conley III wrote on Facebook.

"He [the store manager] says 'anytime someone wears Old Navy clothing they have to always scan that customers clothing to insure that it was previously purchased'. (Where do they do that at?)"

"Every time I go to this store I have on my same exact winter blue jacket and have never been asked to scan my clothing and the previous "non-black" customers had on identical apparel as me from old navy but was never asked to scan their clothing."

Mr Conley III said when the district manager arrived at the store, he asked her to check surveillance tape of him walking into the store wearing the jacket.

"Once she confirmed that I was telling the truth (after watching the tape) she never came back out to apologise to me nor did the store manager Beau Carter."

Mr Conley III's videos of the incident have gone viral on Facebook, getting more than 139,000 shares.

Old Navy apologised over the incident on its Facebook page, saying the man had been discriminated against.

Newshub.