A woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Macy's claiming that the famous retailer enacts a "coercive collection practice" of detaining minority shoppers in holding cells, regardless of whether they've done anything wrong, and then extorting them for bogus fines.
Cinthia Carolina Reyes Orellana states in her lawsuit, which you can read in full below, that she was detained at the Macy's located in Herald Square on July 18th, 2014. She claims that a guard brought her to a holding cell under suspicion that she was planning to steal a set of shirts. According to the lawsuit, she was held and questioned there for three hours, wasn't allowed to call her lawyer or family, and was forced to sign legal papers admitting her guilt. Macy's also allegedly made her pay a $100 fine in cash before they turned her over to the NYPD.
"This coercive collection practice or scheme has become so profitable that Macy's...has dedicated an entire unit within its existing store, which operates like a typical jail, equipped with holding cells, where alleged shoplifters are held for hours on end, and are pressured, threatened, and often harassed until they find no reprieve but to make civil penalty payments to [Macy's]," the suit states.
Her attorney Faruk Usar, of Usar Law Group, says that Macy's has pulled this scheme on thousands of minority shoppers, and hopes that this suit will encourage more victims to come forward. "We believe it is tens of thousands of people who have had this experience," he told us. "Macy's has acknowledged that between October 2012 to October 2013, their security has detained 6,000 customers in New York State alone."
Macy's has been sued several times in recent years for similar-sounding incidents. In 2013, rookie NYPD officer Jenny Mendez claims she lost her job when she was erroneously accused of shoplifting from Macy's on Black Friday. During the trial, the store detective testified that she checked "yes" in a section of her report in which it asks if Mendez admitted to the theft: "[The detective] said she lied about the confession because it was 'something our boss told us' to do, according to court records."
In 2014, the company agreed to a series of reforms, as well as a $650,000 settlement, to address complaints of racial profiling at the Herald Square location. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, which had headed the investigation into the company, concluded that Macy's "loss prevention employees at the store tracked and followed African-American, Latino, and other minority customers much more frequently than white customers."
But Usar believes it is more about greed than racism: "We believe that race is one component of this," he told us. "We believe that the driving force behind this shoplifting prevention practice is to generate revenue, which defendants are able to do pursuant to NY General Obligations Law Section 11-105. This suit aims to challenge the constitutionality of this statute, and put an end to its disparate impact on New York City shoppers."
Macy's did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. But a spokesperson told TIME, "Our company takes great pride on the proactive steps we have taken in recent years as an industry leader in shopping equality. In fact, we sponsored a first-ever symposium hosted last fall at John Jay College by the Retail Council of New York State to discuss how all retailers can improve the shopping experience across all segments of the population."
