Aboriginal father claims Big W worker ‘grabbed’ his innocent four-year-old daughter and wrongly accused her of STEALING – but cops have a different version of events
- Michael Donovan took his daughters to a Big W store in South Australia
- He claimed his daughter was assaulted and accused of stealing from the store
- SA Police said they reviewed the footage and no one was assaulted
An Aboriginal father has accused a Big W worker of leaving his four-year-old daughter terrified after wrongly accusing her of stealing clothes.
Gumbaynggirr man Michael Donovan took his three daughters to the discount department store in South Australia last Wednesday.
After he had paid, Mr Donovan and his daughters were walking out of the store when a staff member stopped them from leaving.
The staff member was under the assumption the young girl was wearing clothes from the store that had not been paid for as her jumper had a price tag on it.
Gumbaynggirr father Michael Donovan took his three daughters to Big W on Wednesday
‘As we were leaving, one of the staff grabbed my four-year-old daughter by the back of the neck and ripped her hoodie back,’ Mr Donovan told the ABC.
Mr Donovan said all three of his daughters were wearing new clothes they had been recently gifted by their grandparents.
The young girl’s grandmother Regina McKenzie claimed the incident was a case of ‘racial profiling’.
‘She pulled my granddaughter by the hoodie and hurt her neck with the father standing there,’ Ms McKenzie told NITV.
‘My little granddaughter was really scared, now whenever Michael says they are going to the shop, she starts crying and saying, ‘no, I don’t want to go there’.
‘The father took them down to get them a reward, and the reward they got was being racially profiled.’
On Friday Mr Donovan lodged a complaint with police, alleging his daughter was assaulted by the Big W employee.
South Australia police reviewed the CCTV footage, which showed that the staff member viewed a price tag that was still attached to the collar of the four-year-old girl’s hoodie.
‘It was later confirmed that the clothing had been purchased from a different store but the price tag had not been removed prior to entering Big W,’ police said in a statement.
‘The child was not grabbed or injured as a result of viewing the price tag.’
Police said the CCTV footage was ‘inconsistent with the original information provided’.
‘Police can confirm that the child had not been assaulted and the investigation has been concluded,’ the statement said.
On Friday Mr Donovan lodged a complaint with police, alleging his daughter was assaulted by the Big W employee (pictured: stock image of Big W store)
A Big W spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they had proactively been working with police to ensure the matter was resolved.
‘The police have verified the CCTV footage and confirmed that the family was approached by a customer service team member, but no one was assaulted,’ the spokesperson said.
Employees are routinely asked to check bags and other items as they leave the store but admitted the staff member should have acted more respectfully.
‘She [the employee] has apologised wholeheartedly to the family for any upset it has caused,’ the spokesperson said.